Wet Fly Leader Question

[THOLT]

Bought Davy's Wet Fly DVD (which is excellent) and read through posts but I still have one question regarding the leader configuration that Davy uses. I'm sure it has been posted somewhere but I must be missing it so I apologize in advance if this is repetitive. Davey recommends 4-6 feet to the first fly and he also recommends using the same strength tippet from first fly to point fly. My question is what is the configuration of the 4-6 feet of line (ie how long is butt before you start tippett and is there any step down in the butt section and perhaps what are prefered material). I assume that a Davy Leader knot is used to connect the heavier butt to the much lighter tippet.

Thanks

[AaronJasper]

He uses either golden stren or amnesia for the butt section. The step down is from 20 pound to 14 pound if using the stren or 15 pound if using the amnesia.

The butt sections can be 2 to 5 feet depending on water types fished. I commonly use either 3 feet of 20 pound with my tippet tied directly to that, or 3 feet of the 20 pound and 2 feet of the 15. That's the butt section that I see him using most of the time.

Rumor has it that he might be coming in June

[Loupe]

Aaron,
Do you tie your tippet straight to the butt section with a surgeon's knot, or do you use a micro ring? When I contacted Davy a while back about his leader setups, he suggested using a ring...which is what I've been doing and it's great...but I know a double or triple surgeon's knot will also work ok. PS- that Tatsu stuff is the bomb, I think it's essentially the exact same material as GMax...except on a much larger spool at 1/5 the price! I can't fully recommend it yet due to limited use, but I have a feeling that this stuff is gravy.

[Davyfly]

Tholt,

OK, I do use many different configurations to suit how l wish to fish the flies, but accept that l had restricted time to show all in the DVD, that would be a DVD alone.

As a rule for a standard type set up use what l showed in the DVD.
You will need Amnesia in 20/15/12 bs. I prefer the clear.
I also use yellow stren in diminished light conditions when clear is not easily seen, for the reason that l look for the line to twitch to set the hook or any movement where l know the flies are, l do not wait as must do for the take of the trout or a felt pull.

The distance from the butt section is relative mainly to how you wish to work the dropper fly, which would also depend if you were using a dry or a intermediate line, in the case of rivers and streams.
In the case of stillwaters that is a very different deal.

So to explain this a little further as a example used to day with my fisherman.
Trout were working the surface taking emerging and adult caddis.
There was also a fair amount of gusty wind, the fish were concentrated at high surface level.

I rigged teh dry lines with 4 ft of 20, 2ft of 15 and 2 ft of 12 Amnesia, to that straight length of 4x FC at 30 ins fly space and 5 ins droppers.
This allowed for the top and mid dropper flies to be worked in and off the surface and the trout just loved that, from the boat.
If l had of used a short butt say of 4 ft the animation of the flies would not have been so easy.
Here you use the wind to help work the flies, skitter them, drop them to the surface to dead drift and all manner of permutations to induce the fish to take them, this could not have been done with a shorter leader system.

The flies were a woodcock and hares ear, Invicta and a Tan winged wet hares ear.

My knots use are the Davy knot for flies, Davy stop knot for leader to butt section and surgeons, for the 3 connections and droppers, all be it there are some other options l use for droppers.

Hope this helps you.

Davy.




The longer butt section allowed to

[Davyfly]

Loupe,

yes, a permanent tippet ring can also be used.
The line l use is P-line Halo FC, darn good stuff.

DW

[THOLT]

Thanks. So for dry fly under various conditions a 4-8 foot butt depending on conditions then 20-30 inch tippet to first 4-6 inch dropper, 20-30 inch to second 4-6 inch dropper and 20-30 inch to point. I was confused about length of butt and length of first length of tippet to first dropper By the way, I've watched your video many times and there are so many subtle details that I pick up each time. Going to spend lots of time on the water practicing them this year. Who makes the butt/leader connections (micro rings?) your talking about?

[pete erickson]

Hey Davy,

I know that this is hijacking this thread a little, but you mentioned stillwater leaders in your post...

I pretty much go with the John Horsey---Iain Barr style build (6-8ft of level flouro from the line loop to the bob fly, and then 6 ft to each of the other two flies--for a total of roughly 20 feet long) obviously this is just a general setup and I change it as conditions change or for dry fly setups, but I do use this in Loch Style comps as a starting point...Norman M. mentioned that you sometimes do something different with your stillwater leader builds, or do you do the same as those guys?

the reason that I ask, is that I learned some different leader build variations in Scotland and I want to experiment a little...

[Loupe]

THOLT,
These are the Niche micro rings I like (the 2mm black nickel) http://wflies.com/Tippets.html
Climax also makes some that are pretty good.

Tip- keep them on a small wire clip/safety pin, then tie your leader to one BEFORE you take it off the clip... this makes it easy to tie to the ring and tighten your knot (I use a 3 turn clinch for heavy leader and a Davy knot for the tippet). There are other ways to do it, but this is what I found works easiest.

[Loupe]

PS How many more posts do I need to not be a hatchery fingerling anymore... it is depressing. I wanna make my way up to little brookie status! haha

[frankm205]

Yea man I think it's a 100. A man like you hatchery fingerling? Ha Ha just kidding