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leaders and tippets

6K views 24 replies 5 participants last post by  zimno1 
#1 ·
Leader Materials To achieve the best knot strength in leaders, use the same brand for all sections. Identical materials make stronger knots.
Lubricate Your Knots Always lubricate your knots before tightening them. Saliva works on monofilament, but lip balm or a commercial knot lubricant is better for tying knots in fluorocarbon.
Match Tippets to Flies To determine an appropriate tippet size for trout flies, divide the hook size by 3. The result equals the typical "X" rating of the appropriate tippet. Example: a hook size of 12, divided by 3, equals a 4X tippet.
Tippet Sizes The "X" designation of tippet size comes from a very old designation of wire size for watch parts, later applied to cat gut leaders (one size change equaled 0.001 inches in diameter). Lefty Kreh's general advice on what the numbers mean is helpful: subtract the "X" number from 9 to get an approximate line test rating. E.g. 6X tippet has a breaking strength of about 2 pounds.
Leader Butt Sections When buying or making leaders make sure the butt section is heavy enough. A good rule of thumb is that the leader butt should be 70% of the diameter of the fly line. For most trout lines that means a leader butt of .021"-.023" works best, for heavier lines, .026"-.028."
Check Your Bait Especially when casting often or in strong winds, examine your tippet and fly every four or five casts. Wind-knots (overhand knots) weaken your tippet by at least 50 percent, and tippets can get tangled in your fly or even knotted around the hook bend - things you won't notice on a fly that is 40 feet away. Also check the action of the fly on the surface or in the water next to you; trout flies that don't float well or straight and saltwater flies that "foul" (have materials wrapped around the hook bend) often stop fish from eating a well-chosen fly.
 
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#2 ·
I hate the fouled fly thing... I had that problem on some of the streamer flies I was tying. I didn't really want a bulky 4 feather wing, and started tying a 2 feather wing. It looked so much better in the water, and had a slight translucent look.

I found that just a very little dab of softex on the wing feathers went a mile in keeping them from fouling.
 
#3 ·
i'm not a fan of anything (including head cement) on fly;'s i intend to fish on a drift or jigging off the bottom, i use softex on my teasers when i plug as it keeps them from (somewhat less vulnerable but still happens) fouling. which reminds me, i need to get some of them teasers knocked out soon. i only tied a dozen (which is horrible as i need to send so many out)



 
#4 ·
Up here in Maine theres always the off chance that there will be a blue or two in the water.

Although the head cement, super glue and epoxy might weight the flies a little, the pay off of being able to use a fly for more than one fish is usually worth the while.

I usually don't softex anything, unless i REALLY need to. Some of my fresh water streamers that i tie real thin, just need a little glue when the water flow gets heavy.

All this fishing talk is making me itch. I keep looking out the window to see if its spring yet.
 
#5 ·
it's not weight but the smell of chemicals. I don't want to waste fly's either but i don;t want any smell on the fly and i know that fish can smell 50 times better than me so even if the head cement is dry it still has to have a faint odor to it. (just my so called logic and i believe that) Weakies and bass i will gladly let mangle em, the fly's work better after they've been tattered anyway.



 
#6 ·
Believe it or not out West near where I used to live in Lakes Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond-Der-Ray) and Coeur D' Alene (Coor-Da-Lean) they actually used to soak their flies and lures with WD40, so go figure.

Somebody said WD40 it was made partly with with fish oil.
 
#10 ·
i got bad habits i can ingrain into your brain for sure! (ondriver probably laughing by now) my technique is simple, tie a rock to the end of the tippet and throw it out as far as i can til all the line is out of the stripping basket. piece of cake!



 
#11 ·
Tattered flies.
Theres a couple of theories behind tattered flies. Theres a guy up here in Maine who swears that fish saliva is the best and stickiest attractant ever. Explaining why once you get a hit or two, they keep hitting.
I have been toying with the idea of storing and shipping our flies with anise seeds. Which is something the bass soft plastics guys have been doing for a long time.

A lot of the time I take Sardines fishing with me (for a snack), but the oil is handy to dip flies in as well.
 
#12 ·
the guys that do that freak me out. it is not a law to abide by but i just think you may as well chunk bunker. i don;t knock it, i just won;t do it as it is not that i;m a purist flyrodder or anything but a rattle for sound is my limit to what i will put on a fly. i want no handicap when i get a fish. (oh boy did i leave myself wide open with that one)



 
#13 ·
Hehe... no comment....

I'm not a purist - but if its legal, and it gets a fish interested, I will probably try it.

I always figured, what the heck, I'm out here eating sardines anyway. I also figured that since I was puffing a cigar, better to have sardine breathe to lube a knot than cigar breathe.

Although there was an old neighbor of mine when I was a kid who swore by the smell of White owls... even kept his flies in white owl boxes, once he had emptied them.
I have no idea if he was right or not, but he sure could catch Salmon.
 
#14 ·
tobacco? i caught a bluefish with a cigar but on a bet. soaked it in bunker blood first and got hit right away. you sure your neighbor liked you? i can;t imagine fly;s that smell like cigars working. i even wear gloves when i bait up so the cigar smell don;t get on the bunker noggin. just finished 2 punch while fishing tonight and am beat. later



 
#15 ·
Back in my younger days when I was keeping every trout I caught, I used to always check their stomach contents, one day I was fishing below a popular fishing bridge and caught some trout in the 12-16 inch range in one I remember finding someones used chewing gum, didn't think anything more about it, I used to find whole snails, stone case caddis where it felt as if the fish has swallowed rocks when you picked them up by the belly.

Any way a day later I was eating the trout and one of them had a distinct minty fresh taste. ;-)
 
#17 ·
Its not like fishermen are a superstitious lot huh?
I have no idea about my neighbor, but like I said, he always caught his salmon everyday.

A guy down the street from me opened up a trout last spring (late spring) and found it full of rubber worms and pieces of rubber worms (soft plastics) in the black color. He is now using the degradable plastics exclusively.
Why is it when I'm out on the fresh water those trout seem so finicky, but cut one open and they are full of the darnest things.
I wonder if Mr. Bergman has something on bubblegum in his trout book?
 
#18 ·
Probably Snagged Rigs On Bottom And They Picked The Worms Off The Rig When The Opportunity Presented Itself. (another Reason To Make These Things Bio. Can;t Imagine A Fish Keeping A Plastic In It;s Stomach For Way Too Long Being A Good Thing For It And The Consumer. And Gum? All The Plastics Makers Game Out With The Bubble Gum Color For The Same Reason That When You Say I Caught It With 'this' Alot Of People Will Try It Just For The Hell Of It And One Endorsement From A Proffessional To Say {"yes I Caught One Like That"} Well;



 
#19 ·
So back on track with the Leaders & Tippets subject that started this thread....

What's the downside of using a slightly higher test tippet when you know there are good sized fish around? Seems like a good sized bass or blue would make short work of only a 6 or 8lb test tippet.
 
#21 ·
Match Tippets to Flies To determine an appropriate tippet size for trout flies, divide the hook size by 3. The result equals the typical "X" rating of the appropriate tippet. Example: a hook size of 12, divided by 3, equals a 4X tippet.
Tippet Sizes The "X" designation of tippet size comes from a very old designation of wire size for watch parts, later applied to cat gut leaders (one size change equaled 0.001 inches in diameter). Lefty Kreh's general advice on what the numbers mean is helpful: subtract the "X" number from 9 to get an approximate line test rating. E.g. 6X tippet has a breaking strength of about 2 pounds.
So the above guide for matching tippets to trout flies, does not hold true for striper flies? If you're working a top water striper fly on a heavy 25lb test tippet, the action is not adversly affected?
 
#23 ·
fish 25 or 30 # yo-zuri fluoro (roc turned me onto it and it does tie better) for them off your kayak. you won't need to worry about all that jazz, you will soon switch to dyneema as the strikes are detected much better (for trout/salmon and bass.) you will assuredly pay a price for using lighter line for a better presentation or for a few more feet on your cast.



 
#24 ·
you will soon switch to dyneema as the strikes are detected much better (for trout/salmon and bass.)
Zim, you're saying you use dyneema braid as a leader with no tippet? Straight dyneema from the fly line to the fly? Or do you tie dyneema braid to the fly line, then use a fluoro tippet between the braid and the fly?

What would be the recommended lengths of each for a 9' rod?
 
#25 ·
a tapered leader and a 2ft section of dyneema. i want a little give but everybody has thier own way of doing things so as i am not a purist by no means i will try most anything if it makes sense. direct to the fly line is good as well but i don;t want to tear up the line on a strike that will abruptly cause it to weaken "if that makes sense"



 
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