Making your own leaders?
 

I have made my own leaders for as long as I can remember fishing, however I usually just tie a 4 foot piece of heavy mono, 30ish pound, then I tie onto that another 4-5 feet of whatever size tippet I think I need. I now want to start making my own tapered leaders, but I am not sure how many sizes of line to use, or how large of a size jump I can do. I am mostly wondering about leaders for trout on the dry, but anything about a bull trout/walleye/pike leader would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

Really the possibilities are endless. I fish quite a range from small streams to large rivers to lakes for trout and pike with the odd salmon trip thrown in on quite a few different weights of rods and don't always have a fresh tapered leader. 3 different appropriate weights of line will usually turn over nice in most situations but there are recipes out there for 5 or 6 different weights of very specific line on a 12 to 15ft leader. Really fast pocket water dry fly in the wind may call for an extremely short leader with only a tapered butt section and tippet. Deep nymphing may call for a long mid section of flouro and flouro tippet. Every situation is different but yes you can get by carrying around a handful of spools of different weights of line. My butt section is usually a tapered 3x which has been shortened over time. Mid section 10 lb mono for dry, 6lb flouro for wet and tippet really specific for what you are doing. For pike its just a short section of 15 lb flouro (yes I loose the odd fly to teeth) down to 6x mono for delicate dry fly trout. My buddies laugh at the many spools in my kit but I can patch together a leader for most situations.

For bull trout I use just straight 12lb floro. For pike I use a 20lb butt section down to a 60lb floro bite guard

Excellent article here on leader design.
http://www.flyfishusa.com/tackle-tip...t-leaders.html

I've been using these tried and proven formulas building my leaders for 8-10yrs now(?) and cringe at the thought of paying $5-$8 for a factory tapered leader.Once you get past the initial investment of buying spools of Maxima from 4-30lb,I've calculated my cost per leader is about 75 cents/ea?
I generally build 9' trout leaders tapered from 25-6lb,then use 4lb tippet if required.I build 12' salmon/steelhead leaders tapered from 30-10 or 8lb,and I can "cast" them and have them unfold straight to the tippet in the house with just my arm and the butt section held in hand.....that's with no fly tied on.

15lb Pline fluoro clear for bulls. 10' section.

for nymph or streamer fishing I usually just straight line it. 8lb fluoro for lake fishing in BC, 6lb on our rivers for cutties and rainbows, etc

for dry fly fishing I use a store bought leader with a tippet ring, lasts forever as long as I don't nick it on something.

Check the Orvis website in the learning center. There are step by step instructions with proper length and diameters.