Don’t you mud?

Don’t you mud?

Viking Lars | Saturday, 20 April 2024

That was the question from Paul many, many years ago. I don’t think I replied with anything but an empty stare. “You need it to take the shine off a fresh leader and to make it sink on the first cast!” I then remembered reading about applying “mud” to your leader and I honestly thought it was something done in a pinch - with actual mud from the river bank. I had always thought with small particles of quarts and many other types of rack that it would harm a thin leader. Which I’m sure it will.

On a beach on a location that shall remain undisclosed Paul proceeded to produce a film canister (you’ll know what it is if your over 50 (which I’m not, I might add, but I was always a little ahead - or/and behind) with a strange, gooey substance in. “It’s leader mud, Lars.” Right - OK. I know there’s a picture somewhere in the SL engine room with me and my first skin contact with leader mud. I can’t find the original, but here’s a thumb nail screen dump. Imagine I had the courage to do that with a strange concoction Paul had mixed together in his Coggeshall Alchemist Lab.

Paul explains that it’s a mixture of Fuller’s earth, glycerine and a little dish washing soap. Fuller’s earth is basically clay, which means very hard and extremely fine particles of something) and it’s impossible to get in DK. It’s used for shrinking well into a very dense fabric and I think it’s also used in beauty masks. Even though one might think so, I don’t use it like that. I just have a very nice, natural teint.

I couldn’t get fuller’s earth in Denmark, but a few months later, I was at the British Fly Fair and I had asked on an FP if someone could help me out and bring some for me. In true Sexyloops spirit three people actually showed up with some. I’ve still got enough for moth me and my grandchildren. Glycerine and dish washing soap I can get.

I don’t mix much at a time. Just a small tea spoon of fuller’s earth, some glycerine and a few drops of soap. I stir it together and pour it into a small Nalgene plastic bottle (they are indestructible, which I came to appreciate after a film canister popped open in my vest).

The purpose of the glycerine is only to keep it viscous, but it will still thicken during the season. So I make mine fairly runny to begin with - maybe just a little more than olive oil. Applying it is of course very simple. Open the canister, put a finger over the opening, turn it up side down, close the lid and run the leader through the mud a couple of times. Since it’s runny, it also rinses off very easily.

I’ve come to use it every time I put on a new leader and/or tippet. It’s just a habit now. I’m not entirely sure how much of a difference it makes, but I do know that it makes monofilament nylon break the surface tension on the first cast. That’s important when dry fly fishing, especially since I don’t use fluorocarbon. But I use it when fishing the salt, salmon fishing, nymphing, wet fly in the streams and rivers - everything (apart from pike, because I use a steel wire leader).

It’s very simple to make and buying the ingredients will probably last you a life time.

Have a great weekend!

Lars

The ingredients.

The mix.