Walter & Group...
I WILL BE AWAY FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS. GORDY
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TIPS ON LEADER DESIGN
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You have constucted your leader. Now you want a quick test to see how it turns over :
Tie the fly to the tippet. Fasten the butt section to the tip top of the tip section of a 2 pc. fly rod.
Now make some casts with the leader/fly and no fly line. See how it turns over at various casting speeds. If you can still turn it over well while casting slowly, you have struck gold !
Gordy
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Here is another little tip, especially for you salty flats fishers :-
The wind is blowing HARD. While tarpon fishing with a fairly large fly, it is difficult to turn over your leader to make an accurate presentation to your fish.
I find that switching to an intermediate WF fly line with a clear tip can help. Why ? .......
1.) That clear tip can be considered part of your leader allowing the true leader to be much shorter. Works great for quick accurate fly presentations under adverse circumstances.
2.) Switching from a floating to an intermediate line makes casting in high winds easier anyway, because the mass per diameter of the line is higher. That means that the leading edge of your loop presents less resistance to the wind.
Gordy
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For big game leaders :
When using a heavy monofilament shock (bite) tippet, there are two main ways to attach your fly.
1.) Snell knot (Good when you want your fly to track as straight as possible.) Do NOT pass the leader material through the eye of the hook. This will crimp it and have the fly track off center. We tried passing it through up-turned and down-turned hook eyes .... didn't work as this provided a wear point which could fail on long battles.
2.) Loop to the fly. (Best when you want more fly action as you retrieve.)
a. The non-slip loop is hard to beat (as Lefty said). It is the only one which has the tag end pointing toward the fly (to avoid catching weeds.)
b. I've found that the improved Homer Rhode knot works well. It is NOT as strong as the non-slip loop, but is easier for me to tie when using 60# to 80# hard monofilament nylon or fluorocarbon bite tippets. The tag end will catch weeds.
c. The perfection loop. A good knot when used for lighter tippets. For those heavy bite tippets it is hard for me to get the loop size as small as I want it to be when passing a large fly through the knot before cinching it down.
d. Uni-loop knot (Duncan loop). Not good for use with heavy bite tippets. Not as strong as the others, above (though this doesn't matter because of the size of the bite tippet material .) It IS likely to pull down tight onto the hook when fighting a fish. (For some reason, it doesn't do that when used up at the fly line end of the leader at the connection between the fly line loop and the butt section of the leader.)
e. Surgeons knot loop. Very bulky when tied in heavy shock tippets. The tippet does not pull straight from the knot. Tag end sticks out.
d. Metal crimp sleeve. OK for use with heavy shock tippets used for bill fish or tuna. I found that I got fewer strikes when I tried them for tarpon. Properly sized and crimped, they are strong and don't pull down or slip. The tag end can be included in the sleeve so isn't a problem.
Many big game fly fishers carry pre-rigged flies with shock tippets and class tippets already attached in a "leader stretcher" box . Here is a little tip for more easily making a quick loop-to-loop connection as you change flies :
Pass the class tippet loop through the loop in the end of the butt section (or tapered section is there is one). Now, FOLD THE CLASS TIPPET ALONG THE SHOCK TIPPET AT THE KNOT AND PASS IT THROUGH THE CLASS TIPPET LOOP. That way, you can pull the shock tippet and big fly through hook eye first. Be sure all loop-to-loop connections pull down properly ("hand-shake" marriage ..... NOT a "lark's head").
......... Just thought I'd share this.
Gordy