When to Change a Leader (19 of 35)

How do you know when to change your leader? You know, if you're going from a big river where you might be using a 9 or a 12-foot leader and you're fishing a little creek, then you might wanna go to a shorter, like a seven and a half-foot leader. On the other hand, if you start out in a small creek and you get to a big river with flat water, you may wanna go to a nine-foot leader. So, you can modify your leader to make it longer. But it's usually easy just to take off the leader you've been using, roll it up in your hand, put it away, and then take out a new leader. Now, there is a time if you've been using a leader for a while, that you may need to change your leader. I've been using the same leader for eight days of fishing, and I keep cutting back to fish a streamer, and then I add a section to go back to a dry fly, and then I cut back again. And I wasn't smart enough to put a tippet ring on here, I was using knots. So, I've gotten to the point where if I need to tie a new piece on, it's really heavy. It's bigger than OX. So, I've gotten to the point where maybe I should treat myself to a new leader. So, I'm gonna put a new, fresh leader on, put this one away, maybe use it for bass fishing or something else where I need a heavier leader and I'm gonna start with a fresh leader. Okay. So, I've got a fresh leader on, and it's a nine-foot 4X. However, I'm gonna be smart about it this time. What I'm gonna do is go back on my leader as it gets heavier until it gets to the thickest tippet I think I might use, which would probably be 2X for fishing streamers. So, I'm gonna find that point on my leader where it's 2X and I'm gonna take a spool of tippet material and take my 2X out. And I'm just gonna run it up alongside my leader until it looks like it's about the same diameter. Yeah. Right about here. Then, I'm gonna tie a tippet ring on to where it's about 2X. And then if I need to go to 5X, I can add a piece of three, a little piece of three, a little piece of four to go to 5X. If I go back to fishing streamers, I can come back to that tippet ring and tie in a piece of 2X tippet. However, my leader won't keep getting shorter because I got a permanent tippet ring on the end. So, I'll be able to now use this same leader for a lot longer. So, I'm gonna be smarter about it this time and put a tippet ring on the end. So, that's basically all there is to know about when to change your leader. You change them based on the conditions you're fishing. And if you are comfortable tying knots, you can use the same leader almost a full season by adding and subtracting sections by tying knots. So, you don't need to keep changing your leaders every time unless you wanna spend five bucks every time you go fishing. Now, I got another one. This is a different fish. [00:03:38] [music] [00:04:00]