Newbie leader question

I've been fishing RIO Knotless Tapered Leaders in 7.5' 5x size, all
season with good results. Recently I purchased the same RIO Knotless
Tapered Leaders but in 9' 7x size. These leaders were a nightmare to
fish. They had a real bad "memory" problem and coiled up no matter
what I did to get them straight. Why would these have the problem
when the 7.6 5x were fine?

Is there anything I can do to get these leaders to straighten out and
"lose" the memory?

Is there a better brand/model of tapered leaders that I should be
buying instead of Rio?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I was really
surprised by this.

mdk77 wrote:
I've been fishing RIO Knotless Tapered Leaders in 7.5' 5x size, all
season with good results. Recently I purchased the same RIO Knotless
Tapered Leaders but in 9' 7x size. These leaders were a nightmare to
fish. They had a real bad "memory" problem and coiled up no matter
what I did to get them straight. Why would these have the problem
when the 7.6 5x were fine?

Is there anything I can do to get these leaders to straighten out and
"lose" the memory?

Is there a better brand/model of tapered leaders that I should be
buying instead of Rio?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I was really
surprised by this.

I don't know why the 9' 7x leaders would have that memory problem, but I
suggest that you not use them because the uses for 7x tippet are few and
far between. You can always tie on 7x tippet when you feel you need it.

I primarily use Rio 7.5' leaders, but I usually buy them in 3x size and
then tie on smaller tippet (typically 5x). I also carry a couple of Rio
9' leaders (and extra tippet) for those occasions when I need a longer
leader, and I've never noticed a memory problem with them.

BTW, some people in ROFF think that 7x is NEVER useful. I disagree. I
use it when fishing the Trico hatch at Silver Creek (and pretty much
only then). I've landed sizable fish on 7x, and lost few, too.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

rw wrote:

I don't know why the 9' 7x leaders would have that memory problem, but I
suggest that you not use them because the uses for 7x tippet are few and
far between. You can always tie on 7x tippet when you feel you need it.

I primarily use Rio 7.5' leaders, but I usually buy them in 3x size and
then tie on smaller tippet (typically 5x). I also carry a couple of Rio
9' leaders (and extra tippet) for those occasions when I need a longer
leader, and I've never noticed a memory problem with them.

BTW, some people in ROFF think that 7x is NEVER useful. I disagree. I
use it when fishing the Trico hatch at Silver Creek (and pretty much
only then). I've landed sizable fish on 7x, and lost few, too.


This is good advice. I also use 7.5' 3X leaders, and tie tippet on as I
need. I rarely go below 5X in the waters I fish. Only time I deviate
from this is when I fish streamers for bull trout, then I use a larger
diameter leader.

Tim Lysyk

Tim Lysyk wrote:
rw wrote:
...
I primarily use Rio 7.5' leaders, but I usually buy them in 3x size
and then tie on smaller tippet (typically 5x). ...

This is good advice. I also use 7.5' 3X leaders, and tie tippet on as I
need. I rarely go below 5X in the waters I fish. ...

Ditto for me. I buy 7.5' 3X exclusively for everything except
muskie & pike, the only difference is I like Orvis SuperStrong.

--
Ken Fortenberry

Interesting! I rarely use anything under 9', of course this is
dependent upon the length of rod you use, what you fish for, how you
are fishing and where you fish. For low and big water I switch to 12'
and have even used 15' leaders.

I believe Rio leaders are of the softer variety if leaders. I do not
know if this fact has anything to do with the memory problem. I do know
that in the finer tippet sizes, the softer leader materials kink badly
when using certain knots to tie the fly to the tippet. It's annoying.
( I've switched to the Davy's Knot, which helps some.) I also know that
as leader material gets older, it does have this problem. Is it possible
these leaders were purchased " On Sale" because they'd been sitting
around for too long? It could be because, as rw said, they don't get
used very much by anglers, and they'd been on the shelf too long.

I build my own leaders using Maxima leader material. This is stiffer
than Rio and comes in different tints of color. I then vary the tippet
material for different circumstances. I don't have a lot of problems
straightening these leaders out by simply stretching them a bit.

Hope this helps,
Mark


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rw wrote in news:4735d3ee$0$17025
:

BTW, some people in ROFF think that 7x is NEVER useful. I disagree. I
use it when fishing the Trico hatch at Silver Creek (and pretty much
only then). I've landed sizable fish on 7x, and lost few, too.

I find 7x can be very helpful to achieve a drag-free drift while nymphing.
There's less profile for the current to have its way with.


--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

"rw" wrote


I primarily use Rio 7.5' leaders, but I usually buy them in 3x size and
then tie on smaller tippet (typically 5x). I also carry a couple of Rio 9'
leaders (and extra tippet) for those occasions when I need a longer
leader, and I've never noticed a memory problem with them.

BTW, some people in ROFF think that 7x is NEVER useful. I disagree. I use
it when fishing the Trico hatch at Silver Creek (and pretty much only
then). I've landed sizable fish on 7x, and lost few, too.



I spent the month of Sept at Silver Creek and found myself using 7X
often.

At the time I thought " I should tell rw since I've argued with him about
this"

..... so, I stand corrected, rw

... however I also add that the Creek
was lower and, therefore, more 'technical' than I have ever seen it in the
25 ++ years I've fished it.

And I'll also add that hatches were very sparse and I was mainly fishing to
sporadic rising individual fish not pods. One thing that normally makes
Silver Creek fish relatively easy is the heavy hatches pod them up and, in
pods, they are hard to scare and easier to fool.

As for landing trout on 7X, I landed quite a few honestly over 20" without
problem

"Larry L" wrote in message
...

As for landing trout on 7X, I landed quite a few honestly over 20" without
problem

Still water or river?
You're pretty good Larry.
You got to be using a full flex fly-rod?

I lost a good size leopard trout in Alaska when the 5x tippet snapped with a
sudden turn of the head. Had a full flex bamboo rod even. At first I thought
I hooked a Salmon, until it came out of the water.

I have used 6x tippet, but I don't think I would ever use 7x tippet on a
river.
-tom

"Tom Nakashima" wrote


Still water or river?
You're pretty good Larry.
You got to be using a full flex fly-rod?


Silver Creek, a slow flowing, weedy, spring creek

no, I wish I was pretty good, but I'm a common angler, at best

8.5 ft 4 wt Sage XP


.................

fish that go to weed are nearly impossible to land ( but I managed with one
by burying my arm up to the shoulder in water and weed and pulling him and
38 pounds of greenery out together ;-),...... regardless of tippet size,
so I lost quite a few, too


Silver Creek fish ( especially at the end of a stressful year ) aren't all
that strong, on average ... they have a cushy life, lots of bugs, slow
flows, plenty of places to rest without using any energy I'd try many
other avenues to success before dropping to 7X for 20 inch HFork fish, for
instance, .... one of them will often damn near spool you. IF you can
keep a SC fish in open water for a bit, are willing to go to him, rather
than try to haul him to you, and know how to use a net on a relatively fresh
fish, you can land them without a lot of hoopla. I only had one fish, a
19 inch Brown, that fought long and hard enough that reviving him was a
fairly long process. Even then I only noticed it took a while because it
was cold and my hands were numb by the time he shot off to be caught again.

mdk77 wrote:

I've been fishing RIO Knotless Tapered Leaders in 7.5' 5x size, all
season with good results. Recently I purchased the same RIO Knotless
Tapered Leaders but in 9' 7x size. These leaders were a nightmare to
fish. They had a real bad "memory" problem and coiled up no matter
what I did to get them straight. Why would these have the problem
when the 7.6 5x were fine?

Is there anything I can do to get these leaders to straighten out and
"lose" the memory?

Is there a better brand/model of tapered leaders that I should be
buying instead of Rio?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I was really
surprised by this.


it's the 7x. i use the rio 9' 4x...then cut and tie tippet as necessary
for conditions. no memory problems...except 6x tippet will kink and coil
easily. though i've fiddled with 7x, 6x is usually as low as i go. most
often use 5x...except on places like the madison, where 4x is necessary
to bully the big fish out of the fast waters.

jeff