Tips and Guidelines for Fly Fishing with Tapered Traces

Inspect your fly fishing rod and you’ll notice, between the end of your fly line and the fly itself lies a very important piece of equipment – the ‘leader‘ or ‘trace‘. (Some people even call it a ‘cast‘). This is a length of extremely thin nylon or fluorocarbon line that is nearly invisible to trout, but it’s also strong enough so that once a fish is hooked, it can be quickly and easily landed.

A tapered trace is a length of nylon that has been specifically prepared for use as a fly-angler’s trace. At one end, the tapered trace is quite thick, and generally there will be a loop pre-tied by the manufacturer. The trace then tapers smoothly until it is very thin indeed at the other end. The thick end with the loop is attached to your fly line and you knot your fly to the thin end.

Tapered traces are wonderful things because they help you cast better. For some reason – which I’m sure an expert on aerodynamics could explain – a tapered trace rolls out through the air far more effectively than an un-tapered trace.

Tapered Traces and Tippets

The only problem with tapered traces is that as you fish through the day and change your fly a few times, your trace will necessarily get shorter and shorter. This is a problem because, by virtue of the taper, the shorter the trace gets, the thicker it becomes – and you want your trace to be as thin as possible all the time.

The solution to this problem is to attach a ‘tippet’ to the end of tapered traces. A tippet is a short (30-40 cms) length of very thin un-tapered nylon. It is attached to the tapered trace using a special knot, and the result is that you can happily change your fly a number of times without having to shorten your tapered trace.

When the tippet itself becomes too short, you simply replace it. This will require you to shorten your tapered trace a little. But generally you’ll have to replace your tippet only once a day, which means that using a tippet greatly reduces the rate at which you have to eat into your tapered leader.

How to Tie Tippets to Tapered Traces

The “double blood knot” is a special knot that’s used to tie a tippet onto a tapered trace.

Here is a step-by-step illustration of how to tie a double blood knot, commonly used to join two pieces of nylon or fluorocarbon fishing line together.

Click on image to view full-size

(Note: I call the knot above the ‘double’ blood knot, but other people simply call it the blood knot; and what I call a blood knot is often referred to as a ‘half’ blood knot.)

Tapered Traces Tips and Guidelines

It is possible to buy tapered traces from good tackle shops. Tapered traces are usually sold in small plastic packets. You have to take them out of their packet and unravel them before use.

It pays to give a tapered trace a bit of a stretch before you tie it to your fly line. This will remove any of the kinks or ‘memory’ it has developed while sitting in its packet on the shop shelf. Better that you stretch your trace by hand than to risk having a trout stretch it for you!

The very beginner fly-angler should probably refrain from using a tapered trace or tippet. This is because during your first few sessions, you will probably produce a lot of serious tangles and you’ll have to replace your trace frequently.

For that reason it’s best to start off using a straight trace taken from a plastic spool of nylon. However, once you’ve advanced to the point where you’re not getting into a tangle every five minutes, you can begin to use tapered traces and, as mentioned, this will markedly enhance your casting.

Related posts:

1. 4 Secondary Fly Fishing Tackle Items to Carry
2. Fly Fishing with a Dry Fly-Nymph Combination