.jpg)
Pretty much always a good rule-of-thumb,
‘simplicity’ should ever be the core principle of rigging terminal gear for
trout fishing -- & simplicity means minimal clutter.
I've come to prefer store-bought tapered leaders over knotting my own together, as they turn over nicely, &
fish cleaner with fewer tangles minus the multiple knot connections. And the cost of a good tapered leader is not much of a factor if the leader is made semi-permanent with the addition of a rigging
ring. These are catching on, & may be available at your local fly shop. The
ones I’m currently using are the #2 rings from Feathercraft. These are tiny,
about the size of a #8 hook eye – & smaller models are available, though I can’t imagine dealing with anything smaller than the #2 ring which is plenty obscure.
Here’s my leader: a store-bought 7-1/2 foot tapered
fluorocarbon leader, tapering to 4x (6 or 7lb test), as a butt, to which I fasten a #2
metal rigging ring. Now I’m never cutting into my tapered leader to
splice in a new tippet – I tie the tippet to the ring, quick
& easy. The 7-1/2 foot tapered butt is good for leaders from 9 to 12 feet,
fishing 3 to 6lb test tippets, or down to as light as you like. If I want to go longer, say, 15 feet, I splice a 2 foot section of 4x or 5x to the ring, then splice the tippet to that.
If you generally fish shorter &/or
lighter leaders, purchase a 7-1/2 foot leader tapering down to 5x, cut a
foot from the 5x end – making a 6-1/2 foot butt, tapered to somewhere in the
neighborhood of 4x – tie the ring to that, & add as light a tippet as you
want to make an 8 to 10 foot leader.
To make a high-stick nymph rig, attach a second fly to the ring with a short length of tippet. And the ring makes a good stop for a bit of sink putty, if needed.
The extremely lethargic aside, anglers knowing
they don’t have to cut back & re-splice the leader to freshen tippets are less
apt to neglect that necessary chore, as, wah-la, it only takes a moment to tie to the
ring – no cutting back & splicing, & no fly-snagging tippet loop-loops.
I keep the rings stored on a
snap swivel, which holds them for tying & drawing tight to a leader. I like
a Palomar knot for attaching the ring, second choice, a Uni or San Diego
The tiny rigging ring is undetectable
& does not interfere with presentation in any way that I can discern. The
ring is so small & light that it will float on the surface film, so I use
them with mono dryfly leaders as well.
I get impressive
mileage out of my tapered leaders by adding a rigging ring, with one leader now in service for four years,
cut back only a couple inches each year for a fresh knot – & that rig gets
used almost daily in summer.
I’m not crazy about handshake loop
line/leader connections on terminal rigs meant to fish trout with dryflies
& soft-hackle wetflies. Loop to loop connections
are clunky things. Double nymph set-ups snag on them, and they add bulk. More
bulk means more stuff for trout to notice & be suspicious of. Noisy
suspicious bulk: lines them down. I fish a lot of small soft-hackles
pot-shooting surface feeding trout & want the softest delivery possible, so I prefer to nail-knot the leader butt to the flyline – which is better
for high-stick nymphing too, as loop/loops hinge, & also deaden the
transmission of subtle takes. (Short-line, high-stick nymphing is an intuitive
art, in which the practitioner wants the cleanest connection to the fly
possible.) And the nail-knot connection is practical with the semi-permanence a
rigging ring provides. The leader butt will generally outlast normal wear &
tear on the first couple of inches of flyline above the connection, so no need
to freshen the connection any more often than you would with loops.
I like a fairly stiff material for the leader butt, which aids in creating open loops while casting,
keeping double-nymph rigs from tangling; & a softer material with as much
stretch as possible for the tippet section[s]. Pull & stretch the leader before fishing -- if it doesn't straighten out & remain straight until you wind it back on the reel, don't buy that kind anymore. Some that work for me are the Orvis Super Strong; Umpqua; & Cortland, the least expensive & usually available locally.
