Leader manufacturer

[Wildfisher]

Do you turn blood knots clockwise or anti-clockwise?

That depends on which hemisphere I'm fishing in. 

[haresear]

Another factor to consider when choosing a leader/tippet/cast is abrasion resistance.

In the first three months of this trout season I lost quite a few big fish to breakages. Most of these were when trying out a new ultra-thin material and most of the fish I broke off on were running under trees, into the roots and branches.

I did lose some in open water too. Paulr might recall one big fish that tore off like a scalded cat. It was running fast and the line was under no great tension when it parted. I don't think that fish broke me because it had drowned the line, I think the leader must have scraped across the teeth.

Back to my Rio stuff after that and no complaints.

Alex

[Wildfisher]

Back to my Rio stuff after that and no complaints.

For river fishing I'm sticking with that. Only one complaint is it can kink very easily if  you have to pull it hard off the spool. It is then a total bastard to knot. Other than that it is good stuff for river fishing or dry fly on lochs. Hopeless for pulling wets loch-style though as all these co-polymers seem to be. For that you can't beat bog standard Maxima imo.

[Malcolm]

Couple of very interesting points here. Never considered the two turn water knot nor the effect of a big heavy fly on light line.

I'm very lucky in that I've only been broken once in the past umpteen years and that was a drowned line job. I did have a sheared line incident this year using Hardy 4lb bs (5x) but that was after the fish was landed. I moved back up to 5lb bs (4x) minimum after that. I suppose as a penalty I may not have hooked as many fish as I otherwise would have done but I do well enough. For salmon fishing I use 8 or 10lb bs standard nylon and again have never once had a break-off except when I've been taken into tree roots - and that almost never happens. 

[Malcolm]

Malcolm how can you distinguish between a break off and a bit off?

I've no idea - neither of them have happened - except the incident of the drowned line (approx 2003?)which I mentioned and the broken line after the fish was landed.

[Allan Crawford]

Very fine for salmon Malcolm, I lost my biggest and best salmon hooked using 15lb 
Since then I always fish as heavy as I can get away with, even 20lb Maxima on a size 7 or 9 salar which may be a bit heavy but doesnt seem to deter them?

[Traditionalist]

Same here, I've never been broken by a fish. Had some bite-offs though, mainly pike. Had a knot fail at the hook eye on a big sea trout once and lost the fish while trying to land it.  The end of the nylon had the typical curl of a "pulled" knot.

If you get a bite off then you will see that the line is cut. Sometimes after a big perch for instance, you can see where the nylon has been abraded by passing over sharp gill plates etc.  Up to now I have not lost any big perch because of this, but I change the tippet after every large fish.

I generally use a 5 turn tucked half blood knot. I wind the loose end around the standing line, I don't "twirl" the nylon, doing that will make a poor knot. Thoroughly wetted with spit and pulled slowly tight to attach flies, but I also use it for  other things.

If you use fine nylon on big flies then it will hinge badly and the nylon will eventually give way at the knot. So if you use it you have to check/change it regularly. Also often ignored, but poor casting puts much more strain on knots.

As already pointed out I think carelessness when tying a knot causes more problems than anything else. If you are careful then your knots will be a lot more reliable.

The wet breaking strain of nylon is different to the dry breaking strain, usually at least 10% less, but often more than 10%.

TL
MC

[Malcolm]

I'm just confused, i thought your thread on bite offs was because you had bite offs :?

Nope, it was because of that one incident and wondering whether teeth against fine nylon was the reason for so many break offs. I have thought this before when looking at some of the pictures of big fish and wondering what the effect of a slight nick from those teeth would have on 7x nylon.

Colliemore,

I almost always fish small spate rivers for salmon - especially the Endrick which is all of 5 minutes from my home. It has very few bouldery runs and the fish are seldom more than 20 yards from me. If I were fishing a big river like the Alta or one or the rock strewn rivers like some parts of the Kirkaig the nylon would be much much heavier. The problem with heavy leaders for salmon fishing is that they have a lot of resistance against the current and the fly rises up in the water and I like a bit of depth. 

Anyway .... back down there again now for the last hour of light.     

[Allan Crawford]

Colliemore,

I almost always fish small spate rivers for salmon - especially the Endrick which is all of 5 minutes from my home. It has very few bouldery runs and the fish are seldom more than 20 yards from me. If I were fishing a big river like the Alta or one or the rock strewn rivers like some parts of the Kirkaig the nylon would be much much heavier. The problem with heavy leaders for salmon fishing is that they have a lot of resistance against the current and the fly rises up in the water and I like a bit of depth. 

Anyway .... back down there again now for the last hour of light.     

Yes as we mentioned recently good to use something to give the fly some depth.
It was on the Ness, First run must have been 100yds, second run didnt stop, I held, something had to give and it was my line probably on the rocks it came back frayed and rough ! Enough people had seen it when it jumped to tell me it was big, very big for me and among the anglers who had gathered to watch we estimated 25lbs and straight from the sea, it turns out that most of the long serving club members has had a similiar experience and I have also witnessed one. I was given the good advice "Dont worry you'll get over it, in about sixty years time" soo true !

[Wildfisher]

I have only had one instance when I was pretty sure (in retrospect because it baffled me at the time) I had a bite-off. I was wet fly fishing  on a hill loch, got a savage take, fish off. Reeled in to find a dropper fly was  cut clean off - no kink, no curl.  The only explanation I have is a bite-off. I was using 4lb fluorocarbon. Never used it again after that.