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it's my understanding that the function of the sighter is only to visually detect strikes and not for casting performance. Can the sighter material be made of 20 or 30 lb nylon braided backing material? Most of the leader formulas for tightline nymphing I've seen recommend using colored mono material such as Umpqua, Rio Two Tone or Cortland Bicolor for sighter material. Thanks
Fritz --- yes they can according to a video on Youtube. Search Youtube for, "Backing sighter for Czech nymphing."
Dennis
No reason why not especially if you color it up a bit with a magic marker. Only reservation I have is that backing material stretches a bit more than monofilament or fluorocarbon. I tend to use Amnesia myself because I have it already. More often than not, I tightline without a sighter, just because I'm too lazy to re-rig.
I think it serves more purpose than just the visual aid. My concern would be whether the backing material would transfer energy as well as a monofilament sighter, impacting the ability of your loops to turn over as well as they normally would with mono. I realize that in many cases with tight line or euro nymphing you don't really need to make traditional back and forward casts, relying instead on "water loading" the rod at the end of the drift and then lobbing the line forward, but I try to make sure I'm not limiting myself to that kind of cast with my sighter leaders. I may plan on euro nymphing most of the day, but if a particular stretch looks like it would be better fished with an indicator, or if conditions suddenly favor dries, I like the idea of being able to quickly fish in those ways without having to completely change my leader. I start with a 7 1/2' tapered leader and make a point of trying to maintain the original taper, meaning I cut it back to the point where it's 3X or 4X diameter and then tie in a 1 - 2' section of mono sighter in that same diameter, followed by a tippet ring. To the tippet ring I typically attach an appropriate (depending on water depth) length of clear 5X and then my flies of course. With this arrangement, I have a leader that follows a logical taper progression and turns over pretty much like a normal leader if I need it to. Seems to me like braided backing material would absorb some of the casting energy and keep the loop from turning over fully, but I guess there's one way to find out!
I've used both braided backing and mono -- Amnesia, Stren and Cortland BiColor Sighter material. Both work, but I prefer mono as it's a little stiffer and transfer power on the cast a little better.