Tackle in Salt Water Fly Fishing

Tackle in Salt Water

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The first thing to understand is that this "ain't trout fishing..." and that fighting even a 4 or 5 pound salt water species like a Skipjack (below) can put a lot of stress on your tackle. You must have good connections all the way from the arbor of the reel to the fly.

If you fail to properly set up your gear you will eventually pay the price. That price could be a broken off fly (appx. $6), the fly and leader (appx. $15) the loss off a fly line, fly and leader (appx. $80) or the loss of all of the above and the backing (appx. $120). Now some of us may say that is not so much money. This may be true but if that line came off the only reel you have on the boat that day, then it gets quite a bit more expensive. You have now lost time fishing and the cost of the boat for the day (appx. $120 plus the cost of the boat $$$).

This section will show you a proven way to setup your tackle that maintains 100% at all junctions and knots, assuring that if a break happens it will be where you want it to happen, at the tippet.

The key concept here is that ALL elements of you line system must have a breaking strength that exceeds that of the tippet. If something breaks it MUST be the tippet and not the leader, fly line, backing or any of the knots joining those elements to one another. So if someone is using 20 pound backing and 20 tippet they have a 50/50 chance of the backing breaking instead of the tippet. If they are using 20 pound backing and 30 pound tippets they are guaranteeing the loss of a fly line if a break occurs.

Also, knots must be properly tied and inspected upon tying to insure that they are firmly seated. Proper knots should be used for connecting the different elements of the line system. Knot interference in the guides should be kept to a bare minimum to protect both the tippets and the tip of the rod. Not just any knot will do in any given situation.

Below we will show how to setup your line system in a way that you can maintains a 100% break strength system all the way to the tippet.

We will start at the reel arbor and work our way out to the fly. We will use braided loops to make connections from the backing to the fly line and from the fly line to the leader. Each of these 3 braided connections will exceed the breaking strength of the fly line, backing and the leader.

We will also show how to create inexpensive leaders that will turn your fly over even when using sinking fly lines, which usually have a very abrupt front taper. This type of front taper does not allow for a smooth turnover of the fly without a well designed leader. Instead it causes the end of the fly line to turn over too hard causing the line, leader and fly to dump into a pile of slack line. This can cost as much as 12 to 15 feet in distance and loss of line control to the fly, until you strip in the slack. For this discussion go to Sinking Lines and Leaders.

Backing to Reel Arbor

The standard arbor knot will work here, in most cases. But if you had a situation where the backing was run all the way out by a large fish, the standard "arbor knot" is weak and will break at lighter load (appx. 80%) than the breaking strength of the backing. In this case you want to rig in a way that the line breaks at its full strength instead of at the knots breaking strength. This insures that the break occurs at the tippet so you don't loose your backing and fly line.

I recommend using a Bimini Twist knot to form a large loop in the backing. That loop (5 or 6 feet long) is wrapped numerous times around the arbor of the reel. Each wind should pass to the opposite side of the standing end from the pass before. In other words one pass to the right of the standing end, one pass to the left of the standing end, and so on. This is particularly important when using gel spun backing to prevent slipping. The end of the loop is then used to tie a uni-knot just under the Bimini on the doubled part of the loop. This is tightened down hard to the arbor and trimmed. The Bimini Twist is a 100% knot so it shouldn't break and the uni-knot is doubled so it shouldn't break. This helps guarantee that the system is at least as strong as the backing and will allow the weak point to be at the tippet (assuming the backing is stronger than the tippet as it should be).

Braided Leaders

For a discussion about sinking lines and creating well designed leaders for them go to the Sinking Lines and Leaders page and read about Twisted Leaders

The Braided Loop

Then next step is to create some braided loops to use for connecting the backing to the rear of the fly line and for connecting the front of the fly line to the leader. The loop is made with 50 pound test braid and self locking so that the loop doesn't pull out.

To attach the backing to the braided loop you make a small (4 or 5 ) inch Bimini Loop. The end of the loop is run up into the non-looped section of the braided loop, tightened to insure eveness, and then the braided end is served with flat waxed nylon tying thread, or kevlar thread, to the backing. When done correctly this creates a connection that exceeds the breaking strength of the backing.

Fly line to Backing

At this point you have learned the techniques used for attaching all of the line elements. But you must have an extra large braided loop on either the backing or the fly line. Choose now and make sure that you do the same for all other lines and backings in the future. You don't want to end up putting 2 small loops together becuase at least one loop needs to be large enough to pass over your reel for ease of changing lines.

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