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Do the Twist!
This article originally appeared in American Angler, Fall 2007 and is published here with permission. By B. Craig Phillips
When a fish takes your fly, there’s a lot of technology between you and that primitive animal. But your expensive rod, reel and fly line serve only to get the fly to the fish. What’s really keeping your connected to your quarry is probably a four dollar tapered leader. Which usually works fine- as long as you want a leader that is either 7 and a half feet or 9 feet. But what if you need a longer leader for really clear trout streams, or a shorter one for sinking tip lines? What about leaders for casting big, heavy flies for pike or bass?
For these purposes, line companies make some specialized leaders, but you can also make them yourself. You can build strong, durable leaders for pennies each, and better yet, you can build them to suit any fishing situation, fly line, or fly. You can customize your leaders for any warm- or saltwater application, and even fit most trout fishing situations. And since they cost almost nothing to build, you can make and carry enough to be prepared for all conditions.
I first learned of this leader making technique from my fishing and guiding partner, Captain Paul “Sodie” Sodamann, who was inspired by an article by Steve Kantner called “The Ultimate Big Game Leader” he’d read in the April/May, 2004 issue of Saltwater Fly Fishing. Kantner had developed a technique for constructing a type of furled leader- for billfish and other big game species - that could be built with only your hands, and didn’t require the use of a jig. Sodie thought we could adapt it to our “big game” fish here in Kansas: carp and wipers. We’ve since used Kantner’s basic design to construct fresh- and saltwater setups ranging from 4-pound-test trout leaders to 80-pound-test tarpon leaders. And Sodie has developed a few tricks and techniques for building these leaders that just about any angler can use for any fish in fresh or salt water.
Lining it up
Using Sodie’s twisting technique, we will construct the butt and midsection of a leader. For simplicity, let’s call that the leader base. Before you hit the water, you’ll add a separate tippet to complete the full leader. The midsection of the constructed leader will be two strands of mono twisted together, so it will have twice the breaking strength of the line used to construct the leader. The butt section will be four twisted strands, so it will be four times the breaking strength of the original mono. For example, if you are looking for a light leader for bluegills or trout, starting with 2-pound-test monofilament line will produce an 8-pound-test butt section and a 4-pound-test mid section. Starting with 20-pound-test will produce a fine tarpon leader that consists of an 80-pound-test butt section and a 40-pound-test mid section.
Keep in mind that the strength of the monofilament used to build your leader should be based mainly on the weight of the flies you will be throwing. The energy of the cast is transferred from the rod, through the fly line, to the leader, and eventually to the fly. Go too light with your leader and your fly will not turn over, since the lighter leader will be too soft to transmit the energy to the fly. Go too heavy and you could get a hard rebound at the end of the cast as the rod’s energy is transmitted through the heavier leader to a very light fly. Either will result in the fly landing in a spot other than where you intended.
But here’s where this leader stands out. Since each one costs you far less than a buck, you can build a number of leaders for various applications. And because each rod throws each fly line differently, especially when individual casting styles are added in, you can customize leaders to your own rod, line and cast. Try several configurations, line weights and section lengths, to see what best fits the way you fish.
Roll Your Own
Make certain you use standard monofilament or fluorocarbon for these leaders, and not specialized leader-making material such as Mason™ “hard” mono. You’ll need the suppleness of standard monofilament to get the proper performance once you start twisting your leader.
Before you start, stretch the line. Monofilament right off the spool has “memory” that causes it to coil, and those coils will make the twisting process harder. Tie the end of the line to a fixed object, such as a doorknob and pull about 25 feet of line off the spool. Walk backwards, away from the doorknob, keeping a bit of tension on the line as you let it pay off the spool. Once you get the desired length out, leave the line attached to the spool and use the spool as a handle. Then pull the spool away from the tied end, putting firm and steady pressure on the line. Don’t pull sharply; just pull firmly to stretch the line. Repeat this several times to remove any kinks, coils and memory, until the line lies limp when you release the pressure. Remove it from the doorknob, and clip off the knot, and cut the line off the spool.
3. Once you've pulled out about 2-3 inches of twisted leader, reach back with your right hand to your left fingers and repeat the twist and pull. Keep spinning the lines together in short segments until you reach the two free ends.
4. Once you’ve twisted the two legs all the way to the free ends the leader should be stable enough that it will not unravel; at least not much. Your leader is now a little less than half the length of the mono with which you started.
5. Take the now-twisted line by the free ends – opposite the loop end – and fold that end over the rest. But this time, make your fold at about the one-third point of the total length from the free end, rather than at the half-way point. Again, form a small loop at that fold (now in the doubled portion), pinch it between your thumb and finger again, and start twisting, just like you did with the single strands. 6. The loop you’ve formed in the doubled line will connect the leader to the fly line.
7. Once you’ve twisted the full length of the free end leg onto the longer, loop-end leg, tie a surgeon’s knot at the junction of the free end and the double strand to lock it together. Trim the tag ends of that knot and you’re done with the leader base.
8. The leader base is now finished and ready for use. Add a tippet by taking another strand of mono, tying a perfection loop in one end and attaching it to the leader base with a loop-to-loop connection. (If you’re knot-savvy, use tippets tied first with a Bimini twist, and a perfection loop in the doubled end of the Bimini to ensure the weakest point will be the tippet or the terminal knot). You’ll need a loop on the end of your fly line to attach the butt end of the leader to your fly line.
[Post publication note: we now cut the large loop of the Bimini twist and furled the free strands, then tie a perfection loop in the end. Honestly, we did this because some of the attendees at our seminars thought the unfurled Bimini loop with the perfection loop didn’t look good enough!]
The only hard part is keeping the two free ends apart. They will try to wrap around each other if they come close together. You can try running those ends through the handles of coffee cups, the pull tabs on soda cans, or other objects with hoops in them to keep the free ends apart before you start spinning, but they must spin freely. With practice, most people can stop using the cans or cups once they learn how to keep the free ends apart. Captain Sodie puts the ends on opposite sides of a chair back or small table to keep them apart.
Customize it!
There are two ways to customize this leader base. Both will affect the finished length, but one method affects the performance of the leader more than the other. The first adjustment you can make is in the starting length of the monofilament. If you start with about 25 feet and make your second fold at the one-third point, you end up with a leader of about eight feet. Add five feet to your starting mono length and you’ll add a good foot-and-a-half to the finished leader. Drop down to a 15 foot piece of mono and you’ll end up with a five-foot leader base. The leader should turn over similarly, regardless of length, when adjusted by this method.
You can also change where you fold the once-twisted section before beginning the second twist. Folding at the one-third point makes the butt section about equal in length to the midsection. Fold it closer to the free ends and you’ll create a shorter butt section, a longer mid, and a longer overall leader. To get a longer butt section, fold over a longer portion of the free ends, but remember that will result in a shorter overall leader.
Why adjust the butt and mid section lengths? If you are throwing a fly that is heavy for its hook size, such as a pattern with lots of lead wire tied in or big weighted eyes, a longer butt section will better transmit the energy of the cast to the fly and turn it over. If you’re casting a light dry fly, a slightly longer mid section will provide for a gentle landing. Just be careful not to overdo it either way. The basic, one-third fold leader is a good all-around setup.
A nine-foot leader base, tied in 2-pound-test, will make a dandy dry fly leader for most trout fishing situations. Add a length of tippet with a perfection loop tied in the end and you’re set. What size tippet? Remember the ‘rule of three’ – divide the size of fly by three to find the proper “X” rating of the tippet you should use. For example, if you’re throwing a size 12 dry, use a 4X tippet. A size 28 midge fished in the film of a winter stream needs a 9X tippet. If your fly is a weighted nymph, use at least one larger size tippet.
These leaders work well for fishing sinking or sink-tip lines, as well. For those subsurface applications, you usually want the shortest leader you can get away with. A long leader can defeat the purpose of the sinking line by allowing the fly to float upward, unless the fly is weighted, too. A shorter leader also makes for more accurate casts, and for most of us, the added weight of sink-tip and full-sink lines are already a challenge to cast. Why not make it easier on yourself? A leader base tied with about six feet of mono ends up being a bit over two feet long. Coupled with a tippet of about 18 inches, the fly follows the sinking line down in the water column and stays in the strike zone.
For weighted nymph fishing with a floating fly line, plan your leader, with tippet, to be about twice the depth of water you will be fishing, if you want your fly to hug the bottom. Make your second fold to produce a butt section will be just a bit longer than half the total length of the leader base. That will give you the energy to turn over your weighted nymph, but not so much four-strand section that it will impede the fly’s sink rate.
Having tinkered with this leader building technique for a few years now, Captain Sodie carries a variety of leaders in various line weights, lengths, and section lengths. He adds an assortment of Bimini-knotted tippets to his leader wallet and he’s ready for just about any situation he might encounter in any water. Try rolling a few leaders of your own, and you can just as prepared for any fish, or fishing situation, you might meet.
Sidebar articles:
What’s in Your Wallet
Captain Sodie’s leader wallet borders on grotesquely fat, packed full of enough leader bases and tippets to supply a small army of anglers. So what’s all in there? Leader bases ranging from 2- to 20- pound-test and about 15 to 20 bases in each weight. Within that number are probably 6 short bases, 6 long bases, and 6 “standard” bases. The other thing stuffing his wallet is tippets. He has, at minimum, a dozen of each line weight, with at least two dozen of his favorites – 6- and 8-pound-test.
Why so many, if these leaders are so durable? Honestly, Captain Sodie’s a bit obsessed with these leaders. He likes making them and he likes teaching others to make them. But keeping a fresh leader and tippet on your reel ups your chances of landing that trophy fish when you hook up. Since the rigs are so inexpensive to make, you shouldn’t think twice about changing leaders. You don’t have to go as far as the Captain in the number of leaders you carry, but keeping several leaders in various weights is a good idea.
What in the Furled?
Furled leaders have long been prized for their ability to turn over at the end of the cast, and there are lots of commercially available furled leaders from companies such as BlueSky . There’s also a small cadre of folks who make their own furled leaders, using a jig.
A few years ago a member of our fly fishing club began making his own furled leaders, and we were impressed enough to ask him to demonstrate their construction at the next meeting. He arrived with a long, wooden contraption that took two men to unload, then spent the next 10 minutes stringing monofilament between screw eyes and bungee cords. After frequently consulting a spreadsheet with the specifications for the leader he sought to make, he finally, he attached his cordless drill to a screw eye somewhere on the device and began twisting the leader together. The entire process took at least 30 minutes, and while it made a fine leader, most of us walked out dazed and confused.
The leaders described in this article don’t require the use of any tools, other than your hands, and maybe a chair or something to help keep the free ends apart as you twist. The leaders created with this method may not be quite as good or as elegant as other furled leaders, but they have performed exceptionally well for Captain Sodie and me for a long time.
Strong and Clear
One of the best things about this leader is that there are no knots that are under stress within the leader base itself, so it is remarkably strong and durable. Knots are weak points, and this base has only one knot, which is buffered considerably from stress by the numerous twists above it. Even if you don’t use a Bimini twist tippet, a single perfection loop tied in the end of your tippet material forms a nearly 100% knot, and the loop-to-loop connection between the leader base and tippet is a very low-stress junction (as is the line to leader connection).
BONUS MATERIAL NOT IN THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
LOOP-TO-LOOP CONNECTORS:
When you finish building one of these leaders you’ll have a loop on each end; a double loop on the butt end and a single loop on the mid end. That permits easy changing of leaders and tippets through the use of loop-to-loop connections. These days, many fly lines come from the manufacturer with loops in the end, or you can buy connectors you secure to the end of your fly line. I’ve always used loop connectors and I like them. Just slide the loop end of your leader base through the loop of your fly line, then pull the free end of the leader through the leader loop to lock the leader on to the fly line. Reverse the process to remove the leader.
I’ve seen this topic discussed on fly fishing web forums a number of times, and it seems to elicit some strong opinions. Some people say they cut off the loop as soon as they take a new fly line out of the box. Others, like me, love the convenience, but I can see the opposing point of view. If you’re a spring creek angler, trying to fool well-educated, heavily fished rainbows, you might not want the extra weight and bulk of the loop connector as you try to make your delicate presentations. Since I target warmwater fish that I measure in pounds, rather than inches, that degree of stealth is not required in most of my fishing situations.
Making your own fly line loop connectors
If you don’t want to use a manufactured loop, you can take a short piece of mono and tie it on to your fly line with a nail knot. Then, tie a perfection loop in the end of that mono to make your own connector. I’ve taken to making my own connectors out of hollow-core, braided running line. Cut off about 10 inches of the running line. Then, take a piece of thin copper wire and fold it in half. About a third of the way from one end of the line, insert the looped end of the wire through one side of the line and run it up the hollow core of the long leg. Once you’ve pushed it up about 3-4 inches, push it back out the side. Then, take the free end of the line, put it in the wire loop, and pull the wire back out so the free end of the line is pulled into the hollow core. Just make sure you leave a loop at the end where it is doubled over. You should now have a loop, a doubled 3-4 inch section, and a 3-inch single section.
Now take the end of your fly line and cut it at to an angled point. Try to insert that pointed end into the open end of the single section of the connector. Push it inside a little, then pinch it where it goes inside the running line and pull some of the running line down the fly line. You’ll have to work the fly line into the running line slowly, but you’ll get it. Once you get the end of the fly line up to where the doubled line starts, stop. Now you need to secure the connector. The commercially-made ones come with a heat-shrink tube, but I don’t recommend using those. The heat of shrinking the tube can damage the fly line and the loop material. Get a bobbin from your fly tying table loaded with whatever color you would like. Pinch the thread against the connector at the point of the end of the fly line. Hold the fly line in each hand, about 6 inches apart. I start moving the fly line so the bobbin circles the fly line and starts wrapping thread around the joint. Let the bobbin travel up and down the fly line for about a half-inch to cover the junction. Stop spinning when it is well covered. Take the copper wire loop you used earlier, and lay it against and parallel to the fly line at the junction. Wrap about 10 more times over the copper wire, pull off some excess thread, cut it at the bobbin, then take that tag and pass it through the wire loop. Pull on the free ends of the wire and it will bury the tag end of your thread under several wraps, ensuring it won’t unravel. Trim the tag that pulls out, and apply a light coat of head or rubber cement.
Repeat that process at the end of the connector into which you first inserted your fly line, and your loop to loop connector will be well secured.
What weight of mono should I use?
For most saltwater applications, and big-game freshwater fish like carp and wipers, 8-pound-test line is a great place to start. A good rule of thumb is to match the mono to your rod’s weight. Fishing a 2-weight? Build your first leader with 2-pound-test. Is a 6-weight a better choice for your fishing? Use 6-pound-test for your leader base.
I make my leaders out of Ande™ monofilament, since I use that line for my tippets, too, but other common monos used by conventional anglers will work just fine, too. The Ande™ quarter-pound spools I buy cost less than ten bucks. The 8-pound-test spool holds approximately 1,575 yards of line, which will yield about 180 finished nine-foot leaders. That’s about a nickel per leader! That’s a lot cheaper than manufactured tapered or knotted leaders.