Garden State Trout

Was just curious how many guys buy vs. make their leaders.

I tied my own for the first seven or eight years of fly fishing. But afterwords I did cave-in to the ease of buying already tapered readers. If I want a really short leader for a nymphimg I will tie my own still. I still have tons of formulas online somewhere.

Personally I'm a big fan of the fine braided tapered leaders. For me they just simply turn over much more nicely.

Four or seven foot tapered furled leader with tippet ring, two to four foot tippet, situation dependent.

I just buy tapered leaders. It's cheaper in the end run unless you're someone tangling them often and needing to tie on new ones often. Buying spools of various line diameters to make your own means those spools often sit around for years as you use them, and mono breaks down over time. Just what I do, but I know lots of others that tie their own. Plus every blood knot is one more place for algae to cling to on your drifts. A tapered leader only has one knot where you tie in your tippet material, not several knots up the line.

For nymphing I make my own as it's just a few different diameter monos and some tippet rings for each replacement. For dry flies I use a tapered leader that I buy. So I'm 50/50.

Buy tapered knot less for trout, use straight shot of 8-14 lb test for LM bass, build simple 3 piece leaders for salt.

I mostly use furled leaders and add 24"-36" of tippet depending on the situation. Otherwise I go knotless and add tippet as needed.