It's a while since we posted on our blog, the downside of being crazy busy!
Your tippet is a crucial part of your set up and forms the vital link between fly line and fly, and ultimately the fish!!
A question we get asked over and over again is 'What is a tapered leader and what is its purpose?'
Let us try and answer it
To put it simply, a tapered leader is a leader that has a heavy butt for cast turnover power and a finer, more delicate tip for presentation. Most are knotless (made by extruding the leader) but you can also find knotted where different line diameters are knotted together. Knotless are by far the most popular design
Nylon is the preferred material for tapered leaders although fluorocarbon ones are also found. If making your own from different BS of line then fluorocarbon does not knot well against fluoros of different diameter. In this situation you are better using a 2mm seamless ring, which can also be used for making droppered casts.
Tapered leaders are normally classified by an “X” rating rather than a breaking strain. This can seem very confusing also but the simple rule of thumb is the larger the X number the lower the breaking strain. Our tapered leaders are rated as this (breaking strain / butt diameter / tip diameter)
0X - 10lb / 0.63mm / 0.27mm 1X - 9lb / 0.57mm / 0.25mm 2X - 8lb / 0.56mm / 0.23mm 3X - 6lb / 0.52mm / 0.21mm 4X - 5lb / 0.51mm / 0.18mm 5X - 4lb / 0.50mm /0.16mm 6X - 3lb / 0.43mm / 0.12mm
These can be found on our website at
A brief explanation and hopefully one that make sense!!
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