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Why not. Well, there are probably a whole lot of reasons
not to and I could list a few right here. I should know,
I have been tying my own for nearly half a century. And I
am proud to state that at least half of them were usable.
Therein you may see one of the things wrong with tying your
own leaders.
Oh, don't get me wrong and jump to conclusions. There are
several reasons not to and I am sure I have stumbled into
if not all, at least most of the reasons. But, before we go
too much further on this discussion, let me warn you, I will
be advocating that you start to tie your own. I hate it when
a writer tries to ambush a reader. Gotcha journalism I call
it. Anyway, back to why not to tie your own.
When you tie your own you must have a wide range of materials
on hand and you are not going to be content with spools of
spinning line. It is mass produced and not dependable for
quality. At that price no one expects it to be the best that
can be manufactured. So, there it is, you need maybe ten spools
of good tippet material. And don't forget, some of it may be
that fluorocarbon type too. That is in the high end range for
sure. Well, in a way it is. It is about ten bucks for about
thirty yards and you might use two feet for a leader. What's
that? About twenty-two cents a tippet? Big deal. I am not sure
that makes it too expensive to use. At least for me, I can get
a lot of milage out of a hunk of tippet. Especially the good
stuff.
Anyway, years ago, back around the late '60's I think it was,
I lived in Michigan and had a connection with the Mason Tackle
company. The fellow who ran the place was dandy and kept me
well supplied with leaders and tying materials for them. They
had a kit back then that had, I think, ten spools of material.
As I recall it was the hard Dupont nylon, but I can't swear to
it now. Too far back. I do know that it worked and I liked it
and promoted it to my circle of friends. These would be those
who I met camping, I went every weekend all spring, summer and
most of the fall, and any shows I did locally and meetings and
presentations I put on.
Over the years, other companies brought out products, some
to swear by, some to swear at, but, mostly everything on the
market these days is just fine and blindfolded I doubt if I
could identify any of it. I admit I have fallen into buying
my leaders already tapered and knotless.
I remember when I first tried one.
No grass and weeds catching on the knots. What a relief.
Then the quality improved. Some became known for various
things like stretchability, some for abrasion resistance,
others for knot strength and visibility. And then of course
along came the fluoro's which changed a whole bunch of things.
At first I was dead set against them. The shelf life thing
bugged me, like a half life of a gazillion years sort of. But,
I got over that when I found they sink like a rock when I am
salmon fishing and my hit ratio about doubled. Funny how I can
rationalize things sometimes. And besides, any cut-off stuff
always goes into my pocket for disposal when I get home.
Anyway back to my point. What was it anyhow? Oh yes, why
you shouldn't tie your own leaders. Well, if I haven't
convinced you yet than I suppose I should quit trying, but
I will give it one more shot. You have to learn how to tie
a bunch of knots, worry about which ones are the 'right'
ones for the materials you are using, are you using the
right material in the first place, what leader formulas
should you use, can you tweek them any, can you make up
your own for your type of fishing, casting, situations.
Any more I may have left out? Will you need new glasses
to do this? Where will you get the necessary things? Where
can you find the formulas anyhow? Still not convinced? Good.
Do like I did. I got a kit and started back into it. I am
not going to tell you where to get a leader tying kit.
Several companies offer them, even one of our sponsors does.
But, I have to leave something for you to do, selecting the
kit of materials should be part of your job, not mine. Ok, I
got mine from Frog Hair, it has all the stuff, a booklet
of formulas and a nifty little tying stand that holds the leaders
while you tie the knots. Works fine. It's that Gamma stuff. I
have had very good results with it so far.
"But, wait there's more!" he said. Right. I read the
formulas and the very first thing I did was with a
pencil and paper, designed my own for a very particular
situation. I needed a long leader for a big fly. Most
leaders for heavy flies, they usually sink, are short.
The heavier the fly, the shorter the leader. Hey, I'm
Castwell, I can do it. So I did. Made up four of them
and out we went, the LF and I after some Chum salmon.
The rest is history. One cast was all it took for me to
realize I am not a 'leader designer.' I had some clippers
with me and hacked it up enough to make it work somewhat.
After all, I have a least a bit of smarts on the subject.
The smarts I had also told me that when I got home, one
of the first things I did was get out the formula charts
and use one that was close to what I needed. I did. Yes,
they worked. Fine.
So, here it is winter now here. Time for some indoor things
for many and I suggest why not consider getting yourself a
leader tying kit and suffering/oops, I mean enjoying what
I did. The fun and fulfillment of fishing with yet another
thing you have put together for the sport. I have no idea
if it is cheaper or not and am not even going to try to
figure it out. And I am not going to try to tell you that
you should tie all of your own leaders. Maybe just a few,
whatever turns you on. But, it is something to do. And I
like doing it. So there. ~ JC
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