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Heresy you say? Nearly blasphemous? Well, yes it
probably is, but if the truth be known, it is not
only you new guys who do it, many of us old-timers
have been known to do it as well. You may be so new
that you don't even know that you're not supposed
to tie your fly directly to the leader; heck you're
not exactly sure what a leader is yet.
And there is tippet material too. That is just regular
spinning line, but greatly overpriced? Yes, and no. It
is level mono type for sure, but they claim that it is
more likely to be of a more uniform breaking strength
and may even be made of better stuff. That (they claim)
accounts for the higher price. By the way, tippet material
is a section, about eighteen inches or so, that you tie
to the end of a brand new leader.
Why should you do that? Leaders are made to present
your fly even if they are two feet longer. Why don't
they make the darn things the right length then? Really
good question. I hope I can give you a really good
answer.
Let's say your new nine foot leader ends up at the tip
section with a breaking strength of four pounds,
tapering back toward the butt of the leader and
getting stronger all the way up to the end of your
fly line. Now you can tie your fly right on to the
end of your leader if you want to, after all it's
your leader. But, here is what will probably soon
happen. You will for any of a dozen reasons get a
knot or three in the end it. Little overhand things
we graciously call 'wind knots.'
These knots of course will decrease the breaking
strength from four pounds to about two, not a good
thing. You have a choice now, keep fishing with a
fly that may require three pounds to penetrate a
fishes mouth (which will now break it of course)
or do something to the leader. Your only option
will be to break it back to the closest knot (wind
knot) to the fly line. You will now have a seven
foot leader, twice as thick as you had (visibility
and delicacy a problem here?) that may not even go
thru the eye of your fly.
Most of us try to avoid that by tying on a section
of tippet to the new leader in the first place. As
we (oh, yes we do) get wind knots, they are in the
tippet section and we can just tie on a new tippet
section and we are right back in business with no
damage to our fly fishing, only our pride.
Is it a lot of bother? Not really, no more bother
than making sure we hit most of the line guides when
we string up our fly rods or remembering to spit on
our knots when we tie them or to re-tie them after
a particular nasty go-around with an unreasonable
adversary.
Try to make it a regular part of your fly-fishing,
but remember, if you don't take the time you will
not be alone, we have all done it before. The part
I am trying to get past now is why in hell do I still
sometimes continue to fish when I find a knot in my
tippet?
~ James Castwell
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