Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Mike Barrio

Leader to fly line connection
« on: 03/09/2014 at 12:30 »
How do you match your leader butt diameter to your fly line tip diameter when joining them?

Do you think this is important?

Marc Fauvet

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #1 on: 03/09/2014 at 15:01 »
extremely important if you want efficient turnover, Mike !
as a generalised rule of thumb Bruce Richards recommends that leader butt diameter should be between 2/3 and 3/4 of line tip diameter.
( 2/3 for 'light' typical trout rigs and 3/4 for sturdier 'streamer' type rigs)
this works very well.
cheers,
marc

Mike Barrio

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #2 on: 03/09/2014 at 18:19 »
Yes Marc :z16

As a general rule for trout fishing, 2/3 or 60%+ is frequently given and this works well.

I wonder how many anglers actually think about this when setting up their gear?

Cheers
Mike

Marc Fauvet

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #3 on: 03/09/2014 at 18:36 »
none...  :z4 :z4 :z4

Mike Barrio

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #4 on: 03/09/2014 at 22:59 »
I used to see anglers attaching very low diameter leaders frequently at Haddo and often discussed this with them. They picked up the reasoning easily once discussed and most said that they had not thought about it before.

Cheers
Mike

Rob Brownfield

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #5 on: 04/09/2014 at 07:43 »
none...  :z4 :z4 :z4

Ahem!

I prefer a thick butted leader over a polyleader any day.

For my floating line work for salmon on my Switch and 12' 6" set ups I use the Varivas large butt leaders and I find they are great at turning over flies.

On the trout river gear I have been using the Hardy tapered leaders as they have a fairly stiff and thick butt

For Pike I use a 5 foot polyleader (as I cannot get a mono leader that is thick enough) and a 3 foot stiff mono leader.

And lastly, for my 14 footer I use polyleaders as I tend to use this in high water and thus want flies to get down a bit.

Mike Barrio

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #6 on: 04/09/2014 at 21:54 »
Yes Rob, I know a lot of anglers do think about their leader set ups.

The reason for my original question was that I was hoping that a few forum members might come up with some helpful tips in the thread and that these might prove useful to anybody that does not currently think about it, especially those that are fairly new to fly fishing. :wink

It's a huge subject and we've barely scratched the surface :cool:

Cheers
Mike

Iain Cameron

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #7 on: 05/09/2014 at 08:48 »
hi Mike

I mostly use the 15 foot Leeda tapered leaders; inexpensive, reliable, and thick enough at the butt to help the transition from thick fly line down through the leader to the tippet. Seems to reduce the hinging effect which I've seen on a couple of folks' setups this year where they are using thin mono leaders tied straight to the fly line.

I chop off the last 3 feet or so at the thin end, and tie in a 1mm seamless steel ring. Onto that goes a few feet of tippet. Optionally a dropper can be tied to the ring too.

It's been my setup for years now, and works for me; simple, unfussy, reliable. The leader will last a long time (maybe only need to change the leader once or twice a season, and I'm out fishing a lot), and cuts down on the amount of tippet I need to change/discard.

cheers
iain


Mike Barrio

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #8 on: 05/09/2014 at 10:16 »
Great stuff Iain, thanks for sharing your thoughts :z16

Best wishes
Mike

Marc Fauvet

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #9 on: 05/09/2014 at 16:25 »
Ahem!

well, ok. very few !  :z4 :z4 :z4

Aitor

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #10 on: 06/09/2014 at 23:04 »
How do you match your leader butt diameter to your fly line tip diameter when joining them?

Do you think this is important?

It is important:



( Edit = remove the "s" from "https" so that the video displays directly in the post )

Marc Fauvet

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #11 on: 07/09/2014 at 13:38 »
nice one Aitor !  :z16

question:
"We must remember that what we need is to get the right proportion between the line and leader respective masses, not their diameters."
how do you propose we do this ?

cheers,
marc

Aitor

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #12 on: 07/09/2014 at 21:14 »
nice one Aitor !  :z16

question:
"We must remember that what we need is to get the right proportion between the line and leader respective masses, not their diameters."
how do you propose we do this ?

cheers,
marc

Using common sense, Marc.

For floating lines the rule that you gave is enough.

However we must be cautious with sinking lines:
Being more dense than their floating counterparts results in a line tip that is both thinner and heavier (with bigger linear mass to be precise). If we follow the regular rule about diameters the butt of the leader is going to be too thin, having a big difference in linear mass with the line tip. That could result in "hinging" as in the extreme case shown on the video.

Marc Fauvet

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #13 on: 08/09/2014 at 13:53 »
thanks Aitor, sorry for the delayed response as i couldn't log in...

yes, sinking lines need to be approached differently. glad you brought that up. your explanation says it all  :z16
cheers,
marc

Lasse Karlsson

Re: Leader to fly line connection
« Reply #14 on: 09/09/2014 at 20:13 »
I try to find mono of roughly the same stiffness as the flyline I intend to use it on for best turnover.
Works well for me with both floating and sinking lines.

Cheers
Lasse

 




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