Using that old adage ‘If I had a pound…’ every time I read or heard that putting loops in your leader system does nothing but hinge, I truly would be a millionaire.

Is this sweeping statement made by many actually a true one?… read on and decide for yourself.

Loop to Loop

A simple connection used to link 2 pieces of material together assuming that each has at least one loop formed at a given end.

The materials

Tapered or level braids, nylons, fluorocarbons, monofilaments and copolymers are our chosen link between the fly and fly line bespoke or pre-made. The makeup of such materials offer the angler a wide variety of essential properties to consider that can better inform us of how that link will ultimately perform: a taper, the diameter, its stiffness or suppleness, the stretching properties, the degree of translucency, its refractive index, the density and finally its ultimate breaking strain… these are most of the properties although we’re seldom informed of them in any reasonable detail!

How is the connection made?

Stiffness/Suppleness

I’ve taken and micro gauged the same leader material straight from the spool(s) of a reputable supplier.

Cutting similar 12 inch lengths from a range of diameters, they have been suspended off a straight edge without weight so as to provide a visual picture of the stiffness/suppleness of each strand.

I’ll call it the ‘Droop’ for simplicity… between 0.11mm and 0.18mm it was the same, as was that between 0.20mm and 0.30mm. However between the 2 groups they were different as can be see in the adjacent picture.

Without going into structures and mass properties, as the same material becomes thinner there is a fine threshold at which point it will droop more easily for the same length, the threshold in this case being visible at 0.18mm.

Doing the above against other brands is a very simple way to establish the stiffness/suppleness of one versus the other. By doing so you can then make an informed choice as to which you’d use for a butt section, mid section or tippet section of a leader you’re constructing (Stiff, medium stiff then supple perhaps!). As for a tapered leader there’s not really much you can do other than understand the tip section against that upon which your going to attach.

Loop size

I prefer a loop (circa 25mm) with which to connect the butt and mid section leader joints, from the mid to the tip section I will halve that diameter give or take.

With the odd exception, the thicker diameter is at the butt section of a leader, getting thinner into the mid part and so on down to the tip. The thicker & stiffer the leader material and smaller the loop, the more resistant the loop is to collapse. Certainly with the materials I often use.

For example: the picture below is a loop to loop connection with 2 similar pieces of 0.30mm line and 15mm loops. The connection is made but the knot won’t bed in, once I remove the tension it slides open. All be it fractionally, it’s more than I want it to!

This is the same line but now with circa 25mm loops, with the connection applied it beds together snug and there is no movement at all. My preference!

My leaders generally call for 3 or 4 loop to loop connections, I will make the loops smaller as I taper depending on the suppleness in each of the different materials I choose to apply.

I also take into consideration whether I wish my fly to pass through these loops, I regularly alter the length of my leaders at the butt & mid sections, sometimes with level additions and others tapered, the loop to loop connection aids this process.

Hinging

Here is a loop to loop connection below, this is NOT what I call a hinge… for me the transition in the cast with this is as good as any other upon which an intersection in a given leader can be applied.

This is the same branded 0.30mm attached to 0.20mm as pictured previously (Droop similar)

This however IS a hinge as would be described by anglers, caused so by the steep drop between diameters and therefor lack of stiffness as a consequence.

This is the same branded 0.30mm attached to 0.11mm as pictured previously (Droop different)

There are reasons for purposely applying a hinging connection in your leader, think about tippet and energy dissipation onto currents… that’s another blog article right there so I’ll leave that one with you for now.

You can successfully build some exceptional leaders and avoid the dreaded so called hinging joint, just understand better the materials you use. Give it a try, none of it’s rocket science, just believe in what you actually see and change it accordingly with some of the above perhaps in mind.

So going back to that sweeping statement at the top of this article: putting loops in your leader system does nothing but hinge.

The answer is Yes and No… but it’s up to me to decide.

P.S – A quickie edit after a question was posed… the loop I use for these connections is the perfection loop, see here for translation in pictures.

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The morning after the night before… sunrise creeps above the treeline as viewed from the Cammarch Hotel on the Irfon. For Warren, James, Richard, John and I it was to be the start of a few days fishing for the Maxia team and the hopes of a misinformed and ever changing forecast.

Breakfast devoured we load up only but the essentials and pile into the sunshine bus, a Peugeot thingy built in an age when manufacturers thought that installing useless electrical gadgets was a really good idea. There was some weird flashy light s%#t going on with the dashboard and stuff!!!

…it reminded me of something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it…mmm

We’re fishing the upper beats to start with, a foray here last year proved very successful so we couldn’t really do any worse than to revisit some of the known lunker locations.

We had it in mind that with conditions slightly against us and deteriorating it would be prudent to fish subsurface with a nymph… we’re all using 10ft #2 with ‘RYR’ indicators and 7ft leaders.

The RNPTN’s a favourite, probably the most prolific here with but the odd exception.

We’re concentrating our efforts in the channel where a significant ledge drop off occurs on the right bank which can be seen in the picture above as Warren guides his indicator waiting for the slightest of movement. (The rain is imminent)

I’m fishing in the same channel downstream of Warren, I miss netting my first fish… beneath tree cover which I’d forgotten was there, I had no place to go whilst attempting to maintain rod tension so the fish slipped off with ease – what else?

Almost immediately and in the midst of a forthcoming downpour, a fish rose twice within the zone I’d just nymphed, having spotted a few stonefly and olive some moments earlier with haste I slipped on a CDC olive in the hope of meeting the fish during rise No 3. With presentation somewhat slightly compromised as the tapering was more favoured to a nymph, I managed to place a cast all be it luckily in the perfect spot… slam dunk, this beauty nailed the fly and took off downstream before succumbing to some unwieldy pressure and my desire to get it to the net pronto.

Here it cometh ‘the rain’… meanwhile James is underneath the tree way down stream of Warren below and has just hooked into a superb grayling on a RNPTN – his personal best.

The picture doesn’t do this fish justice, James is shaking with the adrenaline rush.

An absolute stunner

Guided by James who decides to have a break, Richard jumps into the same pool. A few casts later having run the RNPTN through the same pocket water… Richard hits into yet another grayling.

Another beauty… the rain’s now falling harder

Now we’re stuffed, the heavens let rip almost immediately. 2 weeks of lovely Olympic weather then this, we’d been waiting so long for this opportunity to all come together… ruddy sods law.

Warren’s so pleased he’d had his hood sewn up, that flat cap more than makes up for it though.

My jacket is to being waterproof what Chernobyl was to the environment… useless

John, Richard and James with no where to hide… stair rods ensue… 3 hours of it non stop

As fast as it falls, is as fast as it rises, and as fast as it colours… oh joy!

Having stopped with only but the odd shower as an after thought, riffles and pockets have become just long murky glides, the visibility that once was is now all but lost… the likely hood of any fish?

In the hope that it’ll run off quickly and clear to a point so to mistake it for a chalkstream, we wait in vein for something to happen… like it’s ever going to… we’re willing it to happen… Bored anyone?

Some observe and fiddle with tackle… some just kip

We sit and relax for an hour but fear the worst, the forecast is for more rain and lots of it. Deciding to make our way back prematurely to the hotel and the bar, it quickly dawns on us that the likely hood of fishing the river tomorrow is futile at best.

Early the next morning having seen the river continue to rise and colour, we’d decided to settle up and leave the hotel for blighty and to the Coln. I know this river like the back of my hand and new that although the rain had pretty much hit everyone hard, it would still be fishable.

What a contrast… arriving midday we were inspired to see clear water, the wind however knocking 20mph didn’t deter us as there was plenty of good cover.

Almost mimicking the setups of the previous day all be it with slightly shorter leaders we covered the length and breath of the river, one fish coming to a dry midge but the remainder by all to the RNPTN or a pink head Hairy Mary.

John has a very successful afternoon in the upper reaches

Covering all eventualities I spend the day on the duo trickling through the glides

This peach came to the RNPTN #18 drifting 4ft below the klinkhammer fished tight into the margin

Leaving no stone unturned as it were…

Sunshine all day long, a pleasant contrast to the previous day and not a drop of rain

It was certainly worth the drive back for some good fishing… Richard eagle eyed in the lower reaches

fish spotted, targeted and nailed… the nymph on ceremony yet again.

The only fish I could tempt to a dry fly today… olive cdc

Warren hunkered down at the ford. Interesting here in that he lost 3 fish very quickly, under tension the fish seem to extricate themselves with ease, offsetting the throat off the hook slightly seemed to rectify it from there on in.

They were lost no more

Thankfully the day on the Coln rescues our dampened Welsh spirit, with such a premature visit it sounds like another good excuse to get out and away for a further few days, Wales anyone?