Quote Originally Posted by mhall View Post
Suspended smallmouth generally look forward or up to feed therefore 10 to 12 feet will usually get most available fish even the deeper ones at times. I've seen guys try and throw a 14 to 15 foot leader with some success and several rounds of bad words to...lol
I'm late to the party, but I agree with this.

I think, even if the fish are in 30 feet of water, they are looking up at the sky and basically seeing a shadow that looks like a suspended, struggling minnow. They'll come up from 30 feet to get it.

I'm no expert, but because of that I think the leader dept and even the color of the fly are not all that important. If anything, I'd go shallower before I go deeper.