Hi
This may seem to be a dumb question but in my area of SW Minnestoa there isn't any fly fishermen or suppliers of gear. The nearest I can find is Cabellas 130 miles away. I'm putting my outfit together and mastered(?) some knots. I don't have any tippet material so I have to order some. I'm using a 5 wt line and 9 foot tappered leader. Most of my fishing will be Bass and Pan Fish. My Question is-How long do I make the tippets? This forum has already been a big help.
Thanks
Dave

Dave, for bass and pan fish a tapered leader is not required at all, because delicate presentations aren't that necessary. Use a leader of your choice such as 6, 8 or 10 pound and save your money. Trout, on the other hand, are a different story.

Good question!

Nimrod

My $.01 is that Bass are by far, the hardier fish, and can stand far more extremes in water quality...and aren't turned off nor scared by much. Also, the behavior of their prey is less examined...in comparison to the smaller insects... by wary, overfed trout. Usually adjust the tippet's diameter to the size/weight of your imitation somewhat....but with bass, go as strong with the tippet section as you can before the presentation looks really strange.

have a great summer, geez it's only early June and we've been in the 80s in Maine already

Steve

I agree with both of the previous posts, leader length isn't really an issue with bass, the breaking strength, abrasion resistance, and the taper design are however. Use a hard type mono or a fluorocarbon. also stick with bass, steelhead, od saltwater leaders, they are all designed to help you turn over large flies, and are usually a little tougher than normal trout leaders.

Josh
http://www.rogueflyshop.com

Hi DDJ...

You've gotten good advice so far and I'll try not to mess up your lucky streak.

First, a general comment about tippits. They are traditional with Troutsters because they use tiny flys and also because the use expensive or, if home-made, "labor-intensive" leaders. The smaller diameter tippit is often necessary to fit through the hook-eye. Also, a few feet of tippit is cheaper to sacrifice to the cutting involved in changing flys than an entire leader.

With Bass and Panfish, there is really on need for ultra-small flys and very little need for tapered leaders. (More on that later As an "aside", doing away with the tippit does away with a knot (joint) and makes casting a tad less complicated - and I'm all for anything that uncomplicates matters!)

I've fished for Florida Largemouths for years using a level leader (plain old mono, without any "tippit" - usually Stren Blue). Most often I use 10-lb-test or 14. If I'm tossing bigger bugs I'll go to 17-lb.-test and (rarely) 20-lb.

I start out a new leader at between 7.5 and 8.5-ft. and fish them down to 6-ft. or a little shorter (depending on how lazy I am).

Couple things to bear in mind though. The State of Florida is only about an inch and a quarter above sea level so most of our lakes are relatively shallow. I am almost always fishing in 8-9ft. of water or less - usually 5-ft. or less. In deeper lakes you may find some advantage to using leaders a bit longer.

Also, my usual lakes have mostly soft vegetation and the closest rocks to me are probably in North Georgia. So I don't (usually) get the abrasion you might get fishing flooded timber or lakes with a lot of submerged brushy-type cover or rocks
For those reasons you may find it a good idea to go up a notch in lb-test or, as Caster suggets, switiching to the "hard" mono of fluoro.

Talking Panfish though... this is where you might want to consider getting creative with your leader and/or leader/tippit. Using Bluegills as an example, you've probably seen them "inspecting" a bug on the water before going for it. Except during spawns and sometimes during really active hatches, they are generally not nearly as prone to just blasting a bug as are Bass.
Until recently I have usually used 9-10-ft leaders of 4-lb. or 6-lb.-test for Bluegills specifically to get the fly (dry or nymph) or popper farther from the thicker line and any surface disturbance it may make. One thing I've never liked about regular mono is the disturbance it makes lying on the surface when I am twitching poppers or drys.
Just recently Mike Donovan (a member of this board) very kindly sent me some spools of "FrogHair" which is very thin but strong and (reportedly) nearly invisible to the fish. I also bought some Flouro to play with. Both really impress
me because they make little/no disturbance.
In the case of the flouro, which sinks a bit between the popper and the end of the line, I can twitch the line and there is virtually no surface disturbance anywhere near the popper or dry except what the fly itself makes.
Big 'Gills in Summer (post-spawn) will move deep and, I think, revert back to their careful inspection of potential meals. So I'm anticipating the "invisibility" and minimal disturbance of FrogHair and Fluoro to be a "plus" for going after them too.

Whew! That's a bunch. Hope it helps!

Best,
5/0

Thanks everyone for the replies. This is a new thing for me and I'm picking up quite a bit of Knowledge from this forum. 5/O-your answer was right on for me.
Thanks again
Dave

Here's a leader formula I've saved that uses mono (the kind of stuff you can find at the K-mart).
Joe Brook's 6lb. test leader:
36" 30lb. test
24" 25lb. test
24" 20lb. test
18" 15lb. test
12" 12lb. test
12" 10lb. test
18" 8lb. test
24" 6lb. test, for tippet
14' of leader is fairly long. I've modified many a formula with a calculator myself...and with good results.

PS: the glass site is back up and running.
http://p097.ezboard.com/bfiberglassflyrodders