Hand-tied leaders

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (glcaddis) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:26:14 GMT

Thanks to everyone for their great hints and comments. I've enjoyed reading every one. While we all spent a lot of time on flies and rods, the leader is very important to getting a good presentation. Keep it up!

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (JohnLL) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:55:48 GMT

I use 4 turn uni's in the tippet sections of the leader. Uni's are shorter but fatter than bloods knots, and even thought it should not matter to any sane person, I use 3 turn uni's for the .17/.13 and .13/.10 connections. I draw the knots together so they kiss but are still fairly loose, apply some Zap a Gap, and then tighten. It is just to have smaller knots.
The instructions for the Tie Fast tool suggest 3 turn nail to nail for leader construction. I could be that 3 turn...

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (waynebh) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:53:28 GMT

Hi JohnLL;

When using the uni knot for leader construction, how many turns do you use in the knot? Do you vary the number of turns for the line size?

Waynebh

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (fred1369) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:49:07 GMT

Maxima Chameleon and Ultragreen are great combos for nymph and streamers, I use Umpqua tippet for dries, it's a little more limp... The 60/40/40 formulas work good for turnover.

Tom,
Yes, the fish get "bigger" at night! I'm a striped bass flyrodder and that's the way for stripers, but I have been applying night fishing to trout for a whille now with excellent results. They move into the feed zone in the cover of darkness.

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (jgestar) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:15:12 GMT

John,

I know what you mean about indicators disappearing beyond 30 feet away. I live in Kansas. Once the heat of the summer is on, it is much more comfortable (and productive) to fish after dark. I tied a bunch of Chernobyl Ants with a strip of glow in the dark foam on top. I expected to see a little glowing dot on the water, but no such luck. Beyond about 20 feet, the fly was invisible. I still have to strike by sound. On the other hand, I can clearly see the glowing foam in...

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (rvreclus) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:54:05 GMT

I'm with Gaddis and Whlrpool,
I tie my own and have been since the late 80's. I use the same 60/20/20 formula and adapt it to my needs. I use Maxima Chameleon and Ultra Green, I have heard all the arguments against using this material, but it works for me and I find it to be very consistent, even if it is thicker than stated on the spool. I adapt my tippets to the fishing situation I'm in, by using Umpqua tippet material when I want thinner diameter tippets. Respectfully...

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (JohnLL) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:29:26 GMT

I tie my own because I think the .21 or.23 butt factory leaders are too stiff for a 4 wt or even a 5 wt. Mine mix Borger style with a bit of Harvey. I use 54" of .17, 20" of .13, 16" of .10 and then tippet ring. This is a semi-permanent 7.5' leader base. Add a bit of 3x or 4x for streamers, or build it up to 11 or 12', which is what I normal do.

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (gaddis) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:18:10 GMT

Years ago I bought a leader tie kit from Orvis. It's stocked with Pezon and Michel leader material. I still make my own leaders from this kit, using the formulas provided with it. Works for me. On my local waters I don't use a knotted leader due to the frequency of getting caught in trees. But when I am fishing bigger water I prefer the knotted leaders. I've never really bothered to experiment with different leader formulas.

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (glcaddis) — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:34:31 GMT

I'd suggest nail knotting one foot of 30 lb test Amnesia to your fly line. Tie a loop in it and add a six foot leader that starts with .021, 3 feet, .017 18", .013 9", and tie the 3X to the .013 with a double surgeons knot. I've used this on a number of short leaders for 7 foot rods. While my short rods are 3 and 4 weights and usually start with 20 lb test Amnesia and .017 or .015; the basic formula is the same and it works well.

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (corlay) — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:19:37 GMT

bassackwards wrote:
The trick is to taper it down to a 3X tippet in 7 feet. I haven't figured out a better way to do it than drop the diameter by 1/3 for each segment and use double surgeon knots. The resulting leader tends to slap the fly on the water.

I'm very new to this hand-tied game,
but I've had reasonable success with the Bergman formulas for wets,
listed in the LeaderCalc spread sheet....

Re: Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (bassackwards) — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:01:09 GMT

Yep, I started with the Borger uni-butt method and combined it with a formula from a guy named Long Haired Dave. I think Dave did his own version of a Lefty Kreh formula based on halving the length of the previous segment. It is difficult for me to tie a good blood knot when there is more than .004" difference between the tippet diameters. So, I typically do something like 3' of .025", 1' of .021", 1' of .017", 1' of .013", and 2' of 1X for bass...

Hand-tied leaders

feeds@yuku.com (glcaddis) — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:55:40 GMT

I have been tying all my own leaders for at least 10 years. For most of those years, I used the formulas that Gary Borger developed. They work well and are quite easy to tie. The most common formula I use for nymphs is four feet of Maxima .020; one foot of Maxima .013, four feet of Maxima 2X , and one foot of 4x tippet. The dry fly formula is the same, except use 1X for the second four foot section followed by one foot of 4X and two to three feet of 5X or 6X tippet. I still tie and fish...