Leader question

This is only my second season "on the fly," and I have only fished with the fly style probably a good 20+ times. However, I do practice quite often in the yard. I think I may be using too much leader and tippet. I have a 6'6" medium action with WF6F. I have been using a 9' knotless leader with about 3' of tippet. Geez just writing that out looks bad. My question is, am I using too much? What are everyones thoughts? What do you all use? and of course any other useful information you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance everyone. tight lines

it would be easier to cast if it was shorter, and as said before you dont need 3 feet of tippet for almost all fishing situations. Tuna, i know you can use a normal line as a leader, as in an untapered leader, but it makes casting a bit harder. When i fish the lake michigan tribs i just use straight 10lbs mono to my first fly.

I appologize for the delay. been busy. Thanks for the feedback. My rod is actually 7'6" I use it for bass and trout. I change my tippet accordingly. I trout fish in the driftless area of wisconsin and bass fish where ever possible

The following link has all kinds of information regarding hand tied leaders. It also includes a spreadsheet program that provides Leader Calculations. Enjoy: http://globalflyfisher.com/fishbetter/leadercalc/

Actually the tapering does play into the the mechanics of the cast. The heavier butt section of the leader helps to "turn" the fly over. The store bought tapered leaders are a nice convenience. You could save money and construct your own leaders out of several sizes of material, like they use to before the engineered taper leaders. I almost always make my own leaders for streamer fishing. That way I can construct what I want. There are a bunch of websites out there with information on how to construct leaders for almost any application.

I have a quick question regarding leaders too. Could your leader be all one size?Say 9 foot of a floro carbon line or is that not possible to cast?Im thinking you need the taper just for the physics of the casting stroke. Never tried it but have always wondered why I'm paying 4 bucks for a tapered piece of line.

If it is a knotless leader of 9' it should be going down to a relative fine tippet on it's own. Generally you would not need to have 3' of tippet added onto it for most fishing applications. If you are having trouble casting it you can purchase knotless 7.5' leaders and add a bit of tippet to it. What is the fishing application that you are using it for?

As long as you can turn that leader over, shouldn't be a problem. Long tippet = more hookups as you are less likely to spook the fish............