Thoughts on leader

[Reid]

I was have been using a knotless eyelet at the end of my fly line with a 7 foot piece of regular 10lb test tied to it. I am forgoing a leader completely. Mainly because its simpler with fewer knots and fewer pieces. Do you think this will have a negative impact on my fishing or work just as well?

[fly addict]

You didn’t mention what type of fishing you planed on doing. If you were salt water fishing or using large streamers or bass fishing, straight 10# line might be fine. I don’t think it would work at all nymphing or fishing dries for trout.

[Reid]

Mainly whatever I can catch around me. Which would be panfish, bass, pike, and some trout.

[midger]

Like Mark said, this won't work well at all when fishing double nymph rigs and especially not dry fly fishing. The leaders need a taper with 20 to 30 pound test as a butt (line tied directly to the flyline), and then a leader tapering down to some smaller size--mine go to 3X for dries then I add additional tippet depending on whether I'm fishing nymphs or dry fly(s). This enables the tippet to turn the fly(s) over much more effectively than a straight piece of 10# test line. Try it for yourself with a size 14/16 dry fly and you'll quickly notice the difference.

As for leader formulas, you can google up a lot of info if you want to tie your own. George Harvey came up with a lot of different leader configurations you could use depending on what effect you were looking to achieve. Here's just one of many you could research.

http://www.riseformstudio.tv/leader_formula.html

Or if you want it simpler, just tie on a 12-15 inch butt to your flyline and put a perfection loop in it and use a loop to loop connection with prepackaged leaders that meet your requirements. Most will go down to 2X or 3X and you just need to tie on a 24 inch length of 4X or 5X and you'd be in business.

[NorcalBob]

The only time I consistently use a tapered leader is when fishing a dry fly. I rarely use a tapered leader while nymph fishing (and I mostly use a two fly rig) , and almost never use a tapered leader while stripping streamers. Works pretty good for me and keeps it simple.

[BrownBear]

...a 7 foot piece of regular 10lb test ...bass, pike....

You're going to have a wicked bad time turning over big flies with a straight piece of leader that light. Bump it up to 15# or 17# and you'll be lots happier.

If I was determined to use straight leaders, I'd start with a piece of 20# tied directly to the fly line, terminating at about 6" in a loop. You can then loop on your 7' length of whichever weight is going to work best for what you're doing. No probs with the 10# for trout and panfish, and you might even go lighter when using small flies for trout. But you'll HATE that 10# with big, bulky flies or heavy flies.

[Reid]

The knotless eyelet has started very faintly poking through the fly line. Stupid thing didn't do that on my grandpas fly line. Ah well. Back to a tapered leader based on that and suggestions. On the plus side found out I much prefer the surgeons not for adding tippet compared to the blood knot I had used. Much simpler.

[BrownBear]

...knotless eyelet has started very faintly poking through the fly line. Stupid thing didn't do that on my grandpas fly line....

Are you talking about that little metal eyelet with the barbed shaft you shove into the end of the fly line? Bad ju-ju with modern fly lines, even if they might have worked with older fly lines used by your grandpa.

[Reid]

So much for nostalgia. Lol