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When I fish for native fish species such as bass, perch and saratoga and when I fish for salt water species I always use a loop to loop connection between my fly line and my leader.

Nail loop knots

Loop knots tied from monofiliment fishing line are very easy to tie and provide a slim but strong connection point on fly lines. For all my fly fishing except for trout I like that loop on the end of my fly line to be between 70mm and 80mm long. The monofiliment fishing line that I use for these loops is Maxima Ultragreen and the thickness of the fishing line used depends on the line class of the fly line I am tying the loop knot on. For #6 weight fly lines I use 25lb, for #8 weight fly lines I use 30lb and for my #10 weight fly lines I use 30lb. The thicknesses of these lines is stronger than the the maximum size leader that I use for that line class ensuring that the loop is not the weakest part of my fly line and leader. The line weights that I have settled on also are about 2/3 the average thickness of the tips of my various fly lines and consequently the loops that I tie don't overwelm the tip of the fly lines and of cause easily slip through the tip runner on my fly rods.

I use these nail loop knots because they are:

• Stronger than the manufactured loops that come on fly lines.
• Are less visible than braided loops or manufactured loops.
• Allow neat leader to line connections without introducing any hinging effect.
• Importantly, with the loop of the fly line outside the rod tip, the loop on the line is big enough to allow me to do a loop to loop connection by overlapping the leader loop with the fly line loop and then passing the balance of the leader including flies through the loop on the fly line. I don't use this loop to loop connection for my trout fishing because in most cases the space available dictates that if you want to change the leader connected to the fly line you need to be able to do that with the tip of the fly line half way up the fly rod. In that situation it's much easier to do a leader change using a loop to open loop connection and then to lock the open loop of with a blood knot.;

Leader loops

Except for my trout leaders I finish all my leaders, at the fly line end, with my 2 turn loop knot. This knot is very simple to tie and because of its figure eight configuration is relatively strong. It also has the advantage over the other many other loop knots in that the two parts of line coming out of the actual knot are next to each other so the actual open part of the loop can be as narrow as just the two thicknesses of line.

Why loop to loop connections?

The single big advantage of using a loop to loop connection is that I can quickly change between the current leaders on my fly line with a pre-prepared leaders.

I carry my pre-prepared leaders, complete with flies, on what I call 'leader pads' that are 20mm X 170mm x 380mm thick 'leader pads'. I get these pads from the cheap shop for $2 each .... they are described there as gardening knee pads. I mark them up with black permanent marker and score the sides at the end of each marked up line with a blade so that the leaders stay in place on their leader pad.

I have got into the habit of taking one or more of these leader pads when I am going on a trip or into a competition session and always make sure that I have, leaders tied up, complete with appropriate flies, that I can quickly swap over to. If I have have a default leader and fly selection for a particular type of fishing or a particular waterway I always make sure I have one or two of those combination on the leader pad.

A	So if I am lock style fly fishing for trout I always have a good selection of leaders complete with flies on hand.

B	For trout river leaders where its more about matching the hatch I generally carry a leader set up nymphing, dry fly fishing and of course swinging spiders.

C	I don't do as much fly fishing for bass, sarratoga and perch as would like to but have found that particularly for wet flies that there are a couple of teams of flies that work equally well across those species.

D	Most of my salt water fly fishing is done using my prawn fly, a team of two poly minnows, a blue/grey gusto or a white size #2 clouser so I always have spare leader loaded with those flies as well as one spare leader without flies attached on my salt water leader pad.

One minute of fishing time

is all I need to forfeit if I decided that I want to swap from my existing leader to one of my pre prepared leaders ... it's a simple process:

1. Put in a long cast with your existing leader and flies.
2. Whilst that cast settles, unroll the pre-prepared leader complete with flies from your leader pad onto a clear section of the floor of the boat, or a clear section of bank.
3. Strip the line in as normal, being careful not to tangle any of the retrieved line with the leader you have just put on the floor of the boat or a clear section of bank.
4. Undo the loop to loop connection from the fly line and carefully put that aside onto a clear part of the floor of the boat, or a clear section of bank.
5. Pick up the loop end of the new pre-prepared leader and loop to loop connect it to the fly line.
6. Put your first long cast in with your new leader and flies and whist that settles pick up the loop end of the discarded leader and wind the leader and fly onto you leader pad.

Using this system if your leader is compromised or you just want to change your leader and fly selection doing that is a relatively simple process.

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