9 proven ways to make sure you stay a mediocre fly angler

#6  Fuss around with complicated leaders

All fly-fishing advice published since the 1950s says it’s imperative to use tapered monofilament leaders. You can buy tapered leaders, or make your own by tying together segments of successively lighter mono. Allegedly, this tapering is required to smoothly transfer energy from line to leader, so the fly turns over. (“Turning over” is fly-speak for fully extending the leader). This whole theory is nonsense. It’s also bunk, hooey and baloney. It’s the most persistent bad advice in all of fly fishing. I know, because I gave up tapered leaders more than 20 years ago, and it massively improved my quality of life.

Here’s the deal: When mono fishing line first arrived in the 1950s, it was super stiff—so stiff that it would only work for fly leaders if it was tied in tapering sections. Since at least the 1980s, however, modern mono has been limp enough to make tapering unnecessary. Yet this whole tapering dance is so entrenched, it still lingers.

I learned about all this in the early 2000s. Since then, 95 per cent of the time I use a single length of mono—such as Trilene, Maxima or whatever’s handy—for my leaders. I typically go with six- or eight-pound-test for trout, with heavier mono for bigger flies and bigger game. If you can’t turn over your fly with a flat mono leader, you don’t have a leader problem—you have a casting problem. Simplifying leaders like this won’t directly catch you more fish, but it saves money, time and mental energy, all of which leads to better fishing days.