Troutbitten’s Favorite Small Stream Leader

If you’ve followed Dom Swentosky over at Troutbitten, you know how fond he is of his leader setups. His take on the mono rig has a ton of devotees, and it’s hard to argue with the results. And if you’ve ever had questions about how to utilize a lot of those techniques when fishing smaller water, then you need to read this recent story Dom published.

He walks you through exactly how he builds his small-stream leaders, and explains the why behind it. Dom uses a shorter leader – 7 feet – because it allows you to have more control, in small spaces especially, over your leader and how your flies behave during the cast, and in the water.

Personally, I don’t pay much attention to my leader setup. I probably should, but I just tie my flies on and get to fishing. After reading through this story, though, I think I need to revisit how I rig up for small stream fly fishing.