I’m reading Allen McGee’s book about soft-hackled nymphs. He says that when fishing (for trout) he uses long tippets (same diameter) of 26" to 30". Just curious: how long are the tippets are you folks are using?
I guess I’m concerned that a 30" 6X tippet is kind of unruly.
Randy
I guess it all depends upon how he is fishing the soft hackle. I usually have around 18" to 24" of tippet for my flies. I use fluorocarbon tippet for practically all my flies, dry or wet. When the fish force me to get down to really small dries then I switch to mono tippet.
Larry —sagefisher—
Those of us dedicated to furled fluorocarbon leaders use a tippet equal to the length of the leader without any problem.
For tippet I always start out the same length … holding the tippet spool about at my chin and then pulling the material outward as far as I can reach gives me aprox 30" - tying that off with a double surgeons knot to the leader shortens it to maybe having close to a couple of feet of tippet (plus, too, tying on the fly), that is my usual start out tippet length. I have found that when fishing wild trout waters the longer tippet works best. When fishing hatchery raised trout, or bream and bass, length not so important.
Look at the leader formulas in Allen’s book on the bottom of pg. 55 and top of pg. 56, he’s using 30" of tippet material, for the terminal end,. on the GH Slack Leader. That being said, I have gone even longer…no problemo.
PT/TB
Thanks folks. And are you folks using 30lb - that should be .021 diameter, I think - test for your butt section? I’ve usually used a longer - 4 foot - section of 20 lb.
Randy
For dry flies, emergers, and midges, I start with 3’, and refresh the tippet when it approaches 2’. For nymphing, I start with 2’.
Boy, it’s hard for me to imagine using 6X at all when swinging soft hackles, regardless of the length. The takes are strong enough many times that it seems like the fly/flies would snap off too often. I don’t find the fish very leader shy when fishing soft hackles, I guess because the fly is typically moving past them faster than in a dead drift situation, so they don’t have much time or inclination to scrutinize it.
John, I’ve never had 6x break on the take, my rod tip and reel drag protect the tippet. I use 4’ of tippet and change when I get to about 2 1/2 feet.
I have been using these since Andy Puyans first offered them out of his shop, a long time ago. They have saved a number of large fish, on small hooks and very fine tippet - in fast water…these, I came across at BRF…
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P](http://s305.photobucket.com/user/planettrout/media/BEST NYMP PATTERNS/rm-sgl-1_zpse77587ec.jpg.html)T/TB 
Depends upon how hot and heavy the catching becomes. I start out with about 18" at the most. Definitely shortens as the day proceeds.
I use a furled leader with anywhere between 4’ to 6’ of 4 lb. tippet. I like using longer lengths of tippet because it seems to give the fly a freer drift in the current and it seems to help it get to the bottom a little better.
That’s pretty much what I use all the time to my point fly (5x to the top dropper). Of course, I’m usually trying for a dead drift, even when fishing down. I can’t remember ever breaking off a fish on the take.
I’d rather have finer tippet to the point so that if I hang that fly up on something, I only lose one fly instead of two.
In general I’d say I start off with about 30 to 36 inches.
I basically do that same thing when I dead drift a multi-nymph rig, for the same reason. Definitely something to be said for only breaking off the point fly if there’s a snag. I don’t dead drift soft hackles very often, though I probably should do so more often. I’m used to swinging them, which elicits some vicious strikes and has always prompted me to be a little more conservative on tippet strength.