Tapered Leaders

[shanksi]

As a reative newcomer to fly fishing, was wondering what you guys opinions were of tapered leaders.  Have noticed threads on other forums regarding them and was thinking of trying them for fishing at Swanswater with my son.  Also is there any other way to connect them to fly line other than needle knot as I don't feel confident enough yet to try that.  Thanks for your help.

Ian

[rabbitangler]

Try using a braided loop on the line & then its just a loop to loop knot. You can then take them off if you want

Peter

[beaniboy67]

hi shanksi. into a wind, tapered leaders help with upstream dries on the river and they are also good for drys on the loch when flat calm.I wouldnt bother myself with the hassle of them with a slight breeze behind me as the wind straightens out ure cast well enuff anyways.

I make up my own ones when river fishing.Usually starting with a couple of foot of 15lb down to a couple of feet of 10lb down to a couple of foot of 8lb.Three turn water know these and then i add a tiny ring(get from most decent shops) to the end of it and just attach whatever breaking strain of nylon i want to use to the end of that.

another option is to use a shop bought tapered leader and add a little ring to the end of that. It works  the same if not a little bit better.

the little ring saves you cutting off parts of ure expensive tapered leader if using a bought one and also saves making up a new heavy tapered butt section if making up your own ones.

On my dry fly rod i always have a 6 foot tapered butt attached and it does help.

on sinkers there is not really any point as the flies wont be fishing until well sunk and a tapered leader isnt needed.


on the word of attacing it to ure fly line.I always have a piece of 20lb nylon around 3 inches long atttached to the end of my fly line.At the end of this is a basic loop and i then either loop to loop my cast on whether it be a tapered one or level piece of nylon.This allows the attachment of any other nylon or tapered leader with ease.

i think that braided loops stop the energy from the fly line to the nylon and affects turnover hence the reason i always nail knot a wee piece of 20lb nylon to my fly line with a loop on it.i think braided loops work well enuff on sinkers tho.


this is my setup and others will give you theres.

Hope that helps

cheers