Hinged leaders for nymphing

[JustFish]

I just read an interesting article on hinged leaders. It said that the sink rate is 2-4x faster than a tapered one and you can acheive a more drag free drift with this set up. It makes sense to me from an engineering aspect, however it seems there is a lot of work in it. Here's how you can tie one. Note I haven't tried one yet so I am going by the article not experience.

Using double surgeons loop or perfection loop knot for all connections
1) Tie 10" of 2x tippet to the fly line loop
2) Tie 3' of 1x tippet to the 2x
3) Tie another 3' of 1x tippet
4) Finish with 18" of the size tippet material you intend to fish

Next:
1) Depending on the depth of the water, place your choice of indicator DIRECTLY above the first or second loop above the 1x
2)Place the appropriate shot directly above the loop for the "fishing" tippet

I did more reading elsewhere from the article and one of the cons was you either have to use more tippet for greater depths or cut tips for shallower areas.

Anyone have any insight?

 

[fly_flinger]

I tried the hinged leader once. For about an hour and switched back to my tapered. I didn't like how you can't really cast with it. I like to cast some line at times when nymphing and the hinged leader didn't do so well there. I think it's because there is no transfer of energy from section to section. I could see where it might be ok if you're a highstick nympher.

Give it a try. They are pretty easy to tie and who knows, it might work for you.

Good Luck

 

[bigjohn58]

Tapered leaders suck and are a waste of money. I use a nail knot to my fly line with 17# test Berkley XT mono then off of that a section of 12# then 8# then off of that some 6# Berkley Vanish then usually a section of 4# Berkley Vanish. I use blood knots for all my connections except for the line to the fly line.

 

[bigjohn58]

Oh I forgot to mention for rigging up two nymphs I always leave the tag end of the 4lb blood knot hanging like 4 or 5 inches for my tandom nymph rig and then have like a foot to 18 inches of the 4 pound test and tie on my botton nymph and then I sometimes will tie on another foot or so of 2lb vanish to a midge nymph or something but I will just tie that off the bend of my bottom nymph. If the water is high and muddy I wll just go with 6lb and if its lower I'll go 2lb but over all I use 4lb most of the time.

Not sure why I used the # sign in the previous post they should all be * or lb for pound.

 

[afishinado]

Here's a thread on the "Fly Fisherman" forum on the same subject. The hinged leader talked about here is simple – a heavy butt section (0.21 – 0.17) of 5’ and a 5’ tippet. They are connected by loops. Interesting idea – I will give it a try.



Hinged leaders

 

[eballat]

I've used a hinged leader for nymphing it worked well, however its a pain if you nymph a stream of varying depths because you are constantly adjusting and retying. As for tappered leader/tippet forget about them and learn how to tie your own. It may take time at first and seem like a pain but now i can tie a 9' leader from 12lb-3x-5x-6x-8x in like 2 minutes and its way cheaper than buying three packs of leaders. You dont really even need to buy tippet either if you dont want to. I do. But you can just by comparable mono or flourcarbon lines and use them. And save even more money.