[Ben Guss]

Hi all,

I know this must have been covered before, but i could not find the thread.
I'm looking for several hand tied leader recipes.

I want the following leader recipes:
sea run
steelhead
choho
king

Thanks for the help!

ben

 

[orangeradish]

Ben, this is one I've been using for some time.

 

[soundflycaster]

I always start with the desired leader length and work from there. 40-50% of the leader is butt material and I step down in 18-24" increments from there to where I will tie on the desired tippet material on the river. Trout I start with 20# test and work down in 5# increments. Steelies, Coho and Chum I start with 25# and work down to 10#. For bigger fish I will start with 40# and work down to 20#. Remember that your fly lines from 10 to 15WT typically have a core that is rated at approximately 30# test, thus to protect the fly line your leaders weakest mono will need to be 30# or less. Use the same brand of mono for the whole leader. For knots joining the sections use a double surgeons knot, a blood knot or nail knot. Adjust your formula so that the fly you are presenting rolls over easily and does not land in a pile. I have been using hand tied leaders for over 35 years and have had great results.

 

[Andrew Lawrence]

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the leader formulas: http://www.flyfishusa.com/leaders/maxima.html. I hope that this helps.

Regards,

Andrew

 

[Ben Guss]

Thank you all for the input! A special thanks to Jason for a laugh. Is that photo what you through out to those elusive fish you arent catching? See you tomorrow.

 

[tkww]

50/25/25 (Butt/taper/tippet) is what I've done as a starting leader formula. I've always done the butt as two pieces, with the first (largest diameter) being 2/3s of the butt length and the second section being 1/3. I cap the jumps at .004, and prefer no more than .003.

However I also really like to keep the taper down to three sections. In looking at the the linked formulas, I would probably adjust them so that any of the shorter leaders had no more than three. The longer leaders, particularly the 15', or a leader that starts with a thick butt but also has to taper way down may dictate more than three taper sections. I usually have my three taper sections all the same length, more or less. with large flies, split, etc. some of the subtleties of these things go out the window. It's a little bigger deal when you're trying to tie up the perfect dry-fly leader for your 3-weight.

It is often suggested for "rocket taper" or maximum turnover to up you butt and shorten your taper. 70/10/20 gets thrown out there. I'm not sure you have to go quite that far, but 60/20/20 or 65/15/20 would work too. This might be a case where you do a third section in the butt or beginning of the taper that is shorter than the butt sections but longer than the taper sections. Again, length of leader could be a factor. Adding more sections to <9' leader would be vetoed by me, but if I was doing a 12'+, I'd probably do another section.

Not sure which line weights exactly you'll be tying for, but that is also an influence for me in starting butt diameter. Though admitedly I am also thinking of 3-7/8 wts, not 6-9/10 that I would think you'd be using for that list. But for 7/8, I just never found .024 useful.