[dougm]

Brandon,

What you do is build your leader using several different sizes of mono and blood knots to join the lengths together.

There are all sorts of recipes but two simple ones call for a 60/40 -- 60 being the butt and 40 being the mid-section in percentages. You then add whatever you want for a tippet.

The second is called 50/50 -- 50% for the butt section and then 50% of the butt's length for the mid-section. Add to that the tippet you desire.

By the way, you can buy mono based on the diameter ... the print is small but usually on the spool.

Do they work? You bet ... But like all things in this sport the name of the game is experiment and find what works for you.

Doug

[Joni]

Originally Posted by brandon78

does the normal line cast as good?

Make a good taper and it will cast great!

[BigCliff]

I'll second the suggestions of both Doug and Joni.

On the "does it cast as good?" question, make sure you take the time to straighten the mono before you tie it into a leader and then again after you have tied it up. Straight leaders cast well, curly ones often don't.

Keeping your leaders coiled up in a bigger loop will also help prevent the coilyness. By this I mean coiling them up into loops that would fit into a ziplock sandwich bag instead of the credit card sized packages leaders come in. Some sort of fairly stiff thin plastic used as dividers within that bag would make it easier to store multiple leaders in there without tangling.

[greenriverflyfisher]

I'm a little late on this discussion but I thought I give my two cents. I use berkley vanish for all my flourocarbon needs. This is pretty much standard for most green river guides. They may use other brands, but it's line out of the bass section. The stuff doesn't break. In cases where I need to use mono
I use rio for my tippet. I build lots of leaders out of regular mono and it casts just fine.

[Joni]

Originally Posted by greenriverflyfisher

I'm a little late on this discussion but I thought I give my two cents. I use berkley vanish for all my flourocarbon needs. This is pretty much standard for most green river guides. They may use other brands, but it's line out of the bass section. The stuff doesn't break. In cases where I need to use monoI use rio for my tippet. I build lots of leaders out of regular mono and it casts just fine.

For us Falcon's Ledge guides also

[troutbum]

IMHO Rio put's out the best tippet,I like the disspenser's they use.For building leaders I use stren for the butt section then start with the 3x rio and taper down to what I need.For my saltwater fishing, I go with straight 8lb stren, as presentation and turn over isnt important when flinging clousers to Mackeral and Cod.
Tight Lines
Aaron

[Thumper42]

I've looked into the idea of using fluorocarbon spinning line for tippet instead of buying the small spools, and I see that regular fluorocarbon line is larger in diameter than fluorocarbon tippet of the same or greater test. My question is, does it make that much difference? I fish in southeastern Colorado for trout ranging from 8" to 20"+ (mostly 10-12 inchers, but you never know when a big one is going to hit), and I tend to use fine lines in the 5X or 6X variety mostly. I'm all for saving money where I can, but I don't want to give up anything in the process. Should I go with a fluorocarbon spinning line that matches the diameter of the tippet I normally use and maybe sacrifice strength, or should I match the strength and go with a slightly thicker line? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thumper

[Joni]

Originally Posted by Thumper42

I've looked into the idea of using fluorocarbon spinning line for tippet instead of buying the small spools, and I see that regular fluorocarbon line is larger in diameter than fluorocarbon tippet of the same or greater test. My question is, does it make that much difference? I fish in southeastern Colorado for trout ranging from 8" to 20"+ (mostly 10-12 inchers, but you never know when a big one is going to hit), and I tend to use fine lines in the 5X or 6X variety mostly. I'm all for saving money where I can, but I don't want to give up anything in the process. Should I go with a fluorocarbon spinning line that matches the diameter of the tippet I normally use and maybe sacrifice strength, or should I match the strength and go with a slightly thicker line? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thumper

Gonna be hard to find a flouro fishing line or any other for matter in a 6X.
I use the 6lb P-Line to catch that 34" this year and just had to play him a little, and I do use the 4lb on the rivers with very little break off's.
If you are asking if FLOUROCARBON makes a difference, some will say no. Me, I swear by it.

[Thumper42]

Thanks, Joni. Now that I look at it, I guess my question wasn't really clear. Basically, I'm asking if the difference between fluorocarbon tippet and fluorocarbon spinning line it that great -- I have been using fluoro tippet for a while now, and I like it, but it is definitely more expensive, so if I could buy the larger rolls for spinning and using it to make my tippets, that would be much better to me.

Thumper

[greenriverflyfisher]

When your using flourocarbon the diameter shouldn't matter much. Flouro has a close refractive light which means the fish don't see it as well. I don't even bother going below 4lbs spinning flouro unless I want the flies to sink faster. This only applies when I'm throwing a dropper off the dry and I need the dropper to sink faster. I always figured if the fish can't see it, then there is no reason to worry about the diameter. I found I catch more fish with spin line because there is almost never a break off and the fish eat the fly just as often as the overpriced, less abrasion resistant tippet.