Hi,

Just returned to fly fishing after 25 years abscence!! I'm trying to remember how a leader is made up! I've got an Airflo 5' leader that attaches to the looped fly line and was wondering what length of tippett? goes on to this...

OR is there another beter way. All comments including what knots to use would be great

Thanks

Derek

Welcome to the forum.What type of fishing you intend to do,affects the type of leader you will be making up ??

Jim

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

I presume when you say you have an airflo 5ft leader you mean a polyleader. If so you attach a length of mono (flurocarbon, copolymer) to the polyleader usually by the loop to loop method. The length of the mono will be dictated by the circumstances you are fishing in and by wether you are incorporating droppers along the length of the mono tippet.

As a general guide the tippet length should never be less in total than the length of the rod you are using ie 9ft rod use 5ft polyleader and 4 ft mono tippet as a minimum length. It is usually preferable to have as long a leader as you can manage to cast/turn over effectively taking into account the conditions such as wind strength and direction and your own personal casting skills. Some very skilled anglers can manage leaders in excess of 20ft. I am not one of them and never attempt to fish with anything over 15ft.

Hope this helps a bit.

Here's a cut-and-paste from one of my earlier posts on this very subject.

Quote:

All you need are: Spool of cheap 22lbs BS monofilament like Bayer Perlon Spool of 15lbs Maxima monofilament Spool of 8lbs co-polymer Spool of 5lbs co-polymer Spool of 3lbs co-polymer A needle A lighter A pair of scissors Knowledge of tying: Needle Knot; Four Turn Water Knot; Grinner Knot Tie one to two yards of the 22lbs monofilament to the fly line using the needle knot. This is the sacrificial butt of the leader. Tie to the butt another one or two yards of the 15lbs Maxima using a four turn water knot. Tie to this another one or two yards of 8lbs or 5lbs co-polymer using another four turn water knot. This is the tippet. If you need to make a finer tippet, use one yard of the 8lbs co-polymer and then tie a tippet of whatever length you want of 3lbs co-polymer to the 8lbs using another four turn water knot. Decide on tippet thickness based on the fly size: 8lbs for Drakes, Spent Gnats, Daddy-Long-Legs and big Sedges; 5lbs for flies from 12 down to 16; and 3lbs for 18 down to 26. You want the thickest line that doesn't interfere with the fly behaving as if attached to nothing. Too thick and it will push the fly about, too thin and it will break off at the knot through fatigue. This method means you always have perfect leaders. It is a few moments work to make a new one. You can fine tune them to suit the conditions on the day. If you can get used to managing longish leaders, over time, you will catch more fish. Sometimes a leader and tippet of only a couple of yards can be necessary especially into a violent gusting headwind...BUT You could find yourself using a leader and tippet 6 or 7 yards long on the same windy day. You may keep your leader and tippet shortish to around 4 yards so that you can get a perfect turnover...BUT You may again use a leader with a very long tippet to a total length of 6 or 7 yards simply to avoid a perfect turnover in the interests of a longer drift before drag sets in. The scope is almost limitless. If you are starting out at this and want to get used to the whole fly fishing in rivers bit, try to use a leader and tippet total length of the length of your rod plus a yard or so to allow for holding your arm up high. This will soon become manageable for you and then you can start experimenting as above.

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Thanks guys, I think I get the general idea again . Materials certainly seem to have changed since I last cast a fly etc... I fished at Albury in Surrey and ended up with a lot of tangles and wind knots on the leader and was wondering whether it may have been to long at 13' or so?

It wasn't over windy but certainly affected my morale as I spent a fair bit of time untangling the birds nests!!!!! - casting technique perhaps?!

The one tool I was thinking of buying was the Orvis 'Tie-Fast Knot-Tying Tool' and wondered whether anybody had tried one or had any views on it?

Thanks for the advice so far.

By the way, I've only been twice but managed to bag a couple on each trip when others were finding it had to get a take

Derek