Following the introduction of the excellent masterclass fluorocarbon Fulling mill have recently introduced a new high-quality masterclass copolymer. I have had the opportunity to try the new material and tapered leaders this season and was asked to give my thoughts whilst testing it on my local venues.
As I have previously written about many times, I am a big advocate of carrying a range of both fluorocarbon and copolymer leader materials. I am a big fan of the original ‘world class’ fluorocarbon which I still use for the majority of my fishing. Recently I also started to use the premium masterclass fluorocarbon for certain situations which demand a high breaking strain to diameter such as fishing small flies for large resident fish in clear water.
Copolymer is the third leader material I always carry as I use it for dry fly and light nymphs as it prevents delicate or small flies from being dragged under and the softer properties give a better presentation and natural drifts.
Therefore, copolymer really comes into it own for any type of surface fishing. Whilst many anglers continue to use fluorocarbon for all their fishing, I firmly believe there are opportunities to exploit the benefits of copolymer whenever you fish close to the surface.
Check out our new Copolymer: UK Website | USA Website
As the season begins to warm up insect activity increases and the fish begin to feed actively on emerging insects on both rivers and stillwaters I was very interested to see how the new masterclass copolymer would perform when targeting surface feeding fish.
My initial findings using this material have been very positive, it comes in 50m spools which are wide in diameter to reduce memory and clip together for storage if required. It has a high breaking strain for it given diameter and is available 10.15lb down to 1.99lb. The spools are also clearly marked with diameter, breaking strain and also a traditional X diameter rating. The material is clear and is very soft and mobile to help with delicate presentations.
Recently I have had the opportunity to test this material on several outings to local small stillwaters and results have been excellent. I have used the material for fishing small dries and lightweight nymphs. As a big fan of fishing light leaders and small flies for resident fish I have been delighted with the way that the finer diameters have handled some larger rainbows. When fishing has been difficult I have dropped to 6X (2.96lb) with small CDC patterns and landed some large rainbows without any issues.
When fishing small flies on fine tippets it is important to use a tapered leader, long fine leaders are very difficult to turn over and accuracy is vital when covering moving fish. Fulling Mill also offers the masterclass copolymer material in 9ft and 12ft tapered leaders to help presentation. These leaders are also clear knotless and have virtually no memory using the 12ft leader with level 6ft tippet I have been able to make accurate and delicate presentations to feeding fish.
I am looking forward to using this new material and tapered for river dry fly and nymph fishing to sighted fish, the strength of the finer diameters is excellent and having already landed large stillwater rainbows, I have no doubt I will be using the fine 6X and 7X tippets for most of my dry fly fishing on rivers this season!
Whilst this new masterclass copolymer doesn’t replace all of the leader materials in your tackle box or waistcoat, if you are in the market to try a new polymer or are thinking of adding a new material for surface fishing I would recommend taking a look into this new material from Fulling Mill during the coming season.
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