When to attach a new leader?

[Testudo20]

hello. just as the title implies, i would like to know when i have to put on a new leader. after my first time fly fishing earlier this week, i lost a lot of my leader tying on new tippet. how short does the leader have to get before i tie on a new one? thank you.

 

[Maurice]

Once the diameter gets larger than your available tippet. So if you start out with say a 9' 5x tippet and keep replacing until its 4' long it will probably be too thick to make a nice transition to even a 2 or 3x tippet to further step down to 5x.

I am the king of never changing leaders. I rebuild them on-stream. Call me cheap. I start out with a tapered leader and find myself with knotted leaders halfway through the season and usually don;t put a new one on unless I get a major tangle. Just keep some 1x-5x tippet and yo can rebuild most times.

Once it gets too short I save them for bass fishin. Them stinky bass don't care.

 

[osprey]

Yes..........exactly what Mo said.

 

[RCFetter]

I use old leaders for practice in the back yard.