Leaders for Nymphing

[Hopdemon]

Osprey, I'm a hopper..I have a prosthesis but it has a tendency to pop off when i sweat and im a hard core sweater. I use my wading crutches ,but I've pretty much fallen into every stream in central Pa ,not to bad in hot weather but a be-atch in the spring or fall.I only have about a 4 inch stump so its hard to even get a leg that fits well so Im pretty much a crutcher all the time.Only ever had one that fit right and that was bulit in California back in the 80"s,still I havent let it stop me from fishing..my fishing buddy is 6'6' so i have someone to haul me out when I go down.

 

[osprey]

Hop.........i see you're from Hershey , do you ever go to Clarks Creek they have a nice dis-abled section i'll go there when i get back down that way , right by the Stackpole hatchery. It sounds to me like you don't need a dis-abled section though. I get around ok but i fall too , couple close ones on the rocks and mud is brand new.

 

[Hopdemon]

Yep ...I hit Carks every year but I usually fish the special reg section I've tried the handicapped section but thats usually when im feeling lazy.I fish the Quitty,Manada,and the streams out at IGMR since their only a short drive from home.Clarks and Wicconisco are usually an all day trip as are the streams around Carlisle but we do fish all around the state.Sometimes it just takes a bit longer for me to get into a spot,but having a6'6" trailbreaker is a big help.I also fish Lititz weekly as they have a nice ly mowed path to crutch on

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Dale 49, you can use the surgeon's knot but the leader will not be completely straight that's why the blood knot is preferred. The surgeons knot offsets the two connecting pieces just a little.

 

[osprey]

WildTiger is right about the surgeons loops , just practice a little and you'll tie a blood knot in no time at all.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Dale 49, buy yourself a "Dennison" leader vise/ bloodknot tyer. It is a small handheld tool that makes tying bloodknots easy. Runs about 8 or 9 dollars. I carry mine in the front tray of my chestbox so it's handy when I need it.

 

[sandfly]

Dale 49, you can use the surgeon's knot but the leader will not be completely straight that's why the blood knot is preferred. The surgeons knot offsets the two connecting pieces just a little.

a triple surgeons knot will lay straight a double will not.

 

[whheff]

sandfly wrote:

a triple surgeons knot will lay straight a double will not.

I didn't know that. I will start doing a triple.
Thanks sandfly

 

[Dale49]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Will look at the Dennison tool/vise. like someone said, just practice.

 

[flipnfly]

this is how i do it
2 to 3 ft of 20 lb mono
3 to 5 feet of 10 mono
2 feet of 4 to 8 lb fluro tippet
seems to work fine i even use it for steelhead for trout you can lighten by starting with 15 or 12 lb mono but you need something stiff

 

[zenherper]

Has anybody ever used the micro-swivels on their leaders? I was thinking of Cutting a tapered leader off at about 4 ft., tying on a micro-swivel, and tying on mono and tippet as needed from there.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

zenherper wrote:
Has anybody ever used the micro-swivels on their leaders? I was thinking of Cutting a tapered leader off at about 4 ft., tying on a micro-swivel, and tying on mono and tippet as needed from there.

Yeah, I use the tiny little SPRO swivels in my steelhead leaders - mainly to avoid any problems with mono to fluorocarbon knots for those big fish.

Don't know how they'd work on a dry fly leader, but I do use micro tippet rings from time to time. They float just fine.

 

[osprey]

HeritageAngler......if you wanna try something different and less expensive , instead of using the metal rings you buy in the fly shops go to a craft store and get some of the various sizes of plastic rings they sell for craftmaking , they are lighter and float with no problem and you get alot more bang for your buck. The metal rings that shops sell to use in leaders have their place also but experiment with the plastic ones and you'll use them too. You know of course , that the trout will hit the rings as often as they hit the fly.......lol

 

[mthwsolocam]

Just wanted to say this is a great topic and alot of creative minds have contributed their knowledge to the subject. I do have a few questions that maybe some of you can shed some light on. All this leader talk got me thinking today. I fish packaged tappered leaders and have for the past 3 years I normaly fish a 2 nymph rig with an indicator. I do very well with tappered leaders but i remember a time before i made the switch to pre tappered leaders i tied my own leaders. I would start with 3' 20lb flouro- 2' 15lb flouro- 2' 10lb flouro then i would tie on usually 2' 4x-5x flouro then my first fly after that about 1.5' or less of 5x-6x flouro then my bottom fly. I adjust my indicator according to water depth. I quit using this setup because i found it time consuming and when i went to tappered leaders i was just as produtive. Here are a few questions i have. How many of you are czech nymphing and high sticking in the same day with the same setup? I hear alot of people say that there are no indicators in czech nymphing. For instance i am working a section of stream and i come to some calm water but i have just to much weight on, and i like we all do changing shot all day every few spots gets old, so what i do is i will switch from high stick if i think i am going to create to much drag for a good drift and i flip my tip downstream and keep a little tension on my line which is czech style. I will do this without removing my indicator as well in some cases. Maybe 20' up the stream i am right back into high sticking because the water calls for my exact weight setup and indicator depth. Which brings me to my next question. I run shot above my first fly about 8"-10" and when fishing 2 nymphs i run shot between the two of them. Is this good or bad how do some of you do it maybe there are better ways that is what i am looking for this has all worked very well for me but maybe i could change something up and make it even better. And the last question is now that i use pre tappered packaged leaders i saw most suggested to put the indicator bellow te butt section on my 4x-5x tippet is that correct? Any comments would be appreciated it would be great to see some more opinions on the subject and maybe even some more of your rigs. sorry about the length.

 

[afishinado]

mthwsolocam wrote:
Just wanted to say this is a great topic and alot of creative minds have contributed their knowledge to the subject. I do have a few questions that maybe some of you can shed some light on. All this leader talk got me thinking today. I fish packaged tappered leaders and have for the past 3 years I normaly fish a 2 nymph rig with an indicator. I do very well with tappered leaders but i remember a time before i made the switch to pre tappered leaders i tied my own leaders. I would start with 3' 20lb flouro- 2' 15lb flouro- 2' 10lb flouro then i would tie on usually 2' 4x-5x flouro then my first fly after that about 1.5' or less of 5x-6x flouro then my bottom fly. I adjust my indicator according to water depth. I quit using this setup because i found it time consuming and when i went to tappered leaders i was just as produtive. Here are a few questions i have. How many of you are czech nymphing and high sticking in the same day with the same setup? I hear alot of people say that there are no indicators in czech nymphing. For instance i am working a section of stream and i come to some calm water but i have just to much weight on, and i like we all do changing shot all day every few spots gets old, so what i do is i will switch from high stick if i think i am going to create to much drag for a good drift and i flip my tip downstream and keep a little tension on my line which is czech style. I will do this without removing my indicator as well in some cases. Maybe 20' up the stream i am right back into high sticking because the water calls for my exact weight setup and indicator depth. Which brings me to my next question. I run shot above my first fly about 8"-10" and when fishing 2 nymphs i run shot between the two of them. Is this good or bad how do some of you do it maybe there are better ways that is what i am looking for this has all worked very well for me but maybe i could change something up and make it even better. And the last question is now that i use pre tappered packaged leaders i saw most suggested to put the indicator bellow te butt section on my 4x-5x tippet is that correct? Any comments would be appreciated it would be great to see some more opinions on the subject and maybe even some more of your rigs. sorry about the length.

Czech nymphing is done upstream (not downstream) on a short line just out from your rod tip, with a short drift.

I alternate from high-sticking to czech nymphing with a sighter (visible line) depending on conditions. If I can fish in close I Czech, if I need to fish a little further away because of wading limitations or spooky fish, I usually high-stick to keep the line off the water to avoid drag. If I need to fish even further away over several current speeds, I usually use an indy and mend to get a good drift. French/Spanish rig is great for small flies clear low water at a distance. Check out the Euro info. HTH

Euro Nymphing

French Nymphing

American Nymphing..lol

 

[Yotrout]

Im really glad i read this post as what i have been doing so far with my nymphs has been wrong. I use my tapered leader with my 2lb tippet and just used xink or shot to get the nymph down. Never thought that the leader sinking could be spooking the fish away.

I used one of those courtland heat shrink things at the end of my fly line. It's bright yellow and i thought it would double as a strike indicator.

 

[steve2u42]

As a beginner does this sound like a good idea to start with? Sounds like…… add tippet material, 5x or 6x, 1-½ times the depth of the water to the end of your leader. Put indicator where tippet connects to leader. Add shot as needed about 6-8” above fly.
From the beginning of the topic i thought this is what some of you were telling us. Is this correct?

 

[stevehalupka]

it works just fine, just does not sink as fast... illustration in this thread demonstrates the sink rates great:

won't link... but, it's proper approach to fly fishing in the beginner forum

 

[wetnet]

pcray1231 wrote:
Greenweenie,

But you can get away with a lot less tippet if there is no taper below the indi. Yes, surface waters are faster than bottom water. However, if the line is thicker near the surface and thinner at the bottom, that only enhances the effect, as the surface water puts more pressure on the line. It's not so much the diameter of the tippet, its the consistency of that diameter, the line has to interact with it all evenly.

Still, your point about the difference in speed between surface and bottom holds, and it's especially meaningful when using indicators, as the indi has a lot of resistance and goes with the surface water. Too long a tippet only delays the inevitable by putting some slack between the indi and the fly. That slack is bad, it means you'll miss a lot of fish. Instead, try "checking" the float. That just means moving it upstream periodically to put it back over the fly. It takes some practice in different water types to figure out how often and how much, but if you get it, you can maintain better contact between the nymph and indi and still reduce drag at the same time.

A good way to get good at it is when the fishing sucks, put on a highly visible fly. Glo-bugs, etc. Something you can see so you can get a feel for how far to check the indi.

I was good at page 1 about this topic but got lost by page 4 about nymphing leaders with floatant, etc. I still hesitate to comment. I'm shy! LOL!

I like to keep things semi-simple. I really like the above advice from Praycray. My leader doesn't touch the water much, but I fish small streams. It does on bigger water. But for both I do use a curly indicator after tippet which I like because I can chose to pick it up and ignore it in lower faster water because it's at my rod tip pretty much with my long tippet or count on it when things get slower and deeper. If I was a better and a quicker tyer, I'd waste a ton of time perfecting rather than fishing but I'm not... so I hardly change anything.

I always set up for double nymphs whether I intend on using them or not. It allows for a quick change to a dry dropper, which I again like the curly. It covers bottom, while the dry covers top. I do use weighted nymphs.

There are techniques to sinking flies fast with the cast. Nymphing isn't always a delicate technique like dry fly fishing. Sometimes you need to really slap a nymph down in some conditions. Look at the water and keep that in mind.

Have fun.

 

[roosters977]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360351686016&var=630012107649&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

These are sweet!