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Women Talk Fly Fishing
© 2010 Pudge Kleinkauf
Column #5 March, 2010
Fly lines and leaders
Now that you’re getting started fly fishing, and taking a class, you are probably also beginning to assemble your gear. Here are a few tips to help you learn more about fly lines, and leaders as you are getting started.
Fly Lines
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There are three basic types of fly lines: floating lines, sink tip lines, and full sinking lines. Most likely you started out the way most fly fishers did and bought a floating line. The more you fish the more you’ll realize that most of the fly fishing that you do will be with a floating line. That’s not because you’ll always be fishing with dry flies that float on the surface of the water, however. It’s because a floating line is the most versatile of all the types of fly lines. |
Not only is a floating line the line you’ll need to keep your dry fly drifting along on the surface of the river or lake, but it is also the line that can enable you to fish in water that is also four or five feet deep. A floating line won’t sink down that far, but the leader that you attach to the end of the line will-especially if you use a heavy fly or if you put split-shot lead or other weight on the leader. (More about leaders below.) If you’re going to fish water more that four or five feet deep, then you’ll need a sink-tip line.
Sinking tip lines have various lengths of lead-core material built right into their front end. That lead-core material is connected to line that is called “running line” (which seems a lot like floating line.) Together they make up a sinking tip line. The lead core in the front of the line sinks at different speeds. It may sink slowly, rapidly, or somewhere in between. Fast-sink tips help you to get your fly down very quickly to where the fish are feeding, such as in a fast moving river. A slow or intermediate sink tip takes your line down through the various levels in the water column more slowly, such as in a lake. Purchasing a sink tip line can be very confusing because there are so many different kinds, so get help from your local fly shop. Many people end up buying a sink tip line that has about fifteen-feet of intermediate sinking material on the end, which helps make the line useful in both lakes and rivers.
Fly anglers generally used full sinking lines in salt water fly fishing where they want to get very deep in order to fish for species such as halibut. You probably will never even see a full sinking line, let alone use one, so let’s not spend much time on them.
Regardless of which type of fly line you purchase, the fly shop will put it on the reel for you. They will first put on the reel some braided Dacron line called “backing” to give you some extra line just in case your fish pulls out all your fly line. The fly line attaches to the backing and reels on on top of it. The shop will know how much to put on for different lines and different reels.
Leaders
A leader in fly fishing is a length of monofilament line that is attached to the fly line on one end and to the fly on the other. It is called a “leader” because it “leads” from the fly line to the fly. We use leaders for several reasons. First and foremost, we need the leader because we can’t attach the small fly to the fat fly line. Even if we could, we wouldn’t want to because then the fish would see the line and the fly when they landed on the water. A leader is more invisible. The other reason we use leaders is that they help us deliver the wispy fly more delicately on the water when we are finished false casting. (False-casting is what we call the back and forth motion of the line when we are just getting ready to fish but when we have not yet delivered the fly.)
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We use leaders of different lengths depending on what type of fly we are using and what type of water we are fishing. You can buy leaders in the fly shop, or you can learn to make your own. Regardless of which you choose, the leader will taper in diameter from larger or heavier in the back where it connects to the fly line down to more delicate at the end that attaches to the fly. |
Generally, people use a leader that is about seven feet long for much of their fishing. The two exceptions are when you are fishing with a dry fly that is meant to float on the surface of the water and when you are using heavy fly or a sink tip line that gets down quickly in the water. Dry fly fishing requires a leader that is about nine feet long to make the fly drift more like the real bug, and heavier flies and sink tip lines require shorter leaders, about four feel long to help the fly stay down.
If you choose to buy your leaders in the store then you will need to either have what is called a “butt loop” put on the end of your fly line by the shop, or buy a fly line that has such a loop built right in. Commercially constructed leaders have a corresponding loop on one end so you can connect the two with what is called a “loop to loop connection”. All of the books show you how to do this, and many leaders have directions on the back.
If you choose to make your own leaders then you’ll need to learn a knot to connect the back end of the leader to your fly line, which is called the nail knot, and another knot that enables you to attach a smaller diameter section of leader to create the taper. That can be either a blood knot or a surgeons knot. Again, all of the books have pictures of these knots & instructions on how to tie them. If you’re taking a fly fishing class, your instructor will probably teach you the knots.
The Weight of your leader
The weight of your leader will depend on what size of fly you are using and what size of fish you plan to catch. If you plan to go trout fishing, then it is likely that your leader is tapering down to about 6-lb test in breaking strength. If you are fishing for steelhead or red-fish, your leader will more likely be tapering to 8 or even 10 pound test, because these are larger fish. Commercial leaders give you the pound-test on the package, and the monofilament that you will use for leader construction will have it on the spool of line. I
In fly fishing there is a rather complex formula for determining the diameter of monofilament material instead of the breaking strength, and many people refer to it when talking about their leader. Known as the X-System or X-Formula, it gives you the diameter of tippet sizes and matches it with the size of flies to use. As you get more experienced at fly fishing you can memorize it, but just using the “pound-test” numbers, which everybody knows, will do fine as you are learning.
The Tippet of your leader
The “tippet” of your leader refers to the very end section of the leader where it connects to the fly. Generally, that is the last foot or two of the leader. As you start fishing and lose a fly in the bushes, or a fish breaks you off while you have it hooked, you’ll soon realize that the tippet section of your leader is getting shorter and shorter and that you need to replace the delicate front section. If you make your own leaders, you’ll know to use the blood or the surgeons knot to add a new “tippet”. If you don’t know either of those knots, then you’ll have to learn one or the other so you can add tippet to the end of a commercial leader. (The surgeons knot is the easier of the two.). You’ll also have to be sure to carry some tippet material in your fishing vest so you can make those repairs.
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Now you have some of the basics of line and leaders. Your fly fishing instructor, the people in the fly shop, and the many books written about fly fishing will help you learn more. |
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