Chris - If there is one thing I have stressed while helping the newbie fly fisher, it's Check Your Fly Often. Your story about the leader VS the hook brings back a lot of memories. In my younger days I remember casting a size 6 Purple Joe to some cruising Silver's on Puget Sound only to have a magnificant Salmon bang the fly, a nano second later...gone. You got it, the hook had broken of more than likly from a backcast brushing against a barnacle incrusted stone. Not only checkng for a broken hook but you have to check to nmake sure the hook is sharp. I scrape the hook against a finger nail, it it digs in..I am still in business or even still give the point a going over with my little sharpening stone. Thanks again for the great advice, Jonezee