Tippet rings

[Ray Kunz]

Have I missed any discussions on these? Are they being universally accepted? Are they for plain monofilament leaders or just on furled ones? Are they useable when using dry flies or just when using wets? Thanks.

[bgreer]

Hi Ray,

I don't know if they are "universally" accepted, but accepted well enough.

Personally, I don't think I'd use a furled leader without one. It just makes life easier for me.
I don't think there's any problem using them on mono leaders.
You can use them while dry fly fishing. Smaller is generally better. I just apply floatant to the ring itself, the leader above the ring, and a few inches below the ring. That will help keep the ring from trying to sink.

One thing that I really like about them is that you can change tippet sizes easily without having to step down the leader with various sizes if you are making a large change in tippet diameters.

...just my opinions.

Brian

[Silver Creek]

I use tippet rings when I have to change tippet diameter and length between nymphing and dry fly fishing. I use a loop to ring connections with lengths of different tippets made up for the varying situations.

Unlike John, I have not found any casting problems with rings on mono or fluorocarbon leaders. In fact, they are a great way to attach fluorocarbon to mono since the harder fluorocarbon tends to cut through the softer mono with some knots.

I use them in "clean" waters that do not have a lot of moss that can catch on the rings and loops. They are my go to system when I fish the Madison River. I use them in Montana because they are great for switching between a dry leader and a multiple nymphing set up. You can quickly switch out the tippet section.

You can google "Gary Borger Uni-body Leader" to read about it but the following directions will allow you to make your own. You must use Maxima Chameleon for this leader to work. DO NOT SUBSTITUTE.

For the 4-6 wt rods that most of us use, we need Maxima Chameleon (brown color) 0.020" (25 lb test) for the butt and 0.013 (12 lb test) for the transition. If you have 7 and 8 wt rods, buy some 0.024" (40 lb test) and 0.015" (15 lb test) Maxima Chameleon for the butt and transition respectively.

Each "base leader" without the tippet will have a butt section and a transition section made of the thicker and thinner Maxima Chameleon respectively. The transition section is ALWAYS ONE FOOT LONG when finished. This transition section ends in a tippet ring and I will use a 3mm ring for the 4-6 wt rods. The tippet is added to the tippet ring. You can either tie the tippet to the ring or use a "handshake" loop to loop type connection. I use the loop method to switch out tippets.

The butt section length varies with the total leader length. I include a perfection loop on my butt section which I use to connect the leader to the fly line with a loop to loop connection.

For a 9 ft leader the butt is 5 feet long (including the perfection loop) and the transition is 1 ft. long for a base leader length of 6 feet. Then add a 3 ft long supple tippet section to the tippet ring and you have a Uni-body George Harvey style leader. For longer leaders, lengthen the .020" Maxima Chameleon keeping the transition section at 1 ft.

For nymphing, Gary uses the following formula. Butt section is 4 ft long and transition is 1 ft long for base of 4 feet. There are two tippet sections. The top tippet section is 4 feet long. The tippet diameter depends on the nymph size. Use 0X for size 2-8, 1X for size 10-14 and 2X for size 16 and smaller.

Tie a 2 mm tippet ring to the end of the upper tippet section and then tie a second 12" section of tippet to this tippet ring. For the diameter of this lower tippet section, divide the hook size by 3. So for a size 16 fly you would use 16/3 = 5X tippet. Place your spit shot above this tippet ring. You can also place a dropper with a second fly on this tippet ring if you want to use dropper rather than tying a second nymph in-line with the first.





You can convert from a nymphing to a George Harvey dry fly leader by changing the terminal tippet design between dry fly and nymphing set up. I keep the various nymphing section with the second tippet ring coiled and held with a bread wrapper wire tie in separate small zip lock bags. I do the same with the various dry fly tippet sections.

Each front end of the tippets have a perfection loops so I can swap them out with a loop to tippet ring connection. With this system I can quickly to go from a nymphing rig with the proper tippet size to a dry fly rig with the proper tippet size and back again.

[Kytroutbum]

How do you attach the tippet ring while making the leader?

[Silver Creek]

Use the same knot you would use to attach a tippet to a hook.

[Goduster]

If its a furled leader, there is no knot involved