Home-made Leaders

[Loren]

Anybody tie their own? Where do you buy the mono and in what sizes/lengths?

Loren

[Bob M]

Sure, I've been doing it for years. It's easy to do and it's nice to have the leader for an unusual fishing condition. e.g. 5'6" 4X for tight brush, 14' 6X for spooky fish. Orvis makes a blood knot tool that is a big help and it comes with a bunch of formulas. Blood knots are easy enough to tie free-hand, but it is a lot simpler to use the tool. There are some crummy tools out there.

Formulas are bretty easy to come by. Most folks have their favorites. Some of the old codgers guard their leader formulas as closely as their fishing holes.

I pretty much stick with Orvis leader material. It has a good strength to diameter ratio. A perfection loop is useful for the butt connection.

Spools to get: .025 .023 .021 .019 .017 .015 .013 .011 .009 .007 and .006 Those will get you down to a 5X. You can build anything you want above that.

[Bird Dog]

I tie my own leaders using the 60/20/20 ratio formula. That means that the first 60% of the leader is hard mono, the middle 20% is nylon, and the last 20%, the tippet, is soft nylon. I use green trilene big game for the mono, Orvis super strong for the middle, and Dia Riki for the tippet (Dia Riki is hard to find, so use Orvis if you must). These leaders will absolutely NOT coil up like tapered leaders tend to do and they always lay out perfectly (if you know how to cast!). The butts, being made of trilene, are very tough too. Here's the specifics for my favorite 9' 5x leader.

16" 30lb trilene
16" 25lb trilene
16" 20lb trilene
16" 15lb trilene
5.5" 0x Orvis Super Strong (SS)
5.5" 1x SS
5.5" 2x SS
5.5" 3x SS
22" 5x Dai Riki

Use blood knots for all but the last tippet connection. For it use a surgeons knot, because it is stronger than the blood knot. This is a great winter evening hobby. I buy the 500 to 1000 yard spools of trilene and can tie a zillion leaders with these spools. Go by a office supply place and get some little 2"x3" zip lock bags for them. Tying leaders can get monotanous. But it will save you a lot of money if you fish alot.
P.S. Does anyone know where I can get Dai Riki besides mail ordering?

[Richard]

Loren,

Most of the shops in metro Atlanta have all the leader spools you'll need already packaged together in a box that also comes with instructions and leader formulas. I started with the Orvis kit and it's worked great for me. Most of the catalogs sell them as well.

The only disadvantage I've found is if you fish a lot of weedy ponds the knots tend to collect a lot of junk on them. In this situation, stick with the knotless leaders.

[edwin]

Fly fishing afficiando John Goddard swears that he only needs three sections to tie a leader that will turn over any fly when cast appropriately, and I couldn't agree more. It simplifies things and gives you more time to do things like fish, tie flies or browse this site for good info. Goddard's method is documented in his book "Trout Fishing Techniques" and is worth buying not just for the leader info, but also because it provides a wealth of information regarding trout behavior, eyesight and flycasting in general. You ought to give it a try, it's relatively cheap, or email me for more info.

[Steve D]

I've used factory-made and home-made tapered mono leaders for years but have recently found I like to make and use furled thread leader butts better than anything made of mono (of course, furled leaders can be made with mono too.)

They're made with a continuous length of 6/0 tying thread and are tapered just like a mono leader. The ones I make have a loop in each end for connedtions to the flyline and tippet.

They're not too hard to make and once you're set up you can make several fairly quickly. They turn over very well (have used the same leader butt for both heavy weighted buggers and nymphs and tiny dry flies - just alter the tippet material). Leader lengths and tapers are limited only by one's imagination.

Instructions can be found in D. Martin's book "Micropatterns" and/or in an article by Martin in a past issue of Flyfishing. Also good, but slightly different instructions, can be found on Martin Joergensen's Flyfishing Denmark webpage.

Give one a try - you'll likely be surprised how well you like lthem.

Steve D.

[RSB]

Loren,

If you don't have a copy of Vic Dunaways book, "Bait, Rigs & Tackle", go buy it. The book has several standard leader formulas that I have used and caught fish. I use the uniknot system for the connectors and have yet had one fail. I also used what remained on old spools of Ande line that I found in my saltwater box.. The leaders weren't exactly pretty or to Orvis standards, but they work just fine.

I do reccommend using the "loop" system for quick changes, but use it for the tippet.

RSB