Leaders ?!?

What is the story with leaders, tippets - thickness and breaking strains??
Bl:ksem ... I find this confusing to say the least!

I want to do my own knotted leaders for saltwater - rod size 10, 12 & 14 weights.

I have searched the Internet and found some useful information. I even found a
Excel Spreadsheet to help to with all the options. It seems to be very
comprehensive - there is even a Manual to assist you with it.

I do not have a problem with the knots - but I just cannot work out what the breaking
strain (thickness) should be of the various pieces making up the entire leader. In addition,
what material do you use when making your own leaders.

HELP! I feel extremely stupid. :confused: :o

I could be totally off here as I don't do any Saltwater Fly Fishing, but from what I've read and heard guys say, leader dynamics aren't really an issue in the salt and most guys just use a piece of straight mono for the leader, instead of trying to tie up fancy tapers.

I'd also be keen to know what sort of length and weight leaders to tie when hunting for Cob and Juvenile Leerfish ?

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Originally Posted by Scythe

I'd also be keen to know what sort of length and weight leaders to tie when hunting for Cob and Juvenile Leerfish ?

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If I understand you correctly, one needs different leaders depending on the fish your target!?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scythe

I'd also be keen to know what sort of length and weight leaders to tie when hunting for Cob and Juvenile Leerfish ?

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for small esturies and targeting these fish, i used (and i'm not saying i'm right) a straight 6' 10lb mono leader. nothing else

I use a 15kg butt section, a 10kg section, and tippet section of 7.5 kg. My length depends on what line I'm fishing. If I use a floater I tend to tie on a longer leader of approx 14ft. Strong winds I use a shorter leader of approx 7ft. Fishing some estuaries and only smaller fish around I will use a straight mono of 3 _ 5kg and length between 9 and 14ft.
Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wiets

If I understand you correctly, one needs different leaders depending on the fish your target!?

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I think so yes.

In my experience, summer SmallMouth (on the Vaal) is easy, reasonable length butt section of 5KG or 6KG Mono or Fluoro ending in 4X or 3X dependant on water clarity and flow rate with a total length of 9' to first fly. (Depending again on wether you're CZN or Dry & Dropper.

Later in the season you're fishing 14' Leaders starting on 8KG Mono, tapered to 5KG then down to 4X or 5X depending on wind and water clarity and also on fly size.

LargeMouth you hunt either on a +14' leader on a floater starting with a butt of 20Lb tapered down 16Lb tapered down to 2X or 1X or a 9' leader on an intermediate/sinker with similar butt section.

So yeah, I think even for the same species of fish your leader varies depending on time of year, water conditions, size of fish you're targetting etc.

Thanks Devlin, KISS sounds like the right approach to me.

With the size of saltwater fish Im catching, I might as well use 6X.

I use a strait 10kg 9ft- 13ft mono or fluro for estuaries on my 9 weight.

If you are only "scratching" around for smaller size in an estuary your best bet would be to tie in a 3ft butt section of fairly high diameter to breaking strain ratio mono rather than flouro - something like 10kg stren mono. The thicker line helps transfer casting energy apparently and the mono has more stretch than flouro. Then join your 5-6ft tippet section of about 5-6kg flouro using some sort of double line, i.e. bimini or spider hitch to provide a little bit of protection for hard takes. Personally i cant tie a bimini unless I'm sitting down at home so I use a four or five turn spider hitch.

If you tie a decent loop in the end of the 10kg butt section you can then just loop-to-loop the spider hitch of the tippet section on as and when you need to.

I just use a Rio Saltwater tapered leader for my estuary fishing .... it works well. I (of course) add leader (about 10lb) when necessary.