Leaders?

About knot strenth: I enjoy tying blood knots but find my self resorting to surgon knots in the field. Double surgon is just such a quick an effective tie...
If I sit down, to build leaders, on my couch, I'll tie barrle knots..

I think that it's hard to determine which knot is stronger, the bloodknot or surgon in this case. I think both are susceptible from the hands of the angler tying them..Like dryfly eluded to, "badknot"..

edit:
Let me add some of my knots break too..
 
I make a flyline loop by cutting the tag end at a steep angle, whip finish it with tying thread and coat it. Easy to do, costs nothing, never failed, lasts, floats, zips through the guides, easy to change leaders.
 
sundrunk wrote:
About knot strenth: I enjoy tying blood knots but find my self resorting to surgon knots in the field. Double surgon is just such a quick an effective tie...
If I sit down, to build leaders, on my couch, I'll tie barrle knots..

I think that it's hard to determine which knot is stronger, the bloodknot or surgon in this case. I think both are susceptible from the hands of the angler tying them..Like dryfly eluded to, "badknot"..

edit:
Let me add some of my knots break too..
Click to expand...

Everybody's different, so who knows...

But I've always thought blood knots were easier than any other type of joining knot (except maybe an albright). Surgeons are nice in theory, but when dealing with long lengths of line, they are annoying IMO.
 
jayL,

I will generally only use the surgon knot when adding tippet...I find both knots relatively simple to execute, just the surgon that much faster..The slightest amout of line drag can throw off the quality of a bloodknot..This can be over come in several ways but all add to exstending the process..
 
I like to draw them under water.

Spitting some skoal juice on them always worked well too. lol.
 
I'll 2nd skoal(or cope) juice as a very fine knot lubricant. It is the only reason I dip! :lol:
 
Tobacco resin..Suddenly "chew" isn't such a bad habit after all..
 
copie juice - AMEN ! i may loop my fly line tonight and whip finish it just for precaution , thanks for the advice
 
I tie my own cause it's fun and cause BoB was good enough to show me how and I also used a nail knot tied with a straw , one from WD40 is nice. I like the braided connectors but still practice that nail knot from time to time , usually fixin up someone else's , the most memorable trout i ever caught was at the bottom of Yellow cr special regs section in bedford co it was around an 18" brown in the early spring , fish were rising everywhere but we couldn't figure them out , I got him on a size 28 fly with a 1lb tippet section , there were many witnesses , that felt pretty good. I do think tying your own leaders saves you $ if you fish alot , and PETE what is PD?
 
Whoa........i don't chew but i still spit on it.
 
dryflyguy wrote:
I tied and used the George Harvey leaders for years. 4-5 years ago now, however, I switched to a new one. It uses 36" of .019 Orvis Hy-flote for the butt section, then tapered sections of stren lo-vis monofilament the rest of the way, finishing up with a 30" section of 5x tippet
Click to expand...

This is interesting..So are you buying your stren off the bass fishermans shelf? This is a serious question...Much cheaper..Have you any prior experience with conventional ,maxima, rio, orvis,,

Are you going stren because it works just as well, or better, or cheaper..

thanks
 
Dryfly are you still out there? Is Stren better or cheaper?
 
I am also curious, dryflyguy.
 
i have used alot of the stren in los vis green (the original ) it is very strong stuff , i switched to berkley 100% fluoro and fell in love with the stuff , it has the perfect balance of all good qualities , strong , low memory , holds knots good , supple enough for good presentation , its definitely worth a try some of you might like it as well though i am sure some do not
 
I make my own leaders for native and the holdovers in the local streams. For steelhead I have someone make them up for me in a variety of combos depending on water clarity.

For natives and holdovers I do nothing more than use straight eight wt in vaious lengths, then put 4 wt on the end of it, again in various lengths depending on what flies and water I am fishing.

I don't tamper, I do it simple and I catch fish without store bought or fancy tampered leaders.

The name of the game is what? Presentation, so present it properly and they will come.
 
Blood knot = 75% strong
Double Surgeons = 90% strong
triple Surgeons = 100% strong and lays straight compared to the double.
 
bad thing about stren and all the "BASS" mono is it a lot softer than mono made for fly fishing. you might get it to turn over but not as well as say Rio, Orvis, etc. propertys are different.. Yeah you can use it and its cheaper, but its not the best for fly fishing.. If you want to hold nice tight (6" or less) loops mono for fly fishing works better.
 
The blood knot is 90%+ according to mostly everything I've ever read on the subject. I know the triple surgeon is slightly stronger, but the blood knot is nearly comparable.
 
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