Posted: Sun 02/14/10 12:27 pm Post subject: Tapered leader
A Tapered leader goes from a heavy butt sections and thins down to the size your fly requires. The heavier butt section is designed this way so your fly will turn over well before it lands on the water. Without the heavy butt section there would be a problem making casts and a lot more tangles. Now you can buy a braided leader and attach the tippet as you need it without changing an entire leader. The reason for the braided leader is to turn the fly over for a good cast and save time when changing flies allot.
As to your question on salt water line, There are lines that are species specific and all around lines for salt. The important thing about lines is where your using them, in warm southern waters or cold Northern waters.
The best approach as there are such varying lines is to ask local fisherman and dealers.
I agree with Greg; but I will add my own two cents...
The need for a fancy, tapered leader is largely dictated by the fly that you will be casting. Try this simple test... Pick up the fly (no leader, no tippet) and see how far you can throw it. Does it drop at your feet, no matter how hard you throw it (like a dry fly for trout), or does it go 20-30 feet with an easy toss (like a clouser, with its weighted eyes, or maybe even a tiny bead-head nymph)? Or is its distance somewhere in the middle?
If the fly drops near your feet (or 2-3 feet away) the fly is probably light in weight with a lot of wind resistance. It will probably be easier to cast it using a tapered leader that has enough weight to "turn the fly over." "Turning the fly over," means that the heaviness of the leader is sufficient to carry the fly along with the leader's momentum (or stiffness) once the fly line has completely straightend out (during a cast).
If the fly can be thrown quite a distance, then the fly is probably heavy with not a lot of wind resistance. Once the fly line gets the fly moving on the forward cast, the fly's momentum overwhelms its wind resistance and the fly will continue to move forward after the fly line has completely straightened out. If the fly can continue on its own after the fly line has straightened out, it probably doesn't matter, too much, what kind of leader or tippet that you use. Stiffness of the leader may affect tangling, a little, in this situation.
Now for the intermediate situation... the fly that goes a little more than dropping at your feet but takes some effort to propel 5-6 feet. Some examples may be small streamers or maybe even some of the newer large EP minnows. These may need some help being turned over, but not as much as a wispy dry fly. I suppose that a heavier, stiffer leader is useful in turning these over as well.
There are certainly other considerations for catching fish, like length of leader or the weight/diameter of the tippet required to avoid "spooking" the fish that may be species specific or dependent on the clarity of the water, but I have focused on casting efficiency. Does this make sense?
This is a common question for someone getting into the sport. It can be confusing to figure out why you need a leader, why you need tippet, what is the difference between leader and tippet etc?
Both AvidDavid and Greg make good points and have good advice but I will throw mine in as well. I think the simplest way to explain it is that in fly fishing the line carries the fly as opposed to spin fishing where the lure carries the line. In order for the line to carry the fly, the line has to be tapered from thick in the rear portion to thin at the tip so that the energy can be transferred from the rear of the fly line to the front. Since fly line is very thick and visible, you can't tie the fly directly to it so you need a leader on the end of the fly line so the fish don't see it and so that it lands a little more delicately than the end of the fly line. Leaders are also tapered from thick in the rear to thin at the tip so that they continue the transfer of energy from the fly line to the fly. That is why you need a leader, to separate the visible fly line from the fly and to transfer the energy from the fly line to the fly in order to cast the fly.
Tippet is simply a piece of leader material that is the same diameter (not tapered). If you build a leader from scratch it is made up of several different sized pieces of tippet starting with a heavy butt as mentioned before and tapered down to the lighter tip. The size of the tippet you need depends on how big of flies you are using, the size of the fish you are expecting to catch, the clarity of the water and other factors.
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