What type of leader do you like?

[rayfrommaine]

Commercial tapered, compound (homemade), or braided?  And for what type of fly fishing?
I tie mine from regular mono, tapered from about 25# test down to 5x for trout, or 1x for bass.  Usually takes about 5 different diameters of mono, connected with blood knots, to get a good taper and solid knots.  I've never tried braided/furled.  I used to use the commercial leaders but they are so expensive, plus it never took long before I was adding to them anyway.

[knurren]

I've just been using the climax knotless tappered leaders.  I've found that 9' is too short, so I've been trying a piece of 6x tippet to bring it to 11 or 12'.  That's been working out alright.  Rivers have been incredibly high, so I haven't put on my waders in about a month now.

Because of the rivers, I've been trolling with a fly lately.  When I troll I use 25 - 30 feet then a swivel and another 3 or 4 feet of 6lb test berkley vanish.  Lots of fish taken on that set up.  My wet line is let out to backing and I'm getting down about 25 feet... I don't know how important the vanish is at the depth vs. mono, but maybe it helps.

[MickeyFinn]

I usually buy tapered leaders with a loop conector, 7 1/2 ft.  0 or 1x, I don't have a preference. Usually they are out of one or the other so I  get stuck. Anyway I add tippet on from there, If I have a 0x leader I put a 12" peice of 1x followed buy a 16 inch peice of of 2x. I do alot of stripping ( sorry no lap dances guys) when targeting Browns and Bass using big flies so a long leader isn't ideal, but if i'm on the stream and I have to bust out the dry flies for rising trout I'll just and a few more feet on.