Tapered leaders or not?

[Lotech]

Tapered leaders cost so much anymore that I'm looking for something cheaper. Does anyone have experience with straight or level line leaders. It just seems to me that if I were to use a limp monofiliment like Berkley's Trilene XL (extra limp)it might save me tons on leaders. Any comment or help out there? I wonder what kind of leaders Curt Gowdy or Lee Wulff used.
Thanks in advance.



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Life, is the time He gave you to determine where you want to spend eternity.
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Lotech Joe

[WarrenP]

Lotech,

A lot depends on the type of flyfishing you do on what leader would work for you. A very limp mono line probably would not turn over your flies. I cannot tell you what to use, but, I can tell you what I use and you will probably get better responses from the others on this great board.

When I am fishing I will be using a nymph about 98% of the time. I started out with tapered leaders and, like you, decided that they were not for me. I switched to using straight fluorocarbon in 6 pound test. I would use about 9 foot of it and tie my fly to the end of it. It did a fair job of turning over my nymphs and the fish did not seem to mind and were cooperative. I then decided to order Kathy Scott's DVD on how to make your own furled leaders. I now make my own furled leaders about 7 foot long and attach another 5 foot of 4 or 6 pound test fluorocarbon on the end of it for my tippet. Everything is a loop to loop connection and when the 5 foot of tippet gets a little short, I just remove it and add another 5 foot piece. Everything turns over great and I will never switch to anything else. I make my furled leaders from Kevlar tying thread and 4 pound test Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon in the green color. They both sink and for a nymph fisherman, that is what I want. If you do a lot of dry fly fishing, you could make your furled leaders from 6/0 tying thread and treat them with floatant and they work real well. It takes about 20 yards of material to make a 7 foot leader and there are a lot of furled leaders in a 250 yard spool of Berkley Vanish or a 200 yard spool of tying thread. That is what works for me. You will just have to see what works for you and your style of flyfishing. I feel confident you will recieve better advise from the others on this board. Good luck.

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Warren

[Jim Sentell]

Lotech,

Warren's right, you'll have turn-over problems. If you are using popping bugs or other popper type flies, a straight piece of mono is okay.

Can you tie a Blood Knot? If not, practice and learn, they're easy once you get the hang of 'em...

Tie your own leaders. A simple 50-25-25 or 60-20-20 formula works great. Positive turn-over every time and you'll never use up a spool of line....

Now, you can print out LeaderCalc and drive yourself crazy or KISS!!!!!

Jim

Lotech:
Warren recently gave me a lesson in furled leaders. For about the cost of a couple of good tapered mono leader you can get everything you need to make your own.
And, it's very low tech too!

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Don't forget the Michigan Fish-In August 14th to the 20th. The Holy Water's of the Au Sable await you!!

Cactus

[NEWF]

Don't need to spend money on knotless tapered leaders. I went through that and used alot of them every year. Keep your money and buy some leader material and tie your own. just use the leadercalc free download and it'll give you what you need. I use a 9 foot one for nymphs, a 12' one for wets and a 14 foot for dries. But you just enter the length and tippet size of the leader you want and it'll show you the lengths for each section. Don't worry about getting each section exact, they'll still turn over perfect. I used some stiff mono 20 and 25 lb test mono for the butt sections of mine because I couldn't find the spools of material I needed. works fine. Do this and you rarely buy more material for the homemade leaders. the only spools you'll have to frequently replace will be the tippet spools in 3x and smaller (depending on hoe much you fish them). I tied a few leaders last year and I'm still using the same one's this year, ...just new tippet material!

[RickB]

Another vote here for furled leaders. Even if you buy them you save a ton over knotless tapered leaders. The initial cost looks high at about 2-3 times the cost of a tapered leader. But, I have one that I've been using for three years now and it still works great.

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Fish more, work less!

[beadleech]

Lotech - simple solution: buy a new tapered leader in whatever configeration you normally use. As soon as you attach it to your fly line [b4 doing ANYTHING else] cut 2' off the end of it. Now - reattach that 2' length to the leader. This is your wear tippet. When it get under 1' long cut it off and tie on another 2' piece of correct tippet size [4X, for example]. Each time it gets below 1' tippet length, repeat. Watch the overall length of your leader and when you've used up a foot of the leader butt replacing the tippet add 1' of material 1X size up from your tippet - ie: 4X tippet, add 3X. The leader butt on my 3 and 2wt rods are on their 3rd and 4th year. Works out to way under $1 per year. Casts a h*** of lot better then "pieces of mono". If you never rebuild the leader butt beyond what I've outlined above it'll last beyond a year - that's about $1.50 per year.

donald

[BigA]

Depending upon the situation, I use tapered leaders or hand tied leaders. Sometimes the the hand tied leaders work better, but sometimes I'm just too lazy to tie them up. Tapered leaders also have fewer knots which can pick up weeds.

I have been using Cabelas leaders with good results for quite a few years. These leaders run 8 or 9 dollars for four leaders.

[J Castwell]

NEWF,,, How about giving these guys the link to "leadercalc free download"?

[rrhyne56]

[url=http://www.globalflyfisher.com/fishbetter/leadercalc/:50029]Here is the link to LeaderCalc[/url:50029]

My personal opinion/preference is use furled leaders, tie your own, anything but extruded leaders

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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:50029]Sweetness On The Water[/url:50029]
[url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/:50029]Good Ol? Lepomis Macrochirus[/url:50029]