Understanding Leaders and Tippets | Hatch Magazine - Fly Fishing, etc.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but leaders and tippets confused the heck out of me when I first started fly fishing. After all, if you were a spin fisherman, as I was back in the mid 80s, your terminal end tended to be pretty basic. You either tied your lure directly to your line, or, if you wanted to get fancy, you used a snap swivel to add flexibility to your rig. By comparison, fly fishing was rocket science. Not only did you have to understand the complicated terminology, but you were supposed to construct your leaders from scratch, using archaic formulas developed by physics professors masquerading as anglers. For example, in A. J. McClane’s The Practical Fly Fisherman, there were 9 different tapered leader formulas on page 72. The very first was: 40” of .018, 36” of .017, 7” of .016, 7” of .014, 7” of .013, 7” of .012, and 28” of .010. In this formula, the .018s, etc., refer to the diameter of the material, while the 40”s, etc., give the length of the individual sections. Then, of course, there’s the question of whether to use hard nylon, soft nylon or both; or whether you should go old school and build your leaders from gut (or bat wing, or eye of newt). Heck, even if you knew how to handle a fly rod and tie a blood knot, leader construction was daunting. So let’s try to simplify things by starting out with a few basics. When I refer to a “leader,” I’m talking about a length of material (or materials) that connects your fly line to your fly. Some leaders are tapered, others are level. Some are one piece, others are created by knotting together a number of shorter sections. Some are solid, others are braided or furled. But they’re all leaders, and their object is simple - to connect your fly to your fly line in a way that helps you catch fish.
https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/understanding-leaders-and-tippets/7711248
