What are the pros and cons of tying up tapered leaders in terms of stregth?

With my limited understanding, for a 6lb fish you must need the leader to be 6lb breaking strength for all it's length. And if it's strong enough at one end then surely it doesn't need to be stronger near the butt?

I understand the need for invisibility, especially in clear water, but don't the knots needed to tie up a tapered leader add to visibility?

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You can only fish for so long before you have to throw a stick of dynamite in the river.

The idea behind tapering is about weight, not strength - so that the leader has a continuation of the front taper of the fly-line, and heavier line is always turning over lighter.

As to "How strong do you need" that is a matter of endless argument - I was surprised to learn that a 3lb rainbow in still water can barely manage 8 ounces of pull - but a one pound grayling in a strong current is another matter altogether.

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

Read this....
Hyper-Compleat Principles of Leader Design - The most comprehensive tool for calculating classical and contemporary leaders - and designing your own formulas for knotted leaders - Global FlyFisher
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I'm a lazy So&So and I buy knotless tapered leaders. I find they turn over better and are stronger due to the lack of knots. That's personal though and I know a lot of people who swear by the ones they tie themselves. It's all about feeling and one man's meat is another man's poison!

Had a look at LeaderCalc and it messed with my head! So ...
If I'm fishing wet for 4lbs trout what leader taper should I use?

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You can only fish for so long before you have to throw a stick of dynamite in the river.

4lb point then 5lb then 6lb.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

Hi', Idris. You don't have to use 6lb monofil of any type to play a 6lb fish safely.
With a light check on the reel and a rod held at a steep angle, you would have to be unlucky to be broken by a 6lb trout when using 4lb tippets.
Fish feel a lot heavier than they are simply because the length of the rod amplifies the effect of the pull they exert on the rod tip, and that is down to simple mathematics. Point the rod at the fish, and it doesn't feel as heavy, but the line is then vulnerable to a sudden lunge.
As has been said, continuous tapered casts are generally stronger due to the lack of knots, and it is the diameter/weight of the cast that is important in preserving the taper effect. A sudden change in diameter/weight/stiffness can result in hinging and failure to turn over the cast properly.
If you are thinking about wet fly fishing, do as Jim suggests. Your choice of flies, their size and respective bulk, can result in a taper effect. With a bigger and bushier fly on the top dropper, slimmer and less air resistant on the middle dropper and heaviest/most aerodynamic on the point, air resistance will hold back the bob fly and thus help turn over the cast.
If you are going to tie your own tapered dry fly casts, you will need to start with something around 20 pound bs, or more in this day and age. They work out cheaper, but they are fiddly, and can involve using about 8 different tapering weights/lengths of material. The Ritz formulae that I used went from 23lb or 18lb down to 2lb.in a 9ft leader.
With a less tapered wet fly cast, you can aid turnover by shooting line and letting it run over the forefinger which adds a bit of drag, slows down the line and you can watch your flies land -- one, two, in a nice straight line. Try it and practise until it becomes second nature. It saves putting the lot down in a heap, and risking tangles as a result. Sorry that took so long. Cheers TC

Hi', Downstream. An interesting point, re pull of a fish. I once saw on TV an experiment in which an olympic swimmer was attached by a harness to an angler using a fly rod and line. The swimmer couldn't get away!!! TC
PS Boats don't pull very well, either. At least, not for their size, but they make a load of turbulence while trying.

There are several misconceptions here.

Firstly a 6lb fish never pulls 6lbs dead weight as in the water it doesn't weigh 6lbs,this is why it is perfectly possible to land 10lb fish on leaders with far lower breaking strains.

Secondly leaders almost never have to take a dead weight, if you use your rod properly as a shock absorber and set your reel drag correctly your leader will never have a significant load put on it. The most dangerous time is in the moment of a smash take when the shock can break a leader before you get your rod in position.

Thirdly, as soon as you put a knot in a leader you weaken the material and drop the breaking strain, some knots are less damaging than others in this respect.

Your leader tippet needs to be long enough to keep the nearest knot away from the fish, you can fish with a level leader but for proper turnover and presentation the leader needs to be tapered.

In 90% of cases the size of the fish is the wrong factor in determining the strength of the leader or tippet. The tippet needs to be of the correct diameter to present the fly that you are using correctly, not so thin that the fly spins the leader and not so thick that the presentation becomes wooden.

Using breaking strain is generally a waste of time given the differences in diameter between the same breaking strains in different materials.

If you want a tapered leader and you want to mix materials or brands in the make up of the leader the only way to do this is by looking at the diameter of the material. You can either use the diameter marked on the spool (you may have to mix metric with Imperial if using European and US brands) or better still use the x-rating system that is marked on most leader material spools. The higher the x rating the thinner the material and it doesn't matter what the material is or where it comes from as the x rating system is all embracing.

This makes life very easy, you can mix materials at will, and also ensures that your tippet is the correct diameter for the size of fly that you are using.

Start with the tippet, divide the size of the fly by 3 and the nearest whole number is the correct x rating for the tippet. So, if you are using a No.12 the correct tippet is 4x, for a No.14 or No.16 it is 5x and so on. The breaking strain is largely irrelevant although you will get into trouble if you are after 10lb fish with No.24 flies but then you can't present No.24s on a tippet heavy enough for a 10lb fish in most conditions.

You can then construct the rest of the leader from any mix of materials you like, mono, copolymer, or fluoro, in increasing diameters according to the x rating and you will get the desired taper. The best join is a water knot as this has high strength and is easy to tie. If you want a dropper leave the knot tag end long pointing down the leader, or if you want a dropper where there isn't a knot or you want a dropper of a lighter diameter, then water knot a dropper in where you need it.

For a gradual taper decrease the x rating by one for each length so if the tippet is 5x the next section is 4x and so on, for a steeper taper decrease by two so if the tippet is 5x the next section is 3x and so on. Remember that as the x rating number decreases the material gets thicker.

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Impeccable answer from Sewin...

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