Leaders for fishing dry flies on the upper Delaware

[boychick]

This question is for those of you that fish the upper Delaware a lot. I'm heading to that way next week and I have a leader question. I know long leaders are the way to go, 12' or longer, with 6x tippet. My question is about the tippet. I've read that 6x fluorocarbon tippet should be used for dry fl fishing. Won't the fluorocarbon tippet sink and drag? Should I use 6x fluorocarbon as suggested? Do I need to apply floatant to the fluorocarbon to get it to float? How do you guys rig your leader? Any other advice to make this a good trip would also be much appreciated. Thanks for the help.

 

[afishinado]

boychick wrote:
This question is for those of you that fish the upper Delaware a lot. I'm heading to that way next week and I have a leader question. I know long leaders are the way to go, 12' or longer, with 6x tippet. My question is about the tippet. I've read that 6x fluorocarbon tippet should be used for dry fl fishing. Won't the fluorocarbon tippet sink and drag? Should I use 6x fluorocarbon as suggested? Do I need to apply floatant to the fluorocarbon to get it to float? How do you guys rig your leader? Any other advice to make this a good trip would also be much appreciated. Thanks for the help.

As for the length of a leader, I fish a 12' to 15' leader. I suggest you fish the longest leader you can accurately cast. A longer leader that you can't control will hurt your chances more than a shorter leader that you can cast right on the mark.

IMO, fluoro is not necessary for dry fly leaders but can be used. It really will not sink, but it is stiffer than mono and may effect drag. Most times I nymph with fluoro since it's most abrasion resistant and use mono for dries since it's more supple.

Most important is the diameter of your tippet. I often see guys try to cast a size 10 or 12 Iso dry with a 6x tippet. It collapses casting a large fly and/or twists up in the wind. I fished the D a few weeks ago and used 5X for the smaller Sulphurs and Steno flies and 4x for Iso dries and hooked up plenty of times and landed all but one fish (bad knot). Maybe use 6x for the tiny olives or trikes, but using 6x is the exception rather than the rule. Match your tippet to the size of the fly. Try the Fly size / 4 +1 formula.

Good luck.

 

[dryflyguy]

I use a 12 foot leader on the D - and any other large stream for that matter.
I recommend NOT going lighter than 5X though. You always have a chance to hook a big fish up there. And it would be a shame to lose one dinking around with 6x.

As for fluorocarbon - I don't care for it.
Maybe it makes sense to use it subsurface. But not for dry flies IMO.

All of my leaders are hand tied, and finished with a 30" section of Orvis Super Strong 5x.

 

[njk3395]

12-15 feet is always what I fish, but as they said above never go smaller than 5x.. I fish 4x a lot and never have trouble, as long as you're fishing down with the right fly and good presentation your tippet size isn't a big deal.

 

[DaveS]

Nothing more to add to the above than to fish that leader down to the fish if at all possible.

 

[ryansheehan]

I have broken plenty of fish on 5, can't imagine 6. The fish are picky but it's all about the drift, make sure the first thing they see is the fly, if not, you're wasting your time, imo. I use 4/5 mono for dries, 3/4 fluro for nymphing.

 

[boychick]

OK, thanks for the advice guys. This was very helpful.

 

[krayfish2]

Fish 9', 3x or 12', 3x leader and build it to 14'-16' in length. 5x for flies in th #12-#20 range, 4x for bigger stuff. Just remember that lining a fish usually means "find another fish". You can put a tremendous amount of side pressure on 5x. Let the rod flex do the work. Strong fish up there

 

[boychick]

Thanks Kray! That's solid advice. I appreciate it.

 

[njk3395]

I had a fish blow up my 5x today on the west branch, I couldn't even imagine 6x

 

[mcwillja]

The best leader i have used and prob won't ever switch because it works so well is George Anderson's 14-15 foot leader in the book fishing small flies. It uses a super heavy butt section 0.022 in diamter. It really turns over a fly in windy conditions and i prefer 5 to 6X rio suppleflex for tippet.

 

[troutpoop]

For most of my dry fly fishing I use a 6ft or 7ft furled leader with about 4-5 ft of Rio suppleflex in 5X or 6X. Even on the Upper D I use that combo and have landed some big trout on 5X. The furled leader turns over big flies without no problem, much like the stiff butt section referred to above by mcwillja.