Hey there Everyone, new to this Forum

I had a bit of read, and tried the suggested french leader (18ft one), using a 2mm tungsten on the point (size 16 b175), with unweight fly on top dropper. When fishing, i had about 1 - 4 feet of flyline out the tip.. i'm struggling to lay the flies out at distance. it's like i'm loosing the energy.. any suggestion on what i could be doing wrong with my setup.
Have a loomis 5#, 10foota.

cheers