FLY LEADERS & TIPPETS (ll)

There are fishermen who give a little more softness to the knotted leader putting them in boiling water for a few minutes, even with water with vinegar or another product to give it a greater softness. I do not advise it because I think that by putting the fishing tippet in boiling water, what we are doing is that it loses its resistance to give it an intended softness that in the diameters as thick as 50% or 40% does not work.

The best to stretch and lose memory is once made is to stretch the thicker stretches with your hands until you lose a little memory and once in the river and well wet continue to stretch until in a few days of use will end up losing memory In the sections of greater thickness.

An important aspect to take into account is that once the fishing action is finished, we must replace at least the final or final section of the leader with a new one for the next day. The final knots tend to resent and the final section of the leader can have bruises that will greatly weaken their resistance, especially if fishing has been successful by catching several specimens or fish of good size. The three end sections of fishing line should always be replaced by new ones if they are damaged or if they have been used for many fishing days.

Once the day of fishing is finished the leader can be stored directly on the reel or in a leader case specially designed for this purpose. Under no circumstances should you put the wet leader in the leader case because the moisture will spoil it and you will lose resistance.

TAPPERED LEADERS OR VARIABLE DIAMETER LEADERS

Currently they are the most used by the majority of fishermen today and there are in different marks, lengths and finishes.

This is a fly leader EXPRESSLY MADE FOR FLY FISHING WITH NO KNOTS. This aspect is very important because the knots weaken our fishing line, they tend to get dirty, to become entangled and to stick with the rest of the thread by the knots and more importantly, they leave our innate and natural of the fly.

These leaders are used by different brands in plastic cases in one or two units. They usually end up in a 3X, 4X, 5X or 6X for fishing for trout and grayling. The denomination 3X is the American numbering that is equivalent to 20 European hundreths, 4X to 18%, 5X to 15% and finally 6X to 12%. They have a length of 9 “feet to 12” American feet or 2.75cm to 3.65cm European. There are also thicker endings for larger fish such as salmon, pike or marine fish such as sea bass. These terminations are generally 0X, 1X, 2X which are equivalent to 26%, 24% and 22% respectively. Wire diameters may vary slightly depending on the manufacturer, so a 0X may be depending on who manufactures it 27.5% or 26%.

If we want to fish with a low of about 5.5 mts finished in 12 cents it is best to buy a tappered leader of 3.65 cms or 12 “finished in 18 cents to which we will add a piece of fishing thread of 30 cm of 15% plus one and a half meters of 12%, obtaining a tappered fly fishing leader with two final knots of 5.45 cm of total length.

Do not worry if the added measures of thread are not accurate. A meter and a half is only orientative and can be a meter thirty or a meter sixty, like the 30cm of fishing line to decrease that can be 25cm or 40cm.

The tappered fly fishing leaders come mostly with a perfect loop or perfection loop for immediate use in the river. Maxima conical leaders come with no knots and therefore will have to be done. There are several interesting brands that manufacture high quality tappered leaders such as Scientific Anglers, Rio, George Anderson and the new Trout Hunter. The advantage of the Maxima fishing line is that it is very tolerant to be tied with another fishing tippet of any brand on the market, while other fishing threads do not tolerate so well being tied with fishing threads of different brands to yours .

The only drawback of the tappered leader is that they are expensive in relation to the knot leader built by the same fisherman, and as they are being used and changing the tips of the leader are shortened with what will have to be replaced by a new one. As in knotted and especially with the tappered Maxima, it will also have to be stretched in the upper diameters so that it poses well on the surface of the water without the annoying rings due to the storage memory in its small plastic case.

The new Trout Hunter is a smooth and even thread in the thickest diameter. The Trout Hunter is the best tappered leader manufactured that I have tried so far although its tolerance and resistance with another thread of different brand is in my opinion inferior to Maxima. The prices between these lows oscillate between the 3 € in the case of the Maxima lows and the 9 € in the marks 3M Scientific Anglers or Rio in which come 2 units in each case of plastic.

~ Carles V.