[Dario]

Hi Guys, great forum, I was just wonder what the panel thought of tapered leaders :  do they improve presentation :  :
Can they improve my changes of catching fish :

Dario

[Rob Brownfield]

Well..never used them...until one fateful day when i wanted to fish a 14 foot leader with 3 buzzers...thats when i found out how good they can be.

I use them for my pike fly fishing to..running from 40 to 30 to 20 to 15 lb..turns the huge flies over so much better.

Swear by them for dry fly fishing too.

[Derek 365]

Couldn't agree more with Rob , Dario .

I always fish with 3 flies and almost always have a rather heavy pattern on the point really adds better turnover.

My set up starts with 3ft. 15lb then 3ft. 10lb then 3.ft 8lb then 7ft. of 6 or 7lb with 2 droppers.

When i run out of the 15 and 10lb i'm gonna try those manufactored knotless tapered leaders ,i'll see if there's a difference.

[Dario]

: thanks guys, really appreciate your comments, keeping in mind that my knowledge is limited, what knot do you use to tie the different leaders weight together :

[Sandy Nelson]

Dario

I nail knot a tapered leader to the end of my flyline, then fish a tippet of the same strength. Usually the taper ends up about 8ft and i'll use a tippet of about 4ft, If i'm using droppers then i'll step down after 3ft of tippet to the next "X" down and have another 3ft .ie 5X taper, 5X tippet, 6X tippet.

Using tapers improves turnover dramatically as it provides a smooth transition of power along the flyline and into the leader right down to the fly.
It makes a huge difference to the presentation of small nymphs and any Dry as they often don't have the weight to straighten out the leader and can put up greater resistance against the air, so a proper power transition helps a lot.

I wouldn't use anything else.

Sandy

[Derek 365]

Dario

I use the 3 turn water knot to join different sections together

[Sandy Nelson]

Ditto with co-poly/nylon.
Have found a 4 turn is needed for fluoro-carbon.(never use it now anyway)

Sandy

[Dario]

: thanks guys, I will try this once the season starts, and I'll keep you posted  of my success, with the tapered leaders