Hi All.

Ive just gotten myself a lovely orvis frequent flyer (9 foot #6) and a battenkill mid arbor III reel.

I live in Sweden now (orignally from the UK) and will be fishing mostly trouts in lakes to begin with.

Anyhow my first question (of many more to come in sure!), i've finally gotten a leader and tippet now and tonight have set this up for the first time using a loop connection (from the line to the leader).

My question...

I have set up my rod (for the first time) and have successfully connected the fly line to the leader (wahey).

Now I want to connect the tippet to the fly (with a clinched knot).

My question is how much tippet am I supposed to use? Im guessing the answer as with most things in fly fishing is "it depends!"... so to pre-empt this my second question is what does it depend on!?

I have "wonderline 3" fly line, which is attached via a loop to loop connection to a nano mono tapered leader (5x), and then the tippet is a frog hair branded 5x as well (to match, yes I did some homework!).

What is the rule of thumb here as I would imagine this would effect my practise casting quite a bit.

your leader should be the length of your rod

if your leader is the lenght of your rod, just half a meter will be fine

Thanks all this is really helpful.

What I discovered after googling some chap with the same problem was that actually when you buy a leader off the shelf it will normally come with some tippet on the end (maybe half a meter or a meter?)

I followed some advise and you can actually feel the point when it starts to get thicker.

With the leader on - and no tippet, the lenght is exactly the length of my rod (9 feet)

So in theory then, I can just go out and fish without a tippet to begin with, then after swapping flies for a bit I'll probably end up cutting into the leader (maybe half a meter worth). At this point I can start putting my half meter of tippet on.

Does that make sense to everyone and am I on the right track. Any pros/cons of doing things this way? (Any disadvantages of not using a tippet to begin with?)

Thanks, this is a great forum!

Hi Jason,

You can fish without adding any tippet to your leader but that means you'll be cutting into your tapered leader which will shorten it's life span and that can get expensive. What I do is use a furled leader to which I connect three feet of tippet via a perfection knot. Whenever the tippet gets a little too short I just snip it off and add a new one leaving my furled leader undamaged. You can get these from either MrTrout on this forum or Rod Dibble Spiders Plus - Online shopping - Your chosen fly Details

On a nine foot 6 weight you'll see better turnover and a more delicate presentation. Also as a beginner you'll see a lot fewer wind knots when using a furled leader and wind knots on a tapered leader equal out to weak points which can break when playing a fish. I use a 5 foot furled leader on my 9' 5 weight and with three feet of tipper manage to convince some pretty educated fish to take my flies.

Take care

Terry

__________________
"He either fears his fate too much,
Or his desserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch,
To win or lose it all!"

If you are using a 5X leader, you ideally want to be stepping it down to a 6X tippet, which I fear might be a little light for a 6wt, especially in the hands of a relative novice, who might not be able to control the initial shock of the take. I would reccommend that you rather go for for a 4X or even a 3X leader, that way you can step it down an X, or two from the leader and still get a turnover. Ideally a X rated leader shouldn't be using the same X rated tippet, as it risks losing turnover. Always try and step the tippet down from the leader.
I know it sounds complicated, but you need to try out a few combinations.

you are fishing lakes, it depends on the depth of water you are fishing over, if the fish are deep you may have to use up to a 20 foot leader to reach them, on top of the water I would usually have at least 12 feet between the fly and the end of the fly line. and ow many flies, a 12 foot leader is only really any use for 1 fly.

OK, there's a tendency with leaders to get overly complicated and this creates a lot of confusion with beginners. Why's it gotta be this way? Well it doesn't have to. Let's keep it real simple:

First, you have to understand the purpose of tippet:

1. It provides a sacrificial piece of leader so you don't chew up an expensive leader by repeatedly tying on and cutting off flies.

2. It provides a quick way to make the leader longer or shorter simply by adding a longer piece of tippet or cutting some off rather than changing the entire leader.

3. It allows you to adjust for a variety of presentation factors. Spooky fish? You can easily tie on a lighter, less visible tippet section. Big fish or lots of sharp rocks or trees in the water? Go with a heavier tippet.

Now let's talk about leaders.

The Grouse's Universal Law of Leader Length (TGULL) states thusly: Use the shortest leader that the fish will let you get away with.

It's easy to think that longer is better when it comes to leaders, and there is currently a fad for unnecessarily long and complicated leader setups.

The problem is that every inch of extra leader introduces more opportunity for wind knots, tangles, and for bad presentation cause by not being able to lay out that excessively long leader.

Bottom line is that for most floating line fishing, start with a leader about the length of the rod, add 18 inches of tippet and call it good. Adjust depending on the fishing conditions.


Sorry, but I have to disagree with this. There's nothing wrong with fishing with tippet the same breaking strength as the leader or even a higher BS if you want. You just need to be aware of where the weak point in the chain is.

Ultimately, the weakest link is always the knots, not the material itself. Fishing 4x tippet on a 5x leader won't matter because the breaking strength of the knots is less that the BS of both the leader and the tippet. I'd be shocked if the average angler was able to tie knots that reached 80% BS, but that's another discussion.

Grouse

The reason why I reccommended a tippet of smaller diameter, is to continue to keep the taper of the entire leader progressive. Sure you can keep the diameter of tippet the same as the tip of the leader if you want, but it is better for turnover to keep it progressiv. Sorry, again I forget to mention I am talking about rivers and streams, stillwater, less critical.
Everytime a question comes up, my mind automatically goes to rivers, not alway the correct answer in the context of the question.

Its simple 3x leader, use a 4x tippet, 4x leader, use a 5x tippet, and so on, That's my rationale.

andreb, can you explain why presentation is seen in your eyes as less important on still waters?