Leaders.....

[imaxfli78 0]

What kinda leaders is everyone using out there. Couple years ago I got some furled with the little swivel on the end that I love. Am still using braided with a loop for my 3 weight for smaller streams as its a better curve caster!

[RickZieger 0]

I have 5 ft furled leaders and then about 4-5 ft. of mono on most of my rods. 

All for warm water fly fishing.

Rick 

[Meeshka 0]

I use 5 foot furled leaders on my 3, 4, and 5/6 bamboo only and love them. Everything elese the leader would be generally a RIO product..  If I'm trolling streamers for trout generally a 6wt, reel spooled with type 6 sinking, no real leader but generally about a 20 ft 6# mono tippet which I have found gets me down ad works for me  just fine.

[utyer 0]

I tie my own leaders.  Nothing special, just 3 or 4 steps.  I fish mostly Saltwater, and heavier flies.  17-20 pound tippet, which I can step down to 12 for inshore.  I make them from Trilene bulk spools at a cost of about 25 cents each.  

[Poopdeck 0]

32 minutes ago, utyer said:

I tie my own leaders.  Nothing special, just 3 or 4 steps.  I fish mostly Saltwater, and heavier flies.  17-20 pound tippet, which I can step down to 12 for inshore.  I make them from Trilene bulk spools at a cost of about 25 cents each.  

Trilene bulk spools for me to. I also furl my own thread leaders as well. I recently began using tippet rings on my leaders after chugs reccomendation. I am becoming a fan of tippet rings on both my mono and furled leaders. As an added bonus the tippet rings can be reused over and over and over since you don't ever lose them. At least I haven't lost any yet. 

[DFoster 0]

I also tie my own , generally 9' down to 18" of 5 or 6X.  From there it's another 2' of whatever tippet based on conditions. 5X for down stream swings to 7X for slow water.   I do prefer a knot-less tapered leader for dries.  

[Sandan 0]

http://www.garyborger.com/2012/05/09/uni-body-to-harvey-style-leader/

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Since I'm also a saltwater guy my leaders don't bear the slightest resemblance to what folks use in freshwater environs... All of my setups, from a 7wt on up to a 13wt start with a heavy mono butt section that's permanently attached to the end of the fly line (all my floating lines have the butt section permanently attached to the fly line with a seven turn nail knot... but only with floating lines....)  But most of my heavier lines, starting with 10wt on up don't have floating lines at all, they're rigged with full Intermediate lines, and they need two nail knots in a row - a single nail knot won't hold up on an Intermediate line...Fish like big tarpon or sharks can put enormous pressure on a leader system near the boat so we take extra measures to ensure connections that are as close to the actual leader strength as possible...

Here's the specs for those butt sections since they change with line size... and each one has a surgeon's loop at the bitter end.

7wt - 3- 4 feet of 30lb mono (I prefer Ande Premium or Sufix Superior for butt sections - 

8wt - 4 feet of 40lb mono

9wt - 4.5 feet of 40lb mono

10wt- 5 feet of 50lb mono

11wt- 5.5 feet of 50lb mono

12wt (and larger).... 6 feet of 60lb mono

Now you're ready to consider a variety of quick change loop to loop tippets... 

 

The first one is for light duty use with anything from a 7 to 9wt line and locally it's called a "poor boy leader" since it's the simplest and does not have a bite tippet at all... just a surgeon's loop at the end to attach to the loop on the butt section... Mostly I use straight 20lb fluoro (occasionally a bit lighter or heavier as needed) for poor boys, starting with a 3 foot section but will go as long as 4 to 4.5 feet as line sizes go up towards a 9wt line... That "no bite tippet" end is particularly useful with popping bugs since bite tippets on them will hinder the action you're looking for as well as when bonefishing and you're needing as little on the terminal end as possible - at times that might only be an 8 or 10lb poor boy... An alternative for bones and permit is simply to purchase a ready made tapered leader, seven feet long then loop to loop it to that butt section for an overall leader that might be nearly 12 feet in length including the butt section... 

 

The next step up the ladder with situations where a bite tipped is really needed,  starts with 20lb hard Mason nylon mono with a loop on one end - then a bite tippet of anywhere from 30lb fluoro all the way up to 80lb fluoro (for big tarpon) or anywhere in-between... 

Here's a pic of the loop end of a big tarpon leader showing a bimini twist to double the line -then a doubled surgeon's loop to make the connection with a heavy butt section loop end... 

I'll have to find the time to do another set of close-ups showing the various splices we use to attach that bite tippet to the hard Mason...

Each of these heavier leaders are set up as pairs of leaders joined by a common double length bite tippet - then ten or more doubled pairs are wound up on separated leader wheels (loop to loop) to keep the pre-tied leaders with different bite tippet sizes separate and easy to retrieve on the water day or night... In use you just pull off the top leader pair, cut that double length bite tippet in half and you end up with a ready made leader ready to tie a fly onto - then loop to the loop on the butt section...  very quick to do.

 

"Be a hero.... take a kid fishing"