[jclampwork88]

I tied my first leaders yesterday. I am looking for a good source for the material. Before now I have bought them. What do you do and if you do tie your own, what brand of material do you use?

John

[WANTONJ]

John I will try to answer some of your questions,there are some leader charts called leadercalc 2007 a lot of good info in it,you can also make leader labels from it to mark the ones you make up.You can down load it free from globalflyfisher.com then put a shortcut on your desktop,the line I use is pline floroclear it is a copolymer line coated with florocarbon,the fish cant see it and is a lot stronger than anything I have used,you can get it from 2# to 30#,for the larger test up to 60# I also fish salt water,I use Berkley Trilene Big Game.The only problem you cannot find either in a small quantity, the floroclear is 300yds,the 25# to 60# Berkley you can get in 55yd size.The knot I use is a double nail knot very clean and compact, tags ends or at the ends by the line and can be clipped short and smooth,the blood knot has its ends in the middle of the knot and can stick on certain things,you can buy a real good tool from Cabela's for about 7.00 they have two sizes,small and large,for Trout and Bass you want the small size,you can see the video on U-Tube that uses this tool for leader butt connection to fly line and leader making.note LeaderCalc is on a excel spread sheet format,if you dont have excel you can down load it for free on the Internet,I hope this is a help to you.I gave you a little more info than you asked for,but just trying to help.

have a good and safe day.

Captain Wayne Valley Fire Service,Valley Springs Calif.

[plland]

I figure I should start tying my own because I haven't yet figured out a way to buy them cheaply in bulk, but the kits are really expensive. I'm learning how to conserve my leader by tying my tippet before the taper and replacing the tippet before it gets into the leader's taper, but they still get used up fast.

[Joni]

I originally bought the FROG HAIR leader kit and it comes with charts and the blood knot tool. I still occasionally make my own, but some waters I got tired of the moss on the knots.
This year, I am a firm believer in FURLED leaders. Much easier and quicker to make once you set up the board and get some tapers from the furling board.
I ordered the Kathy Scott Video to get started and it was worth every penny.
I have since adapted some of my own ideas.
I make them in 5' , 5 1/2', and a 6'. I also prefer the rings as the end of the leader doesn't wear out as qwick with tippet cutting into it.
I also add 3' to 6' of fluoro to the ring, so a 12' leader is easy to make. NO KNOTS except the tippet to leader which is true with any leader.

I first thought these were perfect for dry flies cause they lais out so smooth, but the past couple of years I use them for everything. They don't get tangled as easy, and in my case, I haven't had a knot or a tangle for over a year.

I make them out of Uni thread so I can make them in any color, even multi colors like CAMO, or add a bright color to the first section for an indicator. Add one strand of Kevlar and it is a STRONG nymphing/streamer leader.

Lately I found a UNI 4mm clear, and it floats like crazy!...add a dab of sink putty and killer nymph leader.