After going through a small fortune in store bought knotless leaders on the Pit this weekend, I'm seriously considering making my own. Anyone got any tips of good sources of instruction?
Are the knotless leaders any better than home made?
Furled leaders and braided leaders are easy to make for swinging and or dry fly fishing. just do a web search and you'll find tutorials within minutes to make your own.
If your nymphing you can just make a step down easy enough with blood knots. start with 16lb floracarbon an just add down to your finished size. you can go to sport authority and buy Seagur flora in 200 yard spools for cheep in all the sizes you'l need for doing both leader types. hope that might help!
Hey Shaun, what would you estimate to be your typical setup for nymphing? I always start out with a store bought but before long I'm tying on sections of tippet anyway, usually nothing more than about 3' of butt section, some 4x and some 5x to the first fly. full length ranges from 6' to 8' to the first fly depending on the water, rarely go beyond 9' and that's just on dries. I'm interested in hearing how others approach this. I've had some experiences where the store bought leaders seemed to be "rotten" in that they would pop with very little effort.
Tony, what increments in lb test do you typically step down with at each knot?
-- Edited by windknots on Friday 2nd of August 2013 08:01:25 PM
I think the store bought knotless leaders are a joke. I always build my own out of tapered butt sections. I'll even cut down a brand new leader to the butt section to make my own. Just mess around with different sizes, and lengths of leader/tippet material. I can just eyeball it now, no measuring needed. They cast so much better.
