Leader construction

[ETibbs 0]

Ive been trying to building my own leaders or trying to anyway. I've had pretty good success until I started trying to cast some big bass flies. The most recent one I've used is 3' 40lb flouro, 2-3' 20lb, 18'' 14lb, then 1x or 2x Tippett. Any ideas? I'm casting an 8wt

[LeakyWaders 0]

Try going 3' 40lb, 1.5' 30lb, 1' 20lb + tippet.

 

 

I've never found much use for bass leaders to be any longer than 6-7'. These are fish that aren't typically very line shy, and a little shorter leader will help you turn over the big flies.

[ETibbs 0]

Is flouro ok?

[mikechell 0]

Bass ... no need to step down the leader to tippets. 6 feet or so of mono or flouro and tie the fly on. I've caught my fair share of bass and sunfish, and I've never used a tapered or built leader/tippet end.

[Rocco 0]

To each his won.

 

I do not like knots in my LM bass leaders anyway. In lake fishing, they pick up goop on the surface and do not slide over pads or structure smoothly.

 

But I always use a tapered knotless leader for smallmouth in rivers. On any given day I might be using both #8 nymphs and #2 surface bugs or streamers.

 

Rocco

[ditz2 0]

I use a 5' furled leader on my light rods and then loop to loop to required tippet. I use mosty a 6# tippet. I guess I should add that I fish warmwater only. On my heavy rods I use about 3' of 40# and then a loop to loop to whatever tippet I want. Just a straight mono leader is also good for big flies. Don't overthink leaders for bass or saltwater.

[Peterjay 0]

I use a 5' furled leader on my light rods and then loop to loop to required tippet. I use mosty a 6# tippet. I guess I should add that I fish warmwater only. On my heavy rods I use about 3' of 40# and then a loop to loop to whatever tippet I want. Just a straight mono leader is also good for big flies. Don't overthink leaders for bass or saltwater.

 

Now THERE'S some good advice! Tying good solid knots is much more important that getting fancy with leader construction.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

An easy method that will yield a serviceable tapered leader is, after you've decided what you want the total leader length to be, to make the butt section half of the total length, then make each section stepping down to the tippet half the length of the preceding section until you get to the tippet, then add 1-2 feet for the tippet section. The other rule is not to step down too dramatically in strength/diameter from one section to the next.

 

When I make leaders for bass, I make them 8-9 feet long, from butt to tippet as follows: 48 in./25#, 24 in./20#, 12 in./15#, then 12-18" of 8-10# for the tippet. This is admittedly fancier than you need for bass fishing, but I like to have some delicacy available to me as some of the creeks I fish for smallmouth get pretty low and clear during the summer, and I do use some smaller buggers at times.

 

I will also add that this is not something I regularly do; only if I break (or forget to buy) knotless leaders do I resort to making my own. The Scientific Anglers 8' knotless bass leaders are great.

[utyer 0]

I have a spread sheet that I made for calculating my leaders. It was constructed to calculate the lengths of the first seven sections of each leader. Then step down in 4" decreasing sections until you reach your desired tippet size. The tippet can be up to 36" long. This is the only leader formula I have ever used, and it works for any size leader. If anyone wants a copy of the working spreadsheet I can send you one. It is made on OPEN OFFICE CALC. That is the only program it will work in. Open office can be downloaded free.

 

This chart looked ok in the post preview, but it doesn't show up right when the post loads.

The total length has been entered into the table below.

 

With the spreadsheed all you need do is enter the diameter of your starting section (.023 for example,) then all the calculations will then complete for every size leader in the table.

 

You simply enter the diameter of your first (butt) section for example .023 don't forget the decimal point 0.023 This is the ONLY box in this sheet you can enter any numbers into. All other cells are protected. Total Diameters for all sections will be calculated when you enter your starting diameter in the box. Section lengths will calculate after the total length is entered. Then copy and paste the whole row into a lower row. AFTER you copy your leader to a new row, round evey fraction UP to the next whole number, any section less than 4” should be made 4”. The table is set up to calculate only the first 7 segments of any leader. After that you can add 4” section of every diameter smaller by 002 until you reach you desired tippet size. The tippets can be up to 36” so many leaders will be longer than your starting measurements.

 

12' 0.023 0.021 0.019 0.017 0.015 0.013 0.012 0.011 0.01 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.006 0.005 0.004 0.003 0.002 0.001

144 40 26 18 12 9 6 5

The critical part of any leader is the first 6 to 7 sections. After that a uniform taper using 4” segments in each tippet size will work fine. You can build using sections that are .002 smaller than the last section until you reach your tippet size.

11' 0.023 0.021 0.019 0.017 0.015 0.013 0.012 0.011 0.01 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.006 0.005 0.004 0.003 0.002 0.001

132 36 24 16 11 8 6 4

 

10' 0.023 0.021 0.019 0.017 0.015 0.013 0.012 0.011 0.01 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.006 0.005 0.004 0.003 0.002 0.001

120 33 22 15 10 7 5 4

 

9' 0.023 0.021 0.019 0.017 0.015 0.013 0.012 0.011 0.01 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.006 0.005 0.004 0.003 0.002 0.001

108 30 20 13 9 6 5 4

 

These are example of 4 leaders with the section sizes below the diameters. The spreadsheet does leaders from 12 feet to 4 feet and half foot increments between 10 feet and 4 feet.

 

REMEMBER to increase the length of all sections less than 4” up to 4” it is very hard to tie knots in sections smaller than 4” so don't even bother.