As you will have noted on my blog I do not review gear for money or free samples. In fact this is my first gear review, well sort of. I have always been a firm believer in spending what time I make to fish to actually spend fishing rather than fannying around making or repairing leaders at the waters edge if I can help it. I carry a large selection of pre-bought leaders with me so I have a wide choice when I am out fishing.
I generally fish a team of 3 flies and have tried a number of different brands and styles. I am writing this post to expound the virtues of the Fulling Mill knotted leader. I tried this 15ft leader with 2 droppers a few years ago and to be honest have not looked back. Prior to this I would have struggled to cast with a 15 ft leader full stop and in a wind would probably not have even tried and reduced my leader length to 12 ft or even 9 ft. However, this slightly stiffer leader turns over like a dream and seems to be less prone to tangles, especially tangled droppers. The use of Fluorocarbon means they sink better, are less visible in the water which when combined with a longer leader has brought increased success. It is a gradually tapered leader tied with 3 sections of fluorocarbon in reducing breaking strain/diameter:
- 6 Lb leader
- Butt section of 10 Lb
- Section 2 of 8 Lb which will form the top dropper
- Section 3 of 6 Lb which will form the middle dropper
- Section 4 of either 6 Lb (or even 5 Lb if you tie your own) which will form the point or tippet end
- 5 Lb leader
- Butt section of 8 Lb
- Section 2 of 6 Lb which will form the top dropper
- Section 3 of 5 Lb which will form the middle dropper
- Section 4 of either 5 Lb (or even 4 Lb if you tie your own) which will form the point or tippet end
I am a convert and fish almost exclusively with this leader these days. I am such a convert to this style of leader that I have started making them at home as there is no reason not to do so, they are not tapered by manufacturing and as such all you needs is a few spools of fluorocarbon or copoloymer, a little know how, some time and especially patience. I currently use the Fulling Mill V2 fluorocarbon for leader construction which has the following specifications:
| Line Rating (X) | Breaking Strain (Lbs) | Breaking Strain (kg) | Diameter (mm) |
| 5 | 3 | 1.36 | 0.147 |
| 4 | 4 | 1.82 | 0.165 |
| 3 | 5 | 2.27 | 0.189 |
| 2 | 6 | 2.72 | 0.214 |
| 1.5 | 7 | 3.18 | 0.225 |
| 1 | 8 | 3.63 | 0.252 |
| 0 | 10 | 4.55 | 0.272 |
| 01 | 12 | 5.45 | 0.294 |
Below are some videos of the knots you will need to tie to produce a tapered leader from 4 different diameter line:
- The perfection loop to attach the leader to your line
- The blood knot to connect the lines of different thickness and leave a long tag end which forms the dropper; while they take a lot more time to tie I prefer the blood knot as it forms a neater knot and the resulting dropper sticks out at a stiff and consistent right angle. I think this plus the difference in line diameter between the sections contributes to my perception of lower tangle rate of droppers;
- Or you can use the surgeons knot which is much quicker to tie but not as neat. The addition of a half tuck at the end does get the resulting dropper more at right angles but still not as firmly set as the blood knot in my opinion. Check out the rapid tying option using forceps …. good for a quick repair while on the water.
Tight Lines
Greg