Tie your Own leaders?

[Adams 0]

I tie most of my own (and for my wife). When fishing late summer weeds, (try getting a clean float on the Bighorn in late summer) I'll buy some knotless leaders.

 

I follow Galloup's recommendations for some streamer leaders -- I really like the complicated 4 ft of plain old 12 pound. . .

 

Adams

[cicero 0]

Hello from Slovenia!

 

I had a lot of problems with self tied leaders - so from now on I buy only pre made no knot leaders - a classic knot with the flyline and ond the end of my leader I tie on a small ring (radius 1 milimeter) that is used for carpfishing (something for boile montage - I realy dont konw what it is actualy used for, because I'm not a carpfisher) and on that "ring comes the tippet"

If anybody uses the same tehnique - contact me on MSN adress - I have some questions about thease rings

 

Have a nice day!

[Crotalus 0]

i buy a variety of hand tied and knotless leaders. I want to learn to tie my own, i just havent had the time yet.

[sharpster68 0]

havent tied any of my own yet just use pre made.

 

A transplanted Texan stationed with the US Navy in Oak Harbor WA.

[bbfishing 0]

a few years ago i found some recipes on www.hookhack.com/handtiedleaders.html lengths 7 1/2 ft -12 ft 3 - 9 wt use them as a guide ,fudge a bit they work well for me.

[rougetrout 0]

Best way to do it. Take the "listed" pattern and make it your own--thats the great thing about tying leaders you can make the lenght/wieght/stiffness that you desire.

[Bob C 0]

I tie my own but will use store bought knotless as well. I have been using George Harvey's leader formula that I found in an old issue of Fly Fisherman and it fishes really well. I also just furled my first thread leader this week but haven't fished it yet.

 

Regards, Bob

[flyfishtn 0]

I tie my own and buy some. Been using furled some as well for dry fly fishing.

[Isonychia 0]

I tie my own, mainly because I fish very small streams and most commercially produced leaders are too darned long.

 

Tying your own allows you to customize the leader to the situation. If, for instance, I know I'm going to be fishing Armstrong Spring Creek in Montana, I'd design a leader long enough to avoid spooking finicky spring-creek trout, but with enough backbone to punch a fly into a stiff wind.

 

With a loop-to-loop connection, it's easy enough to swap leaders for specific purposes.

[routta 0]

hand tied all the way.

 

borger's uni leader design as a base, with a few mods for my casting and rod prefrences. i also apply ross muellers suggestion of chameleon and clear leader steps to identify which section is which when i field re-build.

 

if you have trouble with weeds later in thes season, i'll often soak a little flexament into the knot and the seems to smooth out the weed pick up/

[Hot Tuna 0]

I like the Unibody leader formula originally propounded by Gary Borger in Presentation and also recommended by my buddy Jeff Passante in his book on fishing the Housatonic River. This is a trout leader and is really easy to tie. I use Maxima chameleon for the three sections and add a tippet of Orvis super strong.

Here's the formula:

4 feet .020, 1 foot .013 and 4 feet .010; to this basic leader you can add a short nymph tippet or a longer dry fly tippet as the need arises.

Not too many knots to tie....

[Ashby 0]

I tried a store bought leader one time and took it off my line five minutes later. I just don't like the way they lay, or the way they taper up. Tying my own I can be a lot more versatile for the conditions at hand. Just the way I was taught to fish so I have always tied them myself.

 

Ashby

 

[oldfart 0]

I keep a few tapered leaders in my vest for quick emergencies, but normaly tie my own. Using Maxima for the butt and quick taper and umpqua for the tippet from 4x down.

[KVRNut 0]

I tie my own leaders pretty much all the time now as it does give me the versitility and the extra length of leader I need particularly when chronnie fishing with a floating fly line. I now use a 15 ft., or longer, leader all the time, even for the smallest of my dry flies. Found that the long leaders give me the results that I desire with no problems with casting or presentation.

By no means am I a 'purist' as I've been known to get lazy and cheat every so often by tying a knotless leader on to a long butt section then add on to the tippit as needed.

[Chase Creek 0]

Ive always used knotless tapered cuz of the weed/water crud factor. I cut off about 2 ft from the tippet and add replace it with 2 ft of spool tippet (same size). When i get back to the knot, I add another pc of tippet. Fast and easy.