My 2 cents. Get away from that damn fluorocarbon! Yes the fishing shops will have you convinced you need it. "what...you are not using fluorocarbon!? well there lies the problem!" Here is a spool of seaguar blue label that costs almost as much as the rod you just bought.
I was on the fluorocarbon bandwagon a few years back. Was convinced it would give me an edge over my buddies. All I did was bust off fish! I even went to the palomar knot which is supposed to be THE knot for flouro. Better, but that flouro is brittle!!! I should add I tried many brands of flouro. Maxima, Seaguar, Suffix, Berkley, and others. I dropped north of $100 bucks on leaders in one stop at the tackle shop! I ended up throwing the cheap stuff in the trash (Berkley Vanish) and traded the spools of "good stuff" to a buddy for some beer.
Back to mono leaders, I caught just as many fish, and busted off practically none. The ones I did bust off were from fishing a nicked leader (my fault).
Unless you are an advanced fly angler flouro is just going to cause you problems. Stick with a quality mono leader like Maxima UG, Berkely XT, and so on. It's all I use on the river and I know guys who are much more into the fly scene than I am and they only fish mono leaders on the river.
Similar to BNF861, I DO have some flouro I like for still waters for picky trout. The line does refract less light and IMO does help for picky trout in clear water. For rivers where your fly is swinging/stripping by? IMO flouro is unnecessary and likely to cause you more bad than good (knots busting).
For knots I like the blood knot but find it hard to tie on the river esp with cold hands. I like a double surgeons or triple surgeons. I'll use the double for thicker lines like 12-15lb, and triple for thinner like 6-10lb.
Know where you can use flouro. For me, only thing I use for my subsurface presentations. However of note.
I rarely use a tapered leader with it. Only knots are double surgeons loops /non slip loop knot for loop connection to fly line and clinch knot/non slip loop for attachment to tippet ring or fly hook. When swinging flies a tapered leader is a hindrance as the think part sinks slower then the thinner part. In reality you should only have a two knot rig subsurface (one exception), aka tippet to fly line and fly to tippet.
When I do use a tapered leader withh flouro somewhere, it's my czech nymph rig. Sighter to a flouro spacer, 1 foot sighter again and flouro leader. tippet rings generally between the leader, spacer and 1 foot sighter but at times I use a double surgeons, have no problems.
Reasons to use flouro over mono. Stiffer, better uv resistance, sinks faster, does not absorb water as much, less visible to fish (should never be the main reason to go flouro).
For dries I use tapered nylon leaders exclusively. Why? It doesn't sink. Pretty much it. I also don't need to be able to feel/sense hits like with a subsurface.
Never cheap out on tippet either. We spend so much on rods, reels, fuel, line, that you should not put less then quality tippet or hooks on. Avoid gear fishing line brands like suffix, berkeley, and maxima. The strength to diameter is horrid relative to fly tippet Look at the 4lb suffix flouro and compare it too rio flouro flex 5x for instance.
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Topic: Better know than double surgeons? (Read 18767 times)