Fly Line/Loops/Leaders/Tippet

[DarkAisling]

Good lord. What have I done?

I have backing and 5wt floating line on a reel (done by TFH).

I left the store with a 4 pack of braided loops (was told they aren't required, but are nice to have), 9' 4X tapered leader, and 4x tippet.

What on Earth and I supposed to do with these things, and why did they cost me more than my rod and reel combined?

I've got an 8.5' 5wt rod, and could use some advice :) If someone could point me to a good online tutorial that would be awesome!

[hal53]

Good lord. What have I done?

I have backing and 5wt floating line on a reel (done by TFH).

I left the store with a 4 pack of braided loops (was told they aren't required, but are nice to have), 9' 4X tapered leader, and 4x tippet.

What on Earth and I supposed to do with these things, and why did they cost me more than my rod and reel combined?

I've got an 8.5' 5wt rod, and could use some advice :) If someone could point me to a good online tutorial that would be awesome!
What store!!!!!!.....?????

[DarkAisling]

Sorry . . . The Fishin Hole.

They were wrapped up with inventory, and the gent who put the backing and line on my reel didn't have a light bulb, so he couldn't put the loops on for me. This meant he couldn't put the other stuff on for me either.

I think the order must go loops, leader, tippet.

[sniper_700ti_mckaylake_gu]

heat shrink on the braided loop then the braided loop tail over the fly line . Pull tight and cover with heat shrink. Then put a loop on the thick end of the leader and attach to the braided loop. It is simple, but you should watch someone do it the first time.

[myhippocket]

I have never used braided loops before.

They way I do it is use a Nail Knot to tie the leader to the fly line. Then a Double Surgeons Knot to tie leader to tippet. This page shows you both knots, plus some others.

http://www.flymartonline.com/article211.html

However, I have trouble tying nail knots so if you go that route I strongly recommend buying a simple nail knot tool. You can buy them in combo with a pair of clippers (which is what I have) for about 10 bucks. Saves all sorts of aggravation. The link below is an example of the nail knot tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgdQb958d28

And this for the whole set up.

http://globalflyfisher.com/fishbetter/first_setup/

Hope that helps.

[TroutHunter]

Braided Loops Suck , I've never had any luck with them , and everytime you have to replace them you lose an inch or more of flyline which after a while starts to affect the way it casts. And if they break when your in the river good luck re-attaching it or a new one. New higher end Fly lines have a loop built right into the Fly line which works awesome. But since this is not an option here is what I suggest .

1) Take your new leader and cut the loop off right at the knot

2) Tie the end of the leader you cut off to the Fly line with a NAIL knot. This sucks but you'll only have to do it once. A small coffee straw will work well as the "nail" and there are lots of videos online on how to tie them.

3)Now your leader is attached to your flyline. tie on some tippet (double surgeons knot , very simple) and fish until that leader is no longer usable.

4)When you need a new leader , cut the old one off about 12" from the nail knot and tie a "perfection loop" in it , this is a very simple knot and is the same one that manufactured leaders come with. From here on out all you have to do to change leaders is loop the new one over and through the old one and your good to go in seconds.

I think this is easiest(minus the nail knot off course) , and most effective way of doing this , but I am curious to see what others come up with.

[bobbypetrolia]

As the other guys said....
braided loop connects to flyline. Heat-shrink it on.
Now you have a loop on your flyline.
Your leaders should come with a loop already in them. So now you have a loop on your flyline and loop on your leader. They are easy to 'connect' now......just hard to explain. lol. Google how to connect them, its simple.
Now you're ready to fish.
Don't worry about the tippet; your leader has one already 'built in'.
Tippet is to add to the leader after it gets shorter and thicker due to break offs, changing flies, etc. Add tippet as needed. Try to keep the length of your leader and tippet combined between 8 and 12 feet total length. So say over time, due to changing flies your leader gets down to 6 feet long.......add 4 to 6 feet tof tippet.
Hope this helps.

[notagoodtroutfisher]

Braided Loops Suck , I've never had any luck with them , and everytime you have to replace them you lose an inch or more of flyline which after a while starts to affect the way it casts. And if they break when your in the river good luck re-attaching it or a new one. New higher end Fly lines have a loop built right into the Fly line which works awesome. But since this is not an option here is what I suggest .

1) Take your new leader and cut the loop off right at the knot

2) Tie the end of the leader you cut off to the Fly line with a NAIL knot. This sucks but you'll only have to do it once. A small coffee straw will work well as the "nail" and there are lots of videos online on how to tie them.

3)Now your leader is attached to your flyline. tie on some tippet (double surgeons knot , very simple) and fish until that leader is no longer usable.

4)When you need a new leader , cut the old one off about 12" from the nail knot and tie a "perfection loop" in it , this is a very simple knot and is the same one that manufactured leaders come with. From here on out all you have to do to change leaders is loop the new one over and through the old one and your good to go in seconds.

I think this is easiest(minus the nail knot off course) , and most effective way of doing this , but I am curious to see what others come up with.

Thats what i use. works great

[hal53]

forget my PM, was getting ready to clear customs...u have some great advice above....Good Luck!!!

[DarkAisling]

Okay. I'm thinking that I agree that braided loops suck! I do have one on now, but I'm pretty sure I damaged the core of the line while doing it. A 60W light bulb didn't shrink the plastic thingy (nice technical term), the stove element didn't work, a lighter worked . . . more or less (the second time . . . flames and melted line and loop the first time). The line got a little "floppy" when I melted the plastic for the leader.

As I'd have to cut off around three inches of line (after losing three inches to the first lighter attempt) I think I'll leave it and see what happens with this spool of floating line. I have some sinking tip line on another spool, so I'll go without the braided loop on that one.

Very happy to know that I don't have to deal with the tippet right now :)

EDIT: Found a good picture of the loop-to-loop and attached it. It is the same method we use to extend our jet ski tow ropes.

[jinx]

I was having the same problem . I talked to a lady named Louise (i think)at the fishing hole. and she was helpful she put everything together for me and walked me through the knots and what she was using on the Bow very helpful, I was there in the am when it wasn't busy.I learn from watching and doing, cant follow knots on paper. if you have a hard time learning online i sagest calling to see when she is working, and go see here .She had me set up ready to go in 10 minutes. I now have her as my to go to person she never made me feel embraced about my fly fish ability and i was comfortable asking all my silly questions One of my best experience shopping for answers

I hope that helps she loaded my leader,tipped and flies and and made a nice loop on flyline


Nice to know other people have flyfishing problems :lol:
problems not just me

[DarkAisling]

If one wants a loop in the flyline, is this a good way to go about it?
http://www.blueskyfly.com/knotloop.html

I've decided that I like the loop, but I don't like the braided loops thing.

I did notice that the higher end lines had the loop, but I just couldn't justify the price difference between those and what I purchased.

Another question: what is a good length for tippet that is being tied to a leader? I was going to put a new leader on my sinking tip line. The leader on there is kind of thick and very long (too long, actually), so I can add a short piece of tippet no problem. I'm thinking that I don't want the join to be too close to the fly, though, as that might spook the fish.

Jinx . . . my problems are only just beginning. :lol: I haven't even learned how to cast yet.

[tonyflyfish]

Hey Shelly! Don't want to complicate things but I use a short piece of leader (2 ft) and tie tippet to that. I never use less than 5 ft of tippet and usually start with ten. I got into this and was a comedy show for a bit but never regretted it. Everytime out I learn something from someone. You will eventually get your own rythms and patterns of tying and casting. If you want to see how I do it let me know. I live in St Albert but travel a lot and am in Calgary area often. I can now set a fly fairly nicely but it took lots of trying and corrections. That is the advantage of fishing with friends/foe (LOL) from here. JTS quietly reminded me of some things one day and corrected a bad habit I had developed. It kept him in line also as he sure didn't want me correcting him! LOL. Thanks for all of the pertinent and good posts. This board needs people like you to keep loose cannons like myself and that rascal Wayne C in line!

[slingshotz]

Stick with the Tenkara rod, that looks a lot less complicated :lol:. Still waiting for mine to come in the mail but doubt it will make it here in time for my weekend on the Crow.

The knot won't spook the fish unless you are fishing to extremely spooky fish in crystal clear water. Think of it this way, the fish can easily see a big flashy pointed U shaped piece of metal sticking out from the butt of the fly, think it'll care about that miniscule knot of plastic floating by? As someone mentioned before, keep the total length from the end of your fly line to the fly about 9-12 feet in length. It'll vary depending on what waters you are fishing. In small streams, I have gotten away with leaders/tippets as short as 6 feet in total length.

The easiest system I have ever found so far was the 3M Scientific Anglers L2L connection. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scientific_Anglers/Fly-Fishing/Products/LeaderTippet/L2LReconnect/. If you can tie a simple knot you can use this system and best of all it's easy to fix out on the stream. No more fidgeting with nail knots or heat shrinking.

Since you spent all this money already on gear, I might suggest you take up Lynda McLennan's women's flyfishing course. My wife took it and learned in a day what took me months/years to learn (and taught me a bunch of things I didn't know either). I think it's invaluable when first starting out so that you don't get confused with different methods and bumble along trying to figure out what people really mean. Her course is very reasonably priced compared to other fly fishing courses and her teaching skills are excellent from what I've seen.

If you can't take a course, go out to a field and practice throwing the line without a fly attached to get the feel and see how the line lays out (start with 20 feet or so). This goes for experienced fly fishers too as it's always helpful to see what your line is really doing and to adjust any bad habits.

[DarkAisling]

Stick with the Tenkara rod, that looks a lot less complicated :lol:. Still waiting for mine to come in the mail but doubt it will make it here in time for my weekend on the Crow..

Mine isn't here yet either. According to the tracking information it is STILL sitting in customs. :cry: It has been held up in customs for a week. I wonder if the silly fools broke it or something.

I'll be taking a casting class, put on by Anita of the Reel Hookers. I'm sure I'll take other cl***** after that.

Gawd . . . do I need coffee. I'm sure I'll have more to say after I can think.

[.millartime.]

ive always just used flyline tied to the loop with thre heat shrink, then tied that to a 8ft piece of mono line for tippit and ive never had a problem with that set up. Im not too sure what the knot is called i believe its the blood know? where you make the loop wrap it around 4 or 5 times than back thru the hole. Ive liked this method because its easy and takes 5 mins to do!

[fishstix]

the braided loops are difficult to put on but will save you time in the end. They are like a chinese finger trap. Dont try to push your fly line into them, instead push the braided loop onto your line. They are made for use with a looped end leader. When you go to change your leader, instead of cutting your line and then putting a double square knot (which will make reeling in a long leader tough) just loop the leader on and you are done. A braided loop will not break. You will only replace it when you change your flyline.

[DarkAisling]

Well, I've decided that a loop is a good thing. I put a loop on my "sinking tip" line using the link that I posted farther up this thread. I need to clean up the knot and the ends a little better, but I think it should work really well :)

Thanks for all of the tips. They've helped tremendously.

TFF . . . I'd be up for that, next time you're down this way, providing my schedule allows for it.

[nayrsmith]

Here is a video. I tried this and it works well for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wHGN1sYYKI

[DarkAisling]

Here is a video. I tried this and it works well for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wHGN1sYYKI

Cool. That looks better than what I did. I'll try that when I pick up sinking line. My bobbin winder should be here by now (mail order), but it isn't.

[troller]

I have never used braided loops before.

They way I do it is use a Nail Knot to tie the leader to the fly line. Then a Double Surgeons Knot to tie leader to tippet. This page shows you both knots, plus some others.

http://www.flymartonline.com/article211.html



This is a great site for knots also. Shows you in animation step by step. I like the site you posted also.

http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php

Just click on the knot you want to see :)