Leaders & Tippets

The Caddis Fly Shop offers an unparalleled selection of the most effective and innovative Tapered Fly Leaders & Leader Tippet Spools by Rio, AirFlo, Scientific Anglers, Sage, and others.

The Caddis Fly Shop inventories and provides insightful reviews on Rio fly lines, AirFlo fly lines, Scientific Anglers fly lines, and Sage fly lines.

Guide Reviews 0f Tapered Fly Leaders & Leader Tippet Spools:

We have seen the availability of fly fishing lines go from very limited to almost more than the consumer can comprehend. As professionals, we strive to keep up on the latest developments and technology to best match the product to the fishing conditions.

How to Choose the Right Tapered Fly Leaders & Leader Tippet

Tapered fly Leaders form the crucial junction between the fly line and the fly. The fly leader, usually tapered from the butt to the tip section, may seem simple but essential, and is sometimes very complex too. Tapered fly fishing leaders help turn our fly over nicely to make our cast better. Fluorocarbon leader materials are less visible to fish and sink faster than conventional monofilament leaders. Rio Knottable Bite wire is a leader tippet material composed of a fine braided wire, coated with a plastic-like material, and is resistant to fish like barracuda with teeth on their teeth. Rio and Airflo tapered Spey Versi leaders and Polyleaders are tapered leaders with either sinking and floating properties.

Scientific Anglers Absolute Leader and Tippet offer a range of monofilament and fluorocarbon options for the angler.

Leaders come packaged in an eco friendly paper-based leader packaging that is100% recyclable. All materials, inks, and window are fully biodegradable to protect our streams and reduce our environmental footprint.

Tippet spools have a built in cutter and silicon band that protects and manages the tippet on the spool.

We have had a chance to demo some of this new material and can tell you that it has extraordinary knot strength. Up to 40% higher wet knot strength when compared to competitors.

One of our testing days we had the Absolute Trout Tippet out and caught three summer steelhead on the same 4x tippet with a small nymph. No frays, no abrasions and all three fish landed. Absolute Tippet Leaders and Tippet are truly the finest leader and tippet available.

We confidently fish Rio Tapered Fly Leaders & Leader Tippet spools for trout, Steelhead, Salmon, Bass, and other freshwater species.

Selecting the right tapered leader can at times be daunting. The Caddis Fly Shop inventories and our guides fish a wide selection of quality Rio tapered leaders and tippet materials; the quality control protocols established by Rio ensure that each tapered leader and the various tippet materials are dependably consistent and different products serve the needs of different fly fishing scenarios extremely well.

Distinct types of Rio Tapered Fly Leaders & Leader Tippets we fish:

Rio Powerfex: The basic Rio all purpose trout leader: available in 7.5 ft, 9 ft, 12 ft, and 15 ft. If you fish for trout or similar size fish in freshwater, this leader will come in handy.

Rio Indicator: If you fish nymphs or egg patterns, with or without indicators, this is your specialty leader.

Rio Flurorflex: Nearly invisible, strong for the diameter, good knot strength, this is the all around freshwater fluorocarbon tapered leader from Rio.

Rio Suppleflex: This is the clear lake and spring creek leader for the wariest of freshwater fish. Supple and fine for fishing the smallest dry flies.

Rio Bass: Rough and tough, just what the Doctor ordered for our bass fishing clients.

Rio Steelhead - Salmon: the demands of presenting dry and wet steelhead and salmon flies, on short and long leaders, with weighted or un-weighted flies; one or another of these Rio specialty leaders will do the trick.

Rio Steelhead - Salmon Fluorocarbon: If you fish steelhead or salmon in low clear water, or fish over spooky sea or lake-run fish, this is the stealth leader for you.

Rio Pike Musky Tapered leader: Rough and tough, with a wire tippet to protect you from the sharp teeth of pike and musky.

Airflo Polyleaders & Sink Tips - in stock, Same Day FREE shipping, and no sales tax from Oregon

Airflo Polyleaders represent an excellent transfer of energy between fly line and tippet. Because Polyleaders are actually a fly line coating bonded to a monofilament core (not simply a monofilament leader) they are an innovative approach to providing energy transfer from fly rod through fly line in order to turn over tippets and flies.

Guide Reviews and Sales of Airflo Polyleaders & Sink Tips:

From local -waters Steelhead, Pacific Salmon, and trout, our guides and customers fish Airflo Polyleaders for about any fish that swims. The quality of the leaders is exceptional, they are easy to use, and they fill any niche-fishing demand we can imagine.

Basic Premise of the Polyleader: All Polyleaders are Tapered monofilament cores coated with fly lines of various floating or sinking properties. Polyleaders are looped at the Butt and have a loop pre-tied in the mono tip. We add an actual Tippet to the Polyleader in order to finish the leader and make it fishing-ready.

We stock the entire series of Airflo Polyleaders: If it is available from Airflo, we can provide it to you on short notice.

Welded Loops: A loop at the butt end of each Polyleader makes attachment to your fly line seamlessly simple. Tippets can be added with a perfection loop or with a blood or uni-knot.

Sink Rates: Some Polyleaders, for example the trout and the Salmon & Steelhead series, are offered in a full range from floating to extra fast sink of over 6 ips. Some Polyleaders like the Bonefish are offered only in Clear Floating or Clear Intermediate. These distinctions are based on the needs of the challenge faced by fly anglers. You don't need an extra fast sink rate when fishing the Bahama flats, right?

Are all Polyleaders Tapered? Yes. Airflo creates these leaders with various proprietary coatings similar to fly lines and are tapered to some degree from the attachment loop to the tip loop. The density, hardness and various other properties of the coating can be modified depending on the performance intent of each leader, but all are tapered to some degree. The least noticeable tapers exist on the sinking leaders, because their coatings are very dense and the material coating overall is very thin in comparison to the floating, hover, and intermediate Polyleader coatings.

Airflo Polyleaders Types

Airflo Sea Trout & Steelhead: At 8 ft with a 24 Lb core, this is your specialty leader to fill a niche unavailable in the Salmon & Steelhead Series of Polyleaders.

Airflo Salmon & Steelhead: At 5 ft, 10 ft, and 14 ft with cores of 24 or 40 Lb, this is your bsis for fishing Steelhead, Pacific Salmon, and Atlantic Salmon worldwide. Add short or long Tippets. Start with a Polyleader that floats or one that sinks at over 6 ips. The combinations of length, sink rate, and core strength will allow you to present any size and weight fly at any depth. Nice.

Airflo Trout: At lengths of 5 ft or 10 ft with a 12 Lb core, these are your fundamental Polyleader for fishing trout and similar species worldwide. Add the Tippet of your choice and you will be able to cast dry and wet flies, streamers, muddlers, buggers and indicator fish as well.

Airflo Light Trout: At lengths of 5 ft or 8 ft with a 8 Lb core, these Polyleaders are specifically designed to fish the spookiest trout in lakes and spring creeks and the clearest waters of New Zealand. Add an appropriate Tippet of up to 10 ft and you are ready to challenge wary fish in technical fly fishing situations. Intended for small dry and wet flies, not for streamers and heavy nymphs.

Airflo Bass & Pike: No nonsense 4 ft with a 24 Lb core, this Polyleader is the starting point for a great Bass Leader. Add a few feet of your chosen Tippet material and this will put your wind resistant fly in the bucket. Fishing for Pike? Make your tippet of Rio Bite wire or similar flexible wire to protect from sharp teeth.

Airflo Saltwater Polyleader: Offered in 5 ft and 10 ft lengths with 24 Lb core, this Polyleader has a relatively hard coating suitable for temperate and cold water use; this is the all but Tropical waters Saltwater tapered leader from Airflo.

Airflo Bonefish: At 7 ft with a 24 Lb core Ð these are your always, anywhere Airflo bonefish tapered Polyleaders.

Airflo Tarpon: At 5 ft with a 40 Lb core, this a must-have Polyleader if you fish Tarpon, Snook, and similar warm water species with leader cutting body parts. Airflo Suggests adding a Shock Tippet at the tip of this Polyleader.

Airflo Titanium Predator: At 7 ft with a 40 Lb core this is a rough and tough specialty leader intended to protect your connection to any sharp-toothed fish from Barracuda to Musky, as well as sharp coral and such. Snap your fly on the swivel and fish, it's that easy.

Airflo Custom Cut Tips: looped at one end, in lengths of 10 ft and 18 ft offer ease of adaptation to specific sunk-fly conditions.

Airflo Custom Cut Tips - 20 ft option: These are looped at both ends and provide even more adaptability and ease of use to anglers fishing sub surface.

Airflo Spare Multi Tips: these are offered in 15 ft spare tips for the Delta Spey Multi Tip full fly lines.

Airflo tapered leaders and tippet material offer superior materials and reliable performance.

AIRFLO offers tapered leaders and tippet material to suit the vast majority of fishing scenarios.

From the most modern copolymer Fluorocarbon to traditional monofilament, AIRFLO has a great range of leaders and tippet material that anglers around the world have come to respect and depend on.

The Caddis fly Shop offers the entire series of Airflo Tapered Leaders and Tippet material: If it is available from Airflo, we can provide it to you on short notice.

The Caddis Fly Shop supplies Maxima Chameleon & Ultragreen Fishing Leaders and leader Spools - with great customer service, fast shipping, and no sales tax.

Some of our clients prefer to use Maxima for all their salmon and steelhead leaders, and they rely on us to supply the tippet spools they need.

The Caddis fly Angling Shop offers our customers a choice of many excellent fly fishing leaders available today, and we stock them all. Rio, Orvis, Airflo, Seaguar, and Umpqua, to mention but a few, all offer fly fishing leader tippet materials and ready to fish tapered leaders for our customers.

Funny thing, though, is that we find a fair proportion of our crazed and obsessed steelhead and salmon clients who are wed, almost literally, to Maxima Leader materials. They cite abrasion resistance, strength, knot dependability, and years-long dedication based on real world performance.

So, we offer Maxima leader spools, both Ultragreen and Chameleon, side-by side with our products that Carry Names that are time tested, knowing that if you are a Maxima person, chances are good that nothing else will satisfy your hankering for leader tippet material.

Chose Ultragreen Maxima for ultimate stealth in shallow waters. Chose Maxima Chameleon for deeper presentations or if the absolutely toughest leader on the Planet is needed.