[11th Warrior]

For the guys who tie your own tapered leaders, When cutting the lengths of line, do you add extra line to account for the length used in the blood knot?

For example: If the leader calculator says to use 24" of 6lb, do you cut 24" or do you cut 36" (to account for the 12" of line taken up by the knot - 6" per side)

I hope I'm clear enough.

I've got 6 spools of line sitting in front of me and I'm ready to start tying.

 

[HOOK]

well with my 5wt (trout setup) i put a small chunk(12" maybe) of 12lb attached to my fly line, then 10lb abuot 3' then 8lb the same, then go with whatever my heart desires for 6lb because its my finishing peice ;D say i went with 10' of 6lb that would give me approx. 16' of leader. If i know im going to be after fish deeper i will tie these different sections longer so they cast nicer.

 

[professori]

Warrior, I used to cut very long pieces, but found after a while that I got more efficient and started cutting the pieces a couple of inches longer at most. Make them as long as you think you need to, it isn't a lot of material in the end. A couple of tips: Tie your first 2 sections together, then cut them off the spools and from then on tie on each subsequent step down before you cut it to length (plus 2"). Put a length of masking tape along the edge of your tying station and mark off a ruler on it, then you have measurements at your finger tips without having to lay out a tape measure for every section of the leader. Hope this makes sense.

 

[professori]

well with my 5wt (trout setup) i put a small chunk(12" maybe) of 12lb attached to my fly line, then 10lb abuot 3' then 8lb the same, then go with whatever my heart desires for 6lb because its my finishing peice ;D say i went with 10' of 6lb that would give me approx. 16' of leader. If i know im going to be after fish deeper i will tie these different sections longer so they cast nicer.

That's a good one for fishing nymphs, but for dry fly presentations, I like a more gradual and responsive taper. There are a lot of tapers that work very well for turning over a dry fly, and vary depending on length of leader, size of fly, weight of rod, etc. If a simple 3 piece taper works for you, that is great.

 

[11th Warrior]

Thanks for the info Prof, that's what I was looking for. :beerchug: