A stupid question but.....

[Jedster]

A few months ago Shaun Ash wrote an interesting article in BnB about poly leaders. I just found it again and had another read which confirmed my original belief that what he said makes good sense (good article Shaun). The problem I have, and here's the stupid bit, how would it be rigged up? Fly line to poly leader connected with the mono tippet or the other way round. And how much mono tippet (generally) a foot, a metre, two metres?
Thanks
J

[aussiebasser]

Hi Jed, I haven't read the article, (mental note, subscribe to BnB) however I have been using both Poly and Braided leaders for a while now. The Air Flow Poly leaders come with a loop in one end, and then taper down to mono at the fly end. I cut the mono off and fit a braided loop to this end. It is then simple to attach to both the fly line, and the leader. I use the same leader with or without the Poly Leader, about 8' of twisted leader made from 9lb Penn S6. With this set-up, and a weighted Vampire, I have been snagged on the bottom in 20' of water with a WF6F line. My 5 wt IMX handles the line and leader set-up well. The beauty of Braided leaders is that you can cut them shorter for lighter outfits. I cut a Braided Fast sink in half, and relooped the braid. My brother has one for his 4 wt Saggy, and I use one on the IMX.

[Jedster]

Thanks AB, I bought a poly leader a while ago and had a hell of a time trying to cast it. The bastard was about 10 foot long. Took it back to the guy I bought from and he said, 'Cut it in half, then you'll have a heavy one and a lighter one.' Works for me. But I have never caught anything using it so haven't tried it for a while, got onto the intermediate lines and sink tip lines etc. Anyways thanks for the reply, I might just give it another go now I'm a bit better at chuckin the thing around. By the way, one follow up, how often do you use the poly tips and under what circumstances?
Interested to here your views.
Thanks
J

[aussiebasser]

Hi Jed.
For most of my Bassin' I use a fast sink Cortland QD175, that gets me down deep. For Surface I use a full floating line. If I want to fish the edges of weed beds, or the steep banks at Maroon or Cressbrook, I'll put the poly or braided leader on the floater. It saves me buying a sink tip line.