Leader thickness

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Date: December 27, 2002 at 14:02:28
From: ken, [pool-64-223-38-62.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Leader thickness

Re: Leader/Tippet Sizes

Spring 2001 Archive

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Re: Leader/Tippet Sizes

From: Ken
Date: 14 May 2001
Time: 18:19:10
Remote Name: 207.180.0.8

Comments

Many years ago I did a lot of Giant Tuna fishing. I did it day in and day out. Ordinarily the rod and reel boats did very well but on occasion the fellows who used pot warp (lobster pot line) would be the only fishermen hooking fish. Their leader tippet was 2000 lb. steel cable and it was short enough that when they had the end of the line in their hand they could harpoon the fish. Some days the rod and reel fishermen did best and on others days the handliners did best. The handliners used rods and reels when the fish would not hit their cables and hand lines. There were days when the heavy leaders and manila rope would attract teh fish to the baits. Some days fine and others coarse. Let the fish make the choice. I have never forgotten that.

Leader savvy is a personal thing and there are a lot of different ways of rigging and there will be more to come I am sure. People love to play around with leaders. I do too but I don't do it all that much any more. I use fairly long leaders for salt water but I do not taper them because I do not have trouble with them straightening out. I like single diameter leaders in salt water. I like regular mono like Big Game most of the time if I am fishing around rocks because it does not fray or fragment when I hit a rock. It flattens out but retains its integrity. I do not like soft mono because it fails when it is stressed or hits something. I use hard mono like Ande or Berkley XT when I am fishing in water without obstructions or if I have good sized fish on small flies because I land more of them before they rub through the leader with the rasp they have for teeth on their lips. I do this because it works for me and the other ways have cost me too many fish.
I do not use florocarbon as a standard leader because of the rasp problem and it sinks to quickly in the shallow rocky areas that I fish most often. I fish slow a great deal of the time and I need to keep my leader neutral so that I do not hang the bottom. Florocarbon sinks too quickly for me to fish well unless I am stripping fast which I seldom find the need to do. I like the thickness of my leader to mechanicly balance with the size of the fly I am using rather than to be invisable to the fish.
To Illustrate; If you were to have an elephant on a leash that was made out of a piece of string it would not be in balance. If you used a large rope as a leash for a small lap dog it would be equally out of balance. I like my leaders to lead my flies the way the right size leash leads an animal without being too heavy or light for the job. If the size of the leader is to heavy and the fish will not come to the fly them I will reduce it incrementally until I feel that it can not be the leader that is causing the problem. I don't "Believe," in one leader over another I just use them to suit my need at the moment. Every length and size of leader casts differently, no one casting stroke or type of loop will cast them all. Unfortunatly that is not common knowledge but it should be. To taper every leader so that I can cast it with one type of casting stroke is not something I choose to do.
I use a braided butt with loops on both ends and I use straight mono and adjust the thickness and the length of the mono to turn over the size of the flies I am using. It is a straightforward system and it works real well for me. I don't use very many knots either and I am not sure if the ones I prefer to use are in any books. I use a five turn surgeons knot to join the mono together and a sliding loop knot for my tail fly and either an improved clinch knot or a palomer for my droppers because I do not want them to move on the end of the short tag that I use for the lead on droppers. The circumstances are the determiners for my leaders. I do use florocarbon in boats when casting and retrieving with sinking lines.

Last changed: July 04, 2001

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