this is for great lakes steelhead. I was gonna give flouro a try… I have been searching the net and asking around here about this and had different answers from just about everyone and everywhere I read. I have read to make your leader thinner starting off with 25lb butt section so it sinks faster. sounds good. I have heard to use mono for the butt section and add flouro to it using a knot or even a barrel swivel. also sounds good. but whats a good recipe to use? I am gonna be nymphing with egg patterns next time out and wonder what leader recipe you guys recomend for a fly rod? I am gonna get some flouro today after dinner and wondered what lb I should get? I have been recomended 8lb, or 10lb and even 6lb for clear water… I already have leader making material from rio. its regular mono in every size you need… just need a good recipe? basically I want to start off with mono and end up with flouro. I will be using split shot and unweighted nymphs and fishing 4ft deep or less… any reccomendations? I want a 9ft leader. should I use a micro swivel? help! remember this is for a fly rod. not spin cast
Swinging nymphs, indy fishing, or deep water nymphing (chuck and duck)? Or stripping streamers? Lots of ways to do it - all use somewhat different leaders - if you can call them that. Or a piece of 8 lb mono will work for almost anything.
Godspeed,
Bob
Keep it simple like Bobinmich suggests. You are not casting dry flies here and do not need a technical step down leader.
This time of the year have some Sucker Spawn in creamy yellow and some early black stone nymphs.
Most important is that you have a long enough leader with enough weight for the water depth and current to be ticking bottom with the weight. The Great Lakes steelies are bottom huggers and if your not Ticking, your not fishing.
Good luck
Sounds like you already got enough different leader setups. As far as fluoro goes, I use it so I can fish heavier, usually 10 to 14 lb tippet, but I usually fish streamers and larger flies and only bottom bounce as a last resort. I think for smaller flies such as eggs and nymphs in #12 and smaller you will get a better drift using 6 and 8 lb and also get to the depth you want faster, that is, on the bottom. Remember on fluoro tie your knots carefully and lube them up. Good luck, our rivers are in good shape right now.
If I’m nymphing in clear water, I’ll use 5X mono. If I’m fishing buggers or streamers, I’ll drop down to 3x mono. I’m not a big fan of floro. Mono is strong enough.
I use fluorocarbon tippet in all of my trout fishing but for steelhead, just plain good old Maxima works great. Depending on the size the steelies are in your river, the 6 lb to 10 lb pound Maxima Chameleon will work. If you start getting into bigger fish use heavier leader. If you use the slinky system for weight, remember to use a lighter leader to hang the slinky from.
Larry 
—sagefisher—
thanks guys for all the help. picked up some flouro for 12 bux and will try to use that at the end of my leader to see if it makes a difference. if not I will use regular like always
I just listened to this podcast yesterday by Dec Hogan and found it very informative: http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/dec_hogan/dec_hogan.cfm
He speaks of guys using sinking line with 10’ leaders, he said with that the line sinks but the leader doesn’t. He uses 10’ leaders with floating lines, but with sink tips of skaigit lines he uses only a 4’ section of 10 pound test.
Here is also a great short course on leaders for different purposes that I have found helpful: http://www.flyfishusa.com/tackle-tips/leaders/about-leaders.html
Good luck and tell us how the fishing went,
Rick
I know a couple of guys that have lots of steelhead success and they both use plain old 20 lb mono. I think they step down to 15 or 10 when nymphing, but I second the earlier comment that a stepped or tapered leader probably isn’t needed. Of course, I’m not one of those guys having a ton of steelhead success…
I made a recipe last time that was 2ft of 20lb, 2 of 15, 2 of 10, then a micro swivel and 8 pound flouro attached to that. worked decent and caught a few fish. no steel tho.
I agree with the folks who recommend you keep it simple. Short leader of straight material for streamer fishing/swinging flies, longer leader of straight material for nymphing. You can always add lighter tippet if you think it is necessary. A spool of 10# and 8# should be all you need, but you could go higher or lower depending on the conditions. You can just nail knot a heavy butt section of 25# to your fly line, tie a perfection loop to the end, and then run the rest of the leader from there.
Just don’t waste your money buying those little spools of fluorocarbon they sell in the fly shops. You can go to a conventional tackle shop and get a spool of 200m of the right stuff at the same cost the fly shops sells 27m spools. Maxima now makes a fluorocarbon and I think it is great stuff, but there are lots of other brands out there.