Which method - Leader to fly line

[Joe Billingsley]

If you use the Castwell knot, do you have to seal the end of the line in some way to keep the water from wicking into it if you cut off the loop (provided the line comes with the loop already on it)? Does it slide through the guides easily?
Joe

[bassman]

I have never coated the end of my line with anything and have not had a problem. The knot does go thru my guides very nice. To me it is the perfect knot. John

[WarrenP]

Joe,

To answer your question on whether or not you need to seal the end of the fly line to keep water from wicking in when you use the Castwell Knot, I do not think it would be necessary because the Castwell Knot is a very tight knot and I feel the knot seals off the end of the fly line. I make and use my own furled leaders and I use the Castwell Knot and would highly recommend it to anyone who would be willing to try it. I do not coat the knot and it goes through the guides with little problems. You will feel the "bumps" as it goes through the guides and there would not be anything wrong with coating the knot to make it go through the guides easier if one wanted to. Some claim they do not want to use the Castwell Knot because you need to cut some off the end of your fly line each time you change the leader. I can understand that if you are using a mono leader because you will need to change the mono leader more often than a furled leader. A furled leader will carry you through several seasons of fishing. If you do need to cut it off and change it, you will only be removing about 1/2" off the end of the fly line and tying the Castwell Knot only takes up about 3/4" of fly line to tie it. Before anyone "knocks" the Castwell Knot, they need to first try it and if then they do not like it, they can post why. It is a very easy knot to tie correctly and it is a very easy knot to tie incorrectly, so, you need to be careful when tying it. Once you look at it and practice tying it, it is a very easy knot to tie and use from that point on.

The above was going to be my 2 cents opinion, but, I had that 2 cents invested in the stock market and lost it!!!

[Normand]

I've maybe been doing to much reading and have gotten myself all confused. I'm relatively new to fly fishing and have been going over different articles about leaders and attaching them to the fly line. What do most people do? use loops, nail knots or ??. Loops seem to be most efficient if you are changing leaders a lot, but how often to change them is a whole new topic.
Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks
John

in the end its all up to YOU

[Clay]

Use to carry a nail knot tool. Now I just tie a speed nail knot found here: http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/jb4knots/

Rick

[CO_Flyfisher]

I'm sure the "Castwell knot" works well (I use the same knot in rope and string for other things), but I don't like having to continually cut off the end of my fly line. When I put the looped butt section on, I never have to touch the fly line again!

It is then super easy to attach leaders. Just stick the butt section loop through the leader loop, then pass the tip of the leader through the butt section loop. Pull the leader all the way through and snug the two loops together.

I can see that if you want to change leaders more quickly, the "Castwell knot" might speed things up a bit.