Leader length?

[fishinwrench]

So.....nobody knows why 9' is the standard (most popular) leader length?   And why most guys, if they alter it, go longer instead of shorter ?

Me either.  Interesting 🤔

[Gavin]

Rod length I guess. You don’t want the fly  line inside the tip top. 

[fishinwrench]

20 minutes ago, Gavin said:

Rod length I guess. You don’t want the fly  line inside the tip top. 

Well unless you're fishing a 10' rod then it would be.

That's the fight that the 12' leader guy at Bennett was having.  Everytime he reeled in to land a fish or dress his fly it was a major process getting all that leader clear of the tip-top.  I wanted to Wade over there, whack 5 feet off his leader and help him out.

Even with a 9' leader you can't put the fly on the hook keeper without putting a kink in the leader unless you do the loop around the reel thing.  What is that extra 2' of leader doing for ya besides making everything a PIA ?

[fishinwrench]

3 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Gavin is correct.  This box has caught bones, tarpon redfish and snook morning n Louisiana Florida Bahamas Mexico and Cozumel. All on the same loom is 9 weight.   

Most people don’t realize the flats are not just sand but lava rock covered in muck with sticky monkey dodo all over. 

So you're tying 20# line to that little Crazy Charlie ?    How long does it take THAT rig to sink a foot?   Noway those little dumbbell eyes are telling that 20# tippet what to do.

[Gavin]

I always hook the bottom fly to a guide then wrap the leader behind the reel seat. A 12’ leader is no problem on 9’ rod. Not a fan of hook keepers near the grip. I don’t want a fly that close to my hand while bushwhacking.

[snagged in outlet 3]

6 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

So you're tying 20# line to that little Crazy Charlie ?    How long does it take THAT rig to sink a foot?   Noway those little dumbbell eyes are telling that 20# tippet what to do.

That bottom fly caught 9 bones last time out I think.  I don’t think we fished much water a foot deep.  More like 6-8 inches. 

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

That bottom fly caught 9 bones last time out I think.  I don’t think we fished much water a foot deep.  More like 6-8 inches. 

I'm beginning to understand now.  I know less than nothing about fishing in the salt.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

You don't want the fly to hit bottom and sink out of sight either.  A lot of times shrimp hang onto turtle grass just above the muck and that's what you want the fly to do.

[patfish]

On 10/16/2018 at 8:12 AM, fishinwrench said:

I'm beginning to understand now.  I know less than nothing about fishing in the salt.  

I don't either but the couple times I have ruined me.  It is THE best.  

[tjm]

On 10/15/2018 at 11:40 PM, Gavin said:

I always hook the bottom fly to a guide then wrap the leader behind the reel seat. A 12’ leader is no problem on 9’ rod. Not a fan of hook keepers near the grip. I don’t want a fly that close to my hand while bushwhacking.

Probably the first thing I really learned about flyfishing. And besides moving that sharp away from my tender hands this allows almost two rod lengths of leader/line outside the guides, ready to cast at the next hole.

Leaders need to fit the circumstance, imo.  Different water and flies may make one leader better than another. In Ozark streams my over all leader may run from ~5' to ~8-9' depending on how deep the water is-using weighted flies and floating line a short leader won't let the flies sink much , but where I used to fish still water trout with #24s I've found the 12'-16' leader allows a smaller splashdown. My standard at RRSP is ~6' to 5X and in the local SMB stream ~6' to 8#.  If I were using a sinking line the leader might be 4' to keep the fly down where the line is. In stream fishing I think splashdown is often a plus. 

" for my style of fishing" - there is the key: what you do and the kind of water you are doing it on. Recently on another thread it was stated that in Taneycomo you could need 12' of leader between the jig and the corkie, and I presume some leader between the corkie and the line; when I think about that rig I am astonished that it can be cast at all, at all.  Yet I have rollcast many times with 12' of knotted leader down to 8-9X. The taper also lends to longer leaders when small tippets are desired, look at the leaders Joe Brooks advocated- compound tapers stepping down in length and diameter of material .002" at a time to a 4-6" mid section then going to longer sections as the diameter gets smaller out to a ~30" tippet, irrc JB listed leaders of 16' over all for some applications.  JB influenced many fly men that eventually wrote books of their own.

I'd also guess (guess because I have no experience with  UL fly line) that when using 5wt and smaller the leaders might need to be shorter to match the line. Most of the leader recipes that I recall started with .021" or .023" butt sections and reduce at .002" (most store bought leaders seem even larger at the butt, to me) I have found that for 6-7 lines .017" butt works better for me, thus taking one or two sections out of the taper.  (if forced to buy a leader I cut the butt off a foot or two) Based on this, I'd think a 2wt might only need 3' of leader & tippet?

There is a method of nymphing that only uses leader (20'?)- it is said to prevent drag by keeping the line off the water- I understand this used in international competitions. Humphrey's method of using Cobra in place of line is somewhat similar, I think.