Massimo (who was a student of Roberto Pragliola), with his 40+ years of experience, has become a point of reference in fly casting in Italy and abroad. He collaborates and regularly contributes to some of the most important fishing magazines in the world. He's also written a book called “Dry Fly Fishing in fast water” - but, more of that at the end of this email.

Welcome to our latest collaboration with Massimo - The Multi-Loop Dry Fly Leader

Please Note: The last time we had these leaders, they all sold out within 1 hour! We've got a few more this time, but you will still need to be quick off the mark if you would like one (or more).

These joints, create a leader that drifts through multiple micro-currents that never cause drag on the fly - the leader sections can all move independently of each other, without acting on the fly, which would otherwise cause drag.

Did that pique your interest, if so read on McDuff ...

The leader is a crucial element of importance (which is not completely appreciated) when dry fly fishing, fighting that scourge of the dry fly - drag. These leaders are specially designed and hand-tied with one thing in mind - eliminating drag wherever possible. This leader is unique, instead of knotting together gradually reducing diameters of line, to form the taper, this leader is tied with loops. The loops are micro-perfection loops (around 1mm in diameter) and are used to join the various parts of mono when making the knotted leader.

Starting from the principle that in order to fight drag (apart from specific anti-drag casts) it is also necessary to have a specific leader with certain characteristics regarding length and the kind of taper, the more rigid the leader is the more difficulty you will have avoiding drag. Today's self-tied leaders tend to have a maximum of 4 knots and an attempt has been made to tie knots with a much slimmer profile.

One more step was missing in order to make the leader more supple, which would allow it to adapt to currents in the case of the dry fly, and underwater currents in the case of the nymph.

Massimo had the idea to connect the various sections of mono not with any of the classical knots but by means of micro-perfection loops. A leader made with this system may seem useless but you really need to try it out!

The big problem with drag arises not so much in rough waters but rather in calmer ones where it's important to reduce the wake effect caused by the fly and by the tippet. In these calmer waters, there are micro-currents which are invisible to the naked eye.

These micro-currents are usually generated by rocks which are 50 - 60 cm under the surface and the water seems to flow down quite normally and in places where you would normally cast without considering the consequences. In other words, strong currents are easy to see whilst these minor ones are not, especially to the untrained eye and it is on the latter ones that a looped leader comes into its own. The micro loops act as hinges, they also hold very well when setting the hook and playing the fish.

So they hold well; there is no collapsing of the loop when casting and they still transmit the energy of the cast.

Massimo's biggest doubt was accuracy – but even with this he had no problems, so long as the tension during casting is kept constant (which is a problem even with classical knotted or tapered leaders) if the tension during casting is lost, the whole structure collapses.

He then started evaluating the advantages this new leader gives, especially with regard to drag. Eventually he tested both classical tapered leaders and multi-looped leaders in the same conditions and got some extraordinary results, especially in those conditions with the treacherous micro currents and strange surface tensions.

We have these Multi-Loop Leaders in three distinct sizes 7.5ft (for smaller streams and rivers) up to 12ft (for larger streams and rivers).

Specification of the leaders and their profiles can be seen in the table below:

Massimo's leaders are available from our site for only £10.99 each which includes FREE delivery, these leaders are all hand-tied - those micro perfection loops are really fiddly and these leaders take quite some time to tie and quality check.

Click on any of the links or images within this email to view the leaders on our site along with much more detail on leader connections and configurations etc.

Go on, you know you want to!

Read All About It ...

Most anglers who fish in Northern Italy are very adept at dry fly fishing in the fast-flowing mountain rivers. Massimo has honed his skills on this style of river and transferred his skills onto paper (or electronic paper if you prefer):

This publication by Massimo Magliocco (available in both paperback and eBook format) contains a detailed analysis of how to fish dry fly on fast-flowing waters with complex currents. Until recently it was thought to be impossible to fish a dry fly on such waters effectively.

In this publication, you will discover how to combat drag in turbulent flows, how to identify the food lanes, how to understand the importance of rocks and other things that will make you realise that it is possible to fish with dry flies in the so-called fast water.

Number of Pages - 192
Paperback Format (only 5 available) - Measures approx 19cm wide x 26cm high
Download Format - eBook/PDF, other formats available on request

Tight lines & have fun.

P.S. I need to fess up - the header image on the email I sent on Tuesday was actually a photo of Blackthorn (not Hawthorn as I believed it was) - thanks to the hundreds of you who emailed me to point it out! Let's just say that Alan Titchmarsh has nothing to worry about and it's a good job I'm not running a Garden Centre!

P.P.S. As this is another email with a very Italian flavour, why not learn some of the specialist casts that Massimo uses on the fast-flowing mountain rivers - these casts are perfect for the 'less than ideal' conditions we face here in the UK:

Don't ever again walk past that fish that's confidently feeding tight up to the bank, and under a tree. Using the Italian Style Casting techniques will give you the skills to target fish that were out of reach before.

Massimo Magliocco takes you through all of the basics of Italian Style Casting, building 'from the ground up' each cast. Showing you the dynamics which make up the cast. Including when and where to use each one.

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