+bowhunter63sm thanks for the feedback and I appreciate the kind remarks. We have had a month or so of really good water conditions. Just in time for the fall feeding frenzy.

Who asked

Robert Lakes little bit of luck on that day. And most of the strikes are on the pause. A lot of times you don't feel them you see your line run. Gotta watch the end of you fly line like a hawk.

brian Solberg it's not really normal. Most people use tapered leaders. But I can buy a whole spool of vanish flourocarbon for the price of 2 or 3 leaders. A straight piece of flourocarbon doesn't roll over as easy but that is okay for smallmouth fishing most of the time. I hope to put out some more detailed videos out this year as I continue to grow as an angler.

brian Solberg Brian, I never use tapered leaders for large fish anymore, especially streamer fishing with short leaders. If I am not running just a straight piece of flouro, I use a two section leader (mostly to keep the relatively thin 15 or 12 lb leader from slicing through the flyline coating) consisting of a 20 or 25lb butt about 12 to 18 inches then the 12 or 15lb main section, line type (sinking/sink tip vs floater) determines overall length. On sinking lines or sink tips I never run more than a 4' leader, floaters I will run no more than a rod length leader. With big bass flies, you get good turn over. Tapered leaders work well to dissipate energy with small flies, besides giving the advantage of stepping down from a flyline that can be an 1/8th of an inch thick to something like 5X smoothly.

@ Brian..Try the Orvis Poly leaders, I use the fast sinking 10' salmon and clear floating 7' trout leaders I buy two of each and a spool of either mono or floro in 12-15lbs. The Poly Leaders are made of the same material as the floating and sinking fly lines and act as an extension and attach with the standard loop to loop way, for bass you would add about a 18"- 24" piece of your preferred mono at the end on the poly leader for your tippet, these can last for a few seasons before I have to buy more, I use mine for Largemouth but have caught everything including bream and catfish using baitfish patterns, tip...you can also use a piece of the clear used fly line tips to make your own. Using these poly leaders allow you to only use normal fishing line as the tippet, but still have the tapered part of the fly line acting as the butt section of the fishing line. I use a Perfection Loop for the attachment points on the fly line leader connections, it makes it easy to switch out from floating leader for top water bass poppers to going under with streamers (depending on how deep the water is) you can get away with using the floating poly leader with the streamers for shallow fishing along the bank or when the bass are feeding on minnows just below the surface. it saved me a bunch of money so far.

Floating line

Absolutely.

for smallmouth Northern Illinois

MWFishingAdventures yes