Saltwater tippet knot

[hookandhackle]

Hello all,

Was wondering if any of you fine folks would be able to help me?

I've got a few saltwater leaders that keep on getting shorter and shorter. I picked up some #15 and #20 tippet/leader material and was wondering what knot to use to tie a new tippet onto my leader?

Will a surgeons knot handle large saltwater fish? Should I use a different knot? Or, should I just continue to buy new leaders? Thanks for any opinions and advise in advance.

Pete

[Housy Dave]

Hi Pete,

I think we are all pretty fortunate that saltwater fish are seldom line shy. A couple things you can do are:

1) Just buy a spool of 20 lb mono and use one straight piece from the fly line to the fly. No tapered leader required. I did this the entire time I was fishing Ninigret this past week and seemed to be catching as many fish as the people around me. When you hook something around 30" you won't have to worry about the line breaking. Another advantage is that it's pretty easy to cast and turn over a big fly. Last year when I was at Ninigret one of the regulars showed me this. He was showing me the ropes and asked what I was using for a leader. I showed him a 12 or 15 lb tapered leader. He yelled at me and told me I was just screwing around because I wouldn't be able to land the biggest fish.

2) Take your tapered leader right out of the package and cut in half. Use the butt section half and put perfection loops on each end. Attach your tippett section using the loop-loop connection. If the tippett gets to short or you want to go heavier/lighter just loop on a different piece. That way you can use 1 tapered leader indefinately, and you just need to replace tippett.