If you’re bouncing around a river swinging flies for steelhead or salmon, you’re probably going to need to swap sinktips every once in a while. You’re hopefully not making a change every 20 minutes, but when you move from a ripping boulder garden to a glassy tailout, you need to make a change.
Today’s tip is a really simple one to make your sinktip change a little quicker and keep your fly in the water for more of the fishing day. Make the loop in the back end of your leader long enough to pass your fly through. This way you can swap tips and loop back on the same leader without tying a single knot.
Important note: make sure your leader is in good shape before you re rig it onto the new tip. If there are any nicks or scratches, take the extra few minutes and replace it.
If you haven’t played around with sinktips and loop to loop connections, your first reaction might be that you can’t move a leader from one sinktip to the other, because the loop in the front of the sinktip isn’t big enough to pass your fly through. The beauty of this connection is that you’ve got two loops to work with – you can pass your fly through the loop on the back of your leader, and it’ll slide right off that way too.
Swapping Leaders
- Grab the loop to loop connection between your sinktip and your leader.
- Pull the loop on the back of your leader forward through the connection (loosening the connection).
- Pass your fly through the loop on the back end of your leader.
- Slide your leader off the sinktip. Easy!
Now you can set the leader aside, change sinktips, and pop that leader right back on the new tip. To connect the leader to the new tip, just do it in reverse – pass the loop on the back end of the leader through the loop on the sinktip, pass your fly through the loop on the back of the leader, and pull the connection tight.
Would you be able to show a photo sequence of this process? I am visualizing the end result would have the leader loop doubled over the fly line loop rather than in the interlocking position.