Over the years there has been so many different ways of connecting mono
leaders to fly lines, some good but for the most, bad. Most fly fishermen
over the age of thirty will have come across, in their early days, fly line
and leader connections that were just tied together with two huge blood
knots, which were so large you could just about manage to pull it through
the tip ring of your rod. There has been plastic connecters that looked like
an oversized plastic grain of rice and were just as difficult to pull
through the tip ring. There was even a small metal ring that you
screwed into the end of your fly line. Along with all the other
braided loop connecters with tubes and sleeves that when you were playing a
fish and just needed to strip in a little more line before the fish came to
the net and the sleeve catches on your tip ring, the fish disappears with
the fly, leader and loop connecter. And many more...
The main problem, other than the sheer size and awkwardness of these
connection techniques is the fly line and leader are two separate entities
and behave as such, when casting.
When successfully casting a fly line, everything relies on a smooth, even
transference of energy, right from your arm through the rod, line, leader,
tippet and ending, last but not least, at the fly. These connections become
a weak link in this chain of events, in most cases causing an abrupt
reduction of the energy transference, when it reaches the connection,
resulting in bad turnover, with the end of the fly line crashing down into
the water first and the leader and fly always falling short, instead of
rolling over and presenting the fly at optimal distance and reaching its
intended goal. To say the least, this can be extremely frustrating,
especially if you only have one chance of serving your fly to a cautious
wild fish. The advantage of the perfection connection is that itīs "all in
one" construction gives a smooth and even turnover which reduces fly line
splash down on presentation. This is alpha and omega when it comes to still
water fishing and presenting a dry fly in flat, calm conditions.
The perfection connection serves only as the heaviest butt section of a
leader construction. Using this as the foundation for the remaining
leader, you can taper your leader down to your tippet using a double blood
knot for each section. The mid section and tippet point can be
adjusted to requirements. I normally use a three metre long three section
construction for most still water fishing:
1. The butt section should be 1.5m long and of a
relatively stiff, clear mono which is approximately
65% of the fly line diameter.
2. The mid section should be 75cm long and of a
smaller diameter than the butt section that will in turn slightly reduce the
energy transference from the fly line. This will give a more flexible body
to the tippet, resulting in a truer presentation of the fly, through better
movement and less chance of drag.
3. The tippet section should also be 75cm long and
of a smaller diameter than the mid section. This being said, if you wish to
change your leader to accommodate larger flies or for larger fish, you just
cut off the mid section at the butt connection and construct a new leader to
your requirements.
As a general rule the tippet section diameter can be determined by taking
the hook size to be used, for example #12, divide this by four, = 3 and add
one = 4X. For larger streamer fishing with a #4 hook, divided by four, = 1
+ 1 = 2X...
With only a few basic items, that most fly fishermen already possess, you
can make, in just a matter of a few minutes, the perfect connection on all
your trout lines.