A Wet-fly Leader.

[Ruard]

Ray, your drawing makes things a lot easier to understand.

I use a leader of about 1,20 m braided nylon and i make a tapering to the end by removing pieces of thread. On the loop on the end I knot a piece of 1 m or m or 3 m of 12/100 nylon and at about 40cm from the point fly I make a dropper with a three times waterknot. simple but effective. Sometimes the dropper is aruond the mainline but it seems not make any difference.


greeting

[Otter]

Sometimes the dropper is aruond the mainline but it seems not make any difference.
greeting

This is quite interesting and if I quote from the original post on this thread.

"There are drawbacks to the traditional leader with three flies - among them a nasty inclination of the droppers to twist around the leader, the increasing difficulty in changing flies as the droppers becomes shorter, and the tendency to stimulate the use of unsportsmanlike language as the whole lot becomes irretrivably snarled up following a mis-timed cast. These drawbacks can all be overcome by using a dropperless leader, whereby a fly, tied on an up-eyed hook, is threaded directly onto the leader and prevented from slipping down by the knot joining the tippet sections."


1. among them a nasty inclination of the droppers to twist around the leader

If the dropper twists around the leader then it ain't a whole lot different than if it were threaded directly onto the leader.


2. th increasing difficulty in changing flies as the droppers becomes shorter

Having to cut the leader to thread on a new fly, the proposed method makes it a right pain in the .... I mean more difficult from the start

[Ruard]

[quote="Otter
If the dropper twists around the leader then it ain't a whole lot different than if it were threaded directly onto the leader.


2. th increasing difficulty in changing flies as the droppers becomes shorter

Having to cut the leader to thread on a new fly, the proposed method makes it a right pain in the .... I mean more difficult from the start [/quote]

I could tie a few dropper flies on my dropper thread because i use a single knot: through the eye then 5 times around the main dropper line and then through the "loop" between the eye andt the twisted thread and not back to the loop. In this way you can tighten the thread of the dropper the long end i mean and this way you don't spoil much nylon and so you can ty two or three times a new fly on the dropper.


Greeting

[flyfishwithme]

Very interesting.
Now being a leader freak I read this with interest and it has already been debated on an English forum.
Two points come to mind.
1. The absolute critical thing for me is to try and get as close as I can to a drag free drift with my flies. I have tried this method and using a dropper is superior in my opinion to achieving that drift. The leader tends to behave in one way while the droppers in another.. Each to their own.
As for dropper size reduction, I have just returned from three weeks in Tasmania fishing droppers every day and with a lot of fly changes. Using Davy Wottons know (which produces a very small knot) I was able to get many fly changes before I had to worry about replacing a 4" dropper.
I think I'll stick to my leaders for the moment.
P

[Otter]

Philip,

How would you rate the Davy knot.

I used it exclusively last season and found myself having more break off's than previously experienced. That said, I had also switched to a different tippet material and my gut instinct is that therin lay the problem. I have decided to stick with the Davy knot , its versatility, ease of tying and the tiny knot are very attractive - I should know within a few months whether my instinct is correct and that hopefully the tippet material in conjunction with the Davy knot was the problem and not the Davy knot per se.

[flyfishwithme]

Otter,
When I learnt it I must say that I was skeptical. I thought is was just too simple to hold against a fighting fish.
Well last week I fished in Tasmania on the lakes out of a boat. We dead drifted along suds lines, pushed into the dead trees and flogged from the shore. After 30+ fish ranging from 2lb to 4lb, pulling fish out of subsurface weed beds and hauling caught up leaders from tree tops I can honestly say that the knot never failed once. When I did get a break off (from the cursed trees) it was at the leader knot.
I must say I am impressed and will continue using it. Simple and a VERY small knot. I like.
I was using Kamasan Bayer Perlon for the top two sections and droppers in 3.2lb and 2.1lb BS.
Philip

[daringduffer]

Is there a wrong way to tie this Davy knot? I have tried it several times and it breaks easily almost every time. I always go back to the Duncan loop. http://killroys.com/knots/duncan-loop-or-uni-knot/

dd

[flyfishwithme]

Here you go Stefan.

[daringduffer]

Thank you Philip. That is the exact instructions I've been trying to follow, using Rio Powerflex 5x.

Breaking, breaking, breaking.

Give me a br

dd

[Otter]

Philip,

I should have added that I use often Rio fluroflex in 5 & 6x for some nymphing and never had an unexpected failure using the Davy Knot