Best place to buy leaders/tippet?

[mgh-pa]

I'm arranging the last bit of equipment as our opener nears (I actually won't be on the water on Saturday, though). I need to purchase some 4x & 5X tippet and leaders. Can anyone recommend a good place to purchase this from? I've purchased all of my flies through The Fly Stop, but they have a limited selection of leaders and tippet.

On a side note, do most of you recommend a 7.5 or 9' leader?

Thanks, guys.

 

[tomgamber]

There is a guy on the board named "maxima" who lives up your way that makes nice leaders. He can probably tell you where to buy tippet too. Search the name and you'll find it. Or search "free leader" and there was a thread too. I prefer 9ft for dries and 7.5 for streamers and wets.

 

[Fishidiot]

mgh,
You can purchase pre-made tapered leaders from pretty much any shop that sells FFing gear as well as order them from the websites/cataloges of big box stores such as Cabelas, Bass Pro, Gander Mtn et-al. Ditto for leader material. The small spools of leader material for FFing tend to be pretty expensive, typically costing $3-4 for a spool of 25 feet or so. For constructing the butt and belly (middle section) of my leaders I just use regular 12-20lb spin fishing line which is much cheaper. I do prefer FFing tippet line for the actual tippet as it does seem to be thinner diameter relative to the breaking strength.

 

[gfen]

Afishinado posted instructions for for creating hand-twisted/furled leaders to the tips section not too long ago. There's also a Youtube video posted there with an even simpler, although less robust, version.

You can try making your own out of regular spinning line. I've created several for all of my used lines, now.

 

[MKern]

The closest shop for you is Hille's in South Williamsport.

 

[stevehalupka]

ok, I guess I'm one of the few who does this but, walmart dude

they sell knotless tapered leaders at cheap prices: 1.50

tippet wise, I don't feel the need for flouro unless you're fishing steel. I'm a firm believer in Rio Powerflex.

the walmart leaders usually only come in 7.5 feet. get 5x, and attach either more 5, or some 6 if you're fishing dries.

 

[jayL]

It depends on where you are. The wal marts in SE PA/Berks county stopped selling FF stuff like leaders a long time ago, at least the ones I shopped at.

I used to love the $12 fly lines.

What you CAN get at wal mart is supplies for tying or furling your own (mono).

 

[gfen]

FWIW, the "biggest" of the 3 local Sprawlmarts here still has some FF'ing gear. I buy the Cortland tippet for the bigger stuff all the time, and I think I'm just going to switch over to all of it from here out.

Its also the only one of the three that kept its firearms counter, its the one located in the most rural area, so I figure that's why.

Its all about perspective, down Philly way they won't bother at all, I'm sure. Up his way, they'll all have FF gear to some extent.

I've been thinking of buying a spool of flouro fishing line and just using it for tippet, I'm not entirely sure why I don't.

 

[jayL]

I don't go to the philly walmart often, but when I did, they had mainly ocean fishing/crabbing stuff for some reason.

I was mainly referring to the one near Birdsboro, where I grew up. They totally phased FFing stuff out, but then again, so did ****'s. Not exactly rural, but a big-time fishing area nonetheless.

The problem with using fishing line for tippet is diameter. It's way thicker for the strength, and not as supple.

 

[gfen]

I noticed the Spiderwire brand stuff I bought to furl isn't off by much of anything from the tippet I use.

I think supple is the reason I haven't bothered, but I have the feeling there's probably so few vendors pumping out flouro at this point that its interchangable.

Our ****s' up here are similar to the WMs. The rural one has a semi-decent selection of basic flies and paraphanelia, but only a couple of packaged kits. That's actually how I got started due to a giftcard from my employer.

There's a Sports Authority in the same general vicinity, that place is devoid of use. I buy cheap packs of Southbend hooks for throw away flies.