Rigging
Do yourself a favor and cut off the loops that come on both your flyline and your leader. Tie a piece of Amnesia to your flyline using a Needle Nail Knot. Tie the other end of the Amnesia to a micro swivel with a 3-turn Clinch Knot. Whenever you want to change your leader just cut off the old one and tie the new one to the other side of the micro swivel with another 3-turn Clinch Knot. And then say goodbye to getting those huge Perfection Loops that come on you leader caught in your rod guides.
I like to rig up so that I can adjust my approach quickly and easily from nymphing with an indicator, to nymphing with a sighter, to streamers or to dries the moment the conditions call for a change. I prefer versatility over specialization. This is because I’m not a “Dry Fly” angler or a “Streamer Junkie” or a “Euro Nympher” I’m a trout fisherman who likes catching as many trout as I can in various conditions all year long. For me, that means a powerful 10 foot five weight rod with flex closer to the tip but with as much flex in that tip as possible. My rod is paired with a good all-purpose weight forward floating line. I don’t skimp on my fly lines. No need for a fancy reel, it just needs to function properly and balance the long rod. I prefer click and pawl reels for most trout situations. They’re just simpler.
With that said, the most important part of my entire system is the leader and fly line- not the rod, reel, or even the fly. My leaders are comprised of three main parts: a level section of red Sunset Amnesia, a tapered section of clear Maxima and a level section of clear tippet. To assemble these three parts I first cut off the welded loops that fly line manufacturers only include for anglers that don’t want to learn knots. Then, I tie on a section of about 18 inches of 25lbs Amnesia connected to the fly line with a needle nail knot. Next, I tie on about a six foot piece of 20lbs Maxima, about a nine inch piece of 12lbs Maxima and about a nine inch piece of 8lbs Maxima. Finally, I use a 1.5mm tippet ring to attach a section of tippet.
For the most part, I will keep the Maxima section the same indefinitely. It could last an entire season. However, the Amnesia and the tippet sections will change depending on the types of flies and technique I choose to use.
If I’m using a dry fly, the Amnesia and my tippet will be about 18 inches each. If I’m also using a nymph dropper, I tie a piece of tippet from the dry to the nymph that is at least 1.5 times the depth that I want the nymph to sink to.
If I’m using nymphs, I add an additional 18-24 feet to the Amnesia section that will be used in place of fly line. The fly line simply stays on the reel due to the length of the Amnesia. Then, I put a six foot piece of tippet from my tippet ring to a nymph. Next, I tie on another piece of tippet of up to 18 inches from the first nymph to a second heavier nymph. I will either use an indicator attached to the tippet somewhere below the tippet ring and/or I will use an indicator marker to create a sighter above the tippet ring.
I prefer a simple piece of Dacron backing to a monofilament sighter. They are adjustable, quick and easy to tie onto your leader, and may even be more visible. If you’ve ever left the tags long on your monofilament sighters, you’ll love how supple Dacron is and therefore virtually tangle free.
If I am using exclusively smaller or lighter nymphs I will drop-shot. I will drop-shot either under an indicator, with a sighter or even as a dry-dropper-shot. Each is rigged just as I have already described, but instead of a heavy fly at the end of my tippet, I attach heavy split-shot just above a double overhand stopper knot tied at the very end of the tippet.
If I’m casting streamers, the Amnesia will stay the original 18 inches and I attach as short a section of 2x tippet as possible to my tippet ring and attach my streamer to the end. For me, most trout water where I live fishes better with smaller weighted streamers on five weight floating lines. This rig doesn’t cast large articulated streamers well.
This style of rigging may sound complicated, but once you realize that really all I’m doing is adding Amnesia and tippet when nymphing and subtracting them when fishing dries or streamers it becomes a much more versatile and simpler strategy. Especially when compared to paying more for poorly designed knotless leaders or carrying multiple rods and a case of leader building materials.
A couple final tips…
I prefer nylon tippets for everything above the surface and fluorocarbon tippets for subsurface.
Any Amnesia I cut off is saved for later use. It can last quite a while.
I prefer a blood knot when connecting two pieces of line, a double Davy knot when tying to a dry fly and a non-slip mono loop knot when tying to any subsurface fly.
I NEVER use loop to loop connections!
I don’t like flies tied to tags and I tie only to the eye of a hook and never the bend.
For dry flies, tippet diameter is matched only to the size of the dry fly and not to how difficult I think the fish are to catch. I believe trout in a river are rarely turned off by the visibility of tippet, rather they are turned off when a fly is not presented accurately. Using tippet that is too thin or too long will cast poorly and too thick or too short will drag. I prefer 6x for size 20-24, 5x for size 16-20, 4x for sizes 12-16, 3x for sizes 8-12 and 2x for sizes 4-8.
For streamers, I use tippet that is no thinner than 2x regardless of the size of the fly.
For nymphs, I only use tippet that is no thicker than 6x regardless of the size of the fly.
For most of my indicator nymphing, I prefer white foam screw-on indicators like Oros or Airlock in the smallest size possible that will still suspend my nymphs. I prefer white, but I will sometimes color them black with a marker in overcast conditions. However, I have been known to use yarn-style indicators in very calm conditions or while moving downstream in a boat.
For nymphing with a sighter, I prefer the versatility of indicator markers. Hand sanitizer works well to remove the marker when I don’t want it on my line anymore.
Before I start fishing I always use my hands to stretch and straighten the line.
These are not hard and fast rules. I will make adjustments on the river whenever necessary.
In a nutshell, my formula is…
Weight forward fly line to
At least 18 inches 20lbs red Sunset Amnesia to
Six feet of 20lbs clear Maxima to
Nine inches 12lbs clear Maxima to
Nine inches 8lbs clear Maxima to
A 1.5mm tippet ring to
At least 18 inches of level tippet to
Any well presented fly