How much tippet?

[cowdoc]

Sorry for the really basic question, but how much tippet do you use? I did not ask the person at the fly shop as I assumed you just tied it all on. Well, it's 30 meters long and I'm sure you don't use it all. I'm hoping to take my son out tomorrow for the first 'test drive' on some bluegills on a farm pond.

Thanks.

[flytyer]

18"-30" of tippet is what to use.

[cowdoc]

Thanks for the quick reply!!

[juro]

The most basic rule is 60%/20%/20% where 60 percent is butt, 20 percent is taper, and 20% is tippet.

Since this is the spey basics board I assume you are talking about spey leaders, which are typically around the length of the rod - from 12 to 18 ft long.

Therefore you need to expand on 60/20/20 to transition the leader from a heavy butt down to a reasonable tippet, say 30# butt down to 10# tippet.

Using Maxima Ultragreen increments (Scott we are on the same wavelength there) you need to step down 4 times to get the 10# test. So you split the butt 60/40, the taper in even increments, and one step to the tippet:

Butt:
60% of 15ft = 65", split 60/40 30# and 25#...
40" of 30#, 25" of 25#
Taper:
20% of 15ft = 36", split into 3 even sections...
12" of 20#, 12" of 15#, 12" of 12#
Tippet:
36" of 10#

If you wanted to go to 8# for summer fish just split the 36" tippet into 18" sections.

If you wanted to go to 12# for winter just split the taper into two sections instead of three.

If you want 40# butt to 10# tippet make the tippet 2-pc and add the 40# on the back end, etc.

This is just a simple 60/20/20 with steps in the various sections.

For bluegill, just slap a piece of line on there and go!