LE VIEUX MOUCHEUR
5.1 - The leader
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5.1 - The leader
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FLY-FISHING FOR PIKE by Paul Le Gall, translated by Claude BELLOIR THE LEADER The
length and materials, the making of the leader used for pike fishing, how to
join it to the line as well as to the lure - all of this calls for comment. Experience has persuaded me that the choice of
the leader must depend above all on finding a maximum efficiency in casting as
well as in working the lure and playing the fish, which implies that: 1 - it
must be long enough to avoid fraying the tip of the line; 2 - it
must be fine enough but also strong enough to hold and take a fish out of weeds; 3 - it
mustn't be sliced through by the pike's teeth; 4 - it
must transmit well the power of the line to the lure. Length.
With use, long leaders suffer from many
drawbacks. They're difficult to control when casting or fishing, so that I have
gradually shortened them down to 20 cm or so of wire trace directly attached to
the line. This made no difference at all on the number of catches. Out of
respect for my tackle, I didn't dare to tie the streamer to the tip of the line,
but I'm quite sure I'd have had the same results. Which length then is suitable? The first reason why it's
necessary to use a leader is to protect the line. This requirement demands that
its length shouldn't be inferior to 30 cm, i.e. approximately the depth of a
good fish's mouth. However, when jointed to a #10
synthetic line whose tip diameter is roughly one millimetre, a 30cm-long wire
trace can't hold a fish that runs into weeds or swims under a patch of lily pads.
Not only may the line be rather damaged, but its tip is also too thick to cut
through thick weeds. Most of the time, it can't saw either through a bunch of
drowned stems if a fish swims round them. That's why the best compromise
for pike fishing is a leader of one metre or so, in my experience, and I have
adopted this length both for fishing under as well as on the surface. I
sometimes happen to shorten it down to 30 cm when I fish on the surface with a
floater not among
patches of lily pads any more, but right in the middle of a patch of lily pads. In such difficult conditions, an extremely short leader allows great
casting accuracy and working of the lure which does not sink and rarely gets caught in the
leafstalks. It allows the lure to slide back easily on to the leaves and from
one pocket of water to the next. Above all, lifting off the line can be done
fairly discreetly. I remember catching a good fish in this way after its first
four misses and five casts into tiny pockets over an area of less than fifty
square metres. Such an exciting hide-and-seek game wouldn't have
been possible with a long leader. The supposed discretion of a long leader
doesn't hold here any more than in open water. In fact, using a long leader is
to my mind the best way to spook all the fish as the risks of tangling, not the
lure, but the leader itself, are great in such weeded pieces of surface water. To
sum up, in all cases, the best compromise is one leader only of one metre at
most. ( to be followed) Making leaders. The materials >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> The Leader (2) click 'Next' |
