Loop knots for ends of a poly leader?

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

A customer has asked for my help with his spey leaders – which is way outside my radar screen as I’m in South Florida and only play with my spey rods for the fun of casting.

He took his leaders to a shop who put loops at both ends for him. These are coated sinking leaders – I’m guessing poly leaders - with different sink rates. He does not like the rear loop knots as they will not reel in through his guides, and has asked me to replace them with loops that will.

Personally, when I put loops at the ends of flylines I double the flyline tip back and tie a nail knot around both, then glue, then smooth out with UV resin. Will this work with a poly leader… or is there a better way to do it?

Maybe insertion into braided loops???

Thanks for helping the clueless!

[Geenomad]

Personally, when I put loops at the ends of flylines I double the flyline tip back and tie a nail knot around both, then glue, then smooth out with UV resin. Will this work with a poly leader… or is there a better way to do it?

Maybe insertion into braided loops???

Been using polyleaders in single handed outfits for many years. Have never messed with the top welded loop and have never had one fail there.

Bottom of the leader - way back when I was pulling lures I often used a 5' inter polyleader. I put a braided loop on the bottom of it and tied in straight through tippet from there. It lasted a lot of seasons.

Currently, I still use polyleaders and a loop to loop system from the flyline on down to the tippey. I prefer to tie a loop knot in the mono end of the polyleader and attached the rest of the leader loop to loop. I've had one failure in several years of doing this mainly because I was too slack to retie the knot. And yes you can get quite a few knots out of the standard leader especially if some of the coating is stripped back.

Don't now what the shop did for your customer but it sounds a bit funky. FWIW I need my setup to move in and out of the rod tip easily for walk and stalk sight fishing, Loop inside the tip? Should come out with a flick or two at most.

Oh and btw to smooth things out I use a clear polyurethane glue like Aquaseal or Stormsure. UV resin is a bit brittle for my tastes.

Cheers
Mark

[Paul Arden]

They shouldn't have knots at the top! It's possible to make your own welded loops - Lasse has an article on this on SL in the articles section (sorry I'm on slow mobile connection or I'd post it!). Alternatively inserting in brain and making splicing loops will also work.

Just a thought. There is a small plastic connection that allows line to leader without knots. I can't recall its name nor if it's strong enough. But that would be another possible solution!

Cheers Paul

[crunch]

I have kept the rear loops like the come but to front end I tie 2mm tippet ring for trout polyleaders and 3mm for salmon/saltwater polys where tippet is then tied. Using Uni-knot with tippet ring is stronger than Nylon and Fluorocarbon loop knot connections.

Esa

[Lee Cummings]

The quickest and easiest way I found was to simply tie a single overhand knot right into the end of the polyleader, pulling it really tight to form a very small bump.

Butt up the leader/tippet to the back of this bump using a constriction knot.

[Bernd Ziesche]

Hi MC,
at the end direction to fly I add a "Pitzenbauer ring" (small metal ring). That way I can change the tippet section again and again and never have to cut away a part of the polyleader.
For the stronger end you may form a loop with a braided line (backing for example). Then tie the ends (parallel) on the end of the polyleader. I use tying thread for that. Add the thread over a length of half an inch. Finish with Polyurethan glue on top. Such loops stay very long and are very powerful.
Melting a loop with the coating in my experience has a much shorter life.

Just received a new MED fly line by SA now coming with a melted loop at the tip end. It was gone after precisely one casting session on grass!

Cheers
Bernd

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Thanks everyone!

That was quite an education... and it seems there are many ways to approach this.

The guy brought the leaders in and I understood what his concern was. I won't go into detail on what I found but it was not pretty... think loop knots, poor ones, tied at each end. To be fair, poly leaders are not very common here in South Florida, but still... if you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. That shit makes all of us in shops look bad.

The guy wanted a fix quick and cheap -the quicker the better. I tied welded loops on the tippet ends and inserted the butt ends into commercial braided loops. Whipped the braids with tying thread and glued them into place with a glue called Fletch Tight. That is a product from the archery department that is very strong and flexible for attaching the fletching to custom arrows. I use it a lot for fly tying... very strong.

And then I told him to have his guides down in Argentina check them out and comment before he used them!

He seemed happy but left without even saying thanks. He almost seemed miffed at having to pay for the rings and braided loops.

Maybe he got what he deserved from the previous shop?

I won't be so rude... thanks for all the information, on this and on all the threads... this place is like a graduate course in fly fishing.

[Paul Arden]

He's off for a week's guided fishing in Argentina and he doesn't want to pay for terminal tackle?! Anyway I suppose if he was serious he'd ask you to do one so he could learn to do the rest

Cheers Paul

[Phil Blackmar]

Retail sucks....I was once working in a golf shop at a golf course as an assistant pro. A lady brought in a pair of golf shoes she had just bought at a store in town and asked me to remove all the spikes and put oil on them so they wouldn't rust. I wanted to say maybe the store where she bought them could do that for her but my boss, standing right there, told her we would be glad to take care of it for her......

That lesson helped inspire practice sessions for a while...LOL

Phil

[Paul Arden]

Probably stepped on the course and got struck by lightning! I get some amazing ones but I have to remember I wasn’t always perfect

Did you superglue them in?