Tom’s Leader

Always construct your own leaders: longer, custom leaders help prevent microdrag.

Tom Rosenbauer is probably the preeminent educator in the fly-fishing world today. During his more than forty-three years with the Orvis Company, Tom has written more books and articles than we can list; he now hosts a widely listened-to podcast, appears on television shows and all that. Many anglers like myself, who have been around the block a few times, are only half-joking when we credit Tom with teaching us to fish, at least in part. Tom also happens to be a good friend. I’ve had the pleasure of fishing with him in places like the wilds of Chile, in the Colorado high country, in Montana, on the tradition-laden rivers in the Catskills, the flats in the Bahamas and elsewhere.

Tom is the real McCoy, not an “all hat, no cattle” author. Quite the opposite–if anything, he understates his own prowess in his writing. I still learn from him, and not long ago we were kicking back in the Hill Country of Texas, where I asked him for a few tips I could unceremoniously adopt “as my own.”

This was the best one: Tom will borrow your fly rod. He’ll use someone else’s reel. He’ll even borrow boots and waders in a pinch. But there’s one thing of his own that Tom insists on using, every time, no exceptions…

His leader.

Now, you might think that $5-$10 of monofilament and/or fluorocarbon attached to hundreds of dollars (or more) of gear might be a little lower on his priority list. But Rosenbauer says it’s the number one thing he worries about–not only because that’s the “connection” to the fly and fish, but also because a properly built leader (he builds or at least modifies his own) will do more to help the cast and presentation than most anglers are willing to acknowledge.

His recipe is simple: He extends the butt section by a few feet, matching the thickness of the end of the leader, and he extends the tippet by a few feet. This naturally makes for a longer leader, but that extension of the butt end helps you point and lay it down. The extra tippet, with the more supple material, is meant to help prevent microdrag.

Whether you build your leader exactly as Tom does or not doesn’t matter. The lesson is that you should tinker with leaders and find something that works really well for you. Don’t just take them out of the package, tie them on and expect everything to be perfect. “Stock” leaders are no cure-all, and that comes from a guy who’s been working for a company that sells packaged leaders.

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