We’ve gotten a lot of questions, comments and reactions to a few recent articles that we published about Sighters, Tight Line Rigs and Why Fly Line Sucks. It’s cool to see so much interest.

Many of the questions are about the mono rig itself, and there is definitely some resistance out there to buying spools of mono and blood knotting together a leader like the one I listed in the articles above. I’ll make this point again: the brand, color or even diameter of mono that you choose is much less important than simply getting traditional fly line out of your casts. Every one of my fishing friends uses a different leader, and the one I listed is just a variation on a theme.  It fits my personal objective to keep knots out of my guides and work with a (relatively) thin butt section. Here’s another option …

George Costa, of Hatch Magazine, recently wrote an excellent, succinct piece about a simple tight line leader with the same principles, with a little less effort, and perhaps a bit more comfort for anyone new to the idea of losing the fly line.

Costa writes,

Hopefully, this simple rig will help to demystify some of the challenges of getting started with tight line and Euro-style nymphing rigs. If so, you’ll be eating blintzes and drinking wine instead of staying up all night with the cold sweats wondering if your 32 foot leader will turn over that size 2 Vladi worm.

Costa’s rig is built on a long Rio Suppleflex leader, and it’s not just for rookies. I fish with a number of guys who use various, manufactured, extruded leaders as their base. The Rio Suppleflex is a particularly good choice because it will coil a little less than some others.

Read: Building a simple Euro-style tight line nymphing leader

Illustration from hatchmag.com

Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com