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Fly-fishing is unique from other forms of fishing
because it offers the opportunity for the fly fisherman
to create what he uses to fish with to catch trout. The
fly fisherman can tie his own fly patterns to match his
desired form of fishing, whether surface or subsurface.
Therefore, it seems a natural progression that once
you’re tying your own flies and getting a better
understanding of presentation, the next step is to
modify your leader. |
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Most fly fisherman normally buy tapered leaders and add tippet.
Some will then cut the leaders down, add sections and tippets,
playing around with their leaders for the right combination to
have a good casting leader. Finally, some of the fly fishermen
out there do like I do and build their own custom leaders.
I use Fluorocarbon line rather than monofilament line to make my
leaders. Why Fluorocarbon? I like it for several reasons, its
very durable, very low memory, doesn’t stretch so strikes are
detected better and hook sets are much better, and the biggest
reason, it disappears once in the water. Several manufactures
make a tapered Fluorocarbon leader, but my understanding of
“pure” Fluorocarbon is, that it is difficult to keep the
diameter consistent during manufacturing. Therefore to create
the perfect taper becomes difficult. In fact, some leaders are
made by coating a monofilament line with Fluorocarbon in order
to get the taper to work correctly. Because I think Fluorocarbon
line fishes better and it helps me catch more fish, I use a
“pure” Fluorocarbon line for my leaders and subsequently, I have
gone to making my own, knotted leaders.
It’s not hard to make your own leaders and once you get the hang of
it, I believe it will help you fine tune you’re casting and
fishing control. Additionally, on stream repairs seem easier
too. Keep in mind, there is no real right or wrong to the
approach of creating your own leader, but the proportions do
matter. So a simple formula to follow is referred to as the
60-20-20 theory.
A leader is made up of three sections, the butt end, tied to the
fly line, the taper section and the tippet. The 60-20-20 theory
basically means that the largest section, the 60%, is the butt
section. Next, the taper and tippet sections are each 20% of
your leader. Each section is connected with knots, either a
barrel knot or surgeons knot.
An important thing here is keeping the diameters of materials
relatively close. What I means is, obviously, you are tying
sections of line together with the lines stepping down in
diameter in order to create a “taper”. When a section of line is
tied to the next section of line the difference in diameter
between the two should be .002” or 2/100ths of an inch. This
seems to be best for transferring energy down the line.
Depending on the tippet size, several sections will be needed to
“taper” down to the tippet size one wishes to fish.
When I started out fly fishing, we used a general rule of thumb for
the length of our leaders and that was to have them as long as
your fly rod. Although there is really no “perfect or “correct”
length, most guys fish leaders of 7 ½ to 9 feet. A custom built
leader will vary to some degree because as you experiment you
find a length that is suitable to you and your fly rod. And that
is the beauty of custom tied leaders. Below is an example of a
7-½ foot tapered leader for flies in sizes 12 – 16 with a 4X
tippet.
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Diameter
Section
length
0.019
24″
0.017
16″
0.015
14″
0.013
9″
0.011
9″
0.007
18″
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Where I fish for trout here in Pennsylvania, we use small flies in
sizes from 14 through 24. As you can imagine, flies that small
require much smaller tippets. So for me it is more usual to use
tippet of 5X through 8X. I adjust my leader accordingly either
by adding a section or two in the taper section of the leader to
step it down or my tippet section to step it down.
The key element to building your own custom leader, depending on
your rod’s weight and fly line, is the butt section, which must
match the fly line’s diameter. Then build your sections from
there on down to the tippet. Slight adjustments to any formula
will be necessary as you create your custom leader and you’ll
need to experiment with your casting and drifts, but it won’t
take long and you will have
your perfect custom knotted leader.
Lastly, and really the most important aspect of any leader
construction is learning how to tie knots. You can experiment
with different knots of your choosing but the two mostly used
for this purpose is the Barrel knot and Surgeons knot. The
barrel knots’ advantage is, when tied, the line components meet
end to end rather than being offset, like the Surgeons knot. The
Surgeons knot is considered a stronger knot. Both work well and
learning to tie both is good practice. When tying either of
these knots, moistening the line as you pull these knots tight,
will help them cinch tighter.
Building a custom leader is fun and has advantages. It’s more work
than buying a leader off the shelf, but is well worth the time
and effort. Having more control, and a better presentation of
cast is what a custom built knotted leader is all about. Give it
a try and I’ll bet you’ll enjoy your fly-fishing just a bit more
than you did before.
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