Loop-to-Loop Connections
Loop-to-loop connections are extremely popular with many fly anglers due to the ease in which they allow changing and joining lines--without tying a knot! In addition to full lines and shooting heads, a growing number of experienced anglers are experimenting with assembling a variety of fly line components to add versatility to their presentations. Mini-tips or mini-heads with various sink rates can provide almost endless combinations suitable to a wide range of situations. These loop-together fly line sections can range from full heads of 30 feet or more to the miniature lead-core tips measured in inches, which are now available from several manufacturers (Orvis, Cortland, Airflo, Rio, SA, etc.).

Loop-to-loop line connections also benefit your pocketbook by eliminating the need for extra spools, and limiting purchases to relatively inexpensive heads and tips rather than full lines. By labeling these components you can create personalized systems tailored to the waters you fish.

While steelhead and salmon anglers pioneered the use of sinking heads and sinking tips, they have since been applied to a wide variety of angling situations. For example, the use of loop to loop connections has proven tremendously beneficial to Spey fishers--when a typical line can measure well over a hundred feet it is much easier to change a short tip than a full line, and a small wallet with an assortment of heads is far more practical to carry than bulky extra spools. A typical Spey-line system would, for example, consist of a floating tip and several interchangeable sinking tips of different sink rates. Similarly, offshore fishermen often need to change lines quickly, often under less than ideal situations (changing a line in heavy seas is an excellent way to loose your lunch).

Loop-to-loop connections are faster, more efficient, and enable the angler to adapt to a wider variety of situations than a selection of fly lines. Line labels, when combined with end loops, keep these components organized and provide the necessary information to make speedy, efficient line choices.

Today's fly-line manufacturers offer a bewildering array of lines to suit almost any fishing situation from wary browns on Montana spring creeks to black marlin off Australia's Great Barrier Reef. In addition, many anglers customize or create their own specialty lines by combining fly-line components. Short of the Dewey Decimal System, a need arises for techniques more advanced than felt tipped pens, gummed labels, and colored thread wraps. The angler can now address the age-old problem of identifying what is wound on his spool with a method as sophisticated as his equipment, eliminating the confusion often experienced with lines of similar color and length. Fly line labels provide a simple, durable, and contemporary method of identifying your lines and organizing them into versatile systems capable of challenging the diversity of today's angling experience.

Making a Braided Loop
Adding braided end loops to your fly line allows the quick and easy connection of fly line to leader, line to line, or line to backing. Premade loops in a variety of colors and line tests/strengths are available from many manufacturers such as Umpqua, Gudebrod, and Cortland, and may even come packaged with your new fly line.

You can also make your own loops by following a few simple steps. You will need scissors, strong tying thread, a bobbin, a wire bobbin threader, and braided material to construct your loops. Braided loops rely on the "Chinese finger trap" principle; i.e., they grip the softer fly-line coating by compression when pulled tight.

Braided material comes in a range of test strengths from 20 to 50 pounds, with the diameter increasing as the test increases. Select a diameter that closely matches the tip diameter of the fly line to assure a snug, firm grip when the loop is stretched and compressed. Here is a simple method of preparing a braided loop:

Step 1: Begin with a piece of braid at least 14 inches long. This will yield a loop approximately 10 to 11 inches long-enough length to allow at least 5 inches of braid to tighten freely around the fly line insuring a reliable grip. Grasping one end in your fingertips, insert the threader into the braid 6 inches from that end. Run the threader inside the braid and toward your fingers for approximately 2 1/2 inches, exiting about 4 inches from your fingertips.

Step 2: While continuing to hold that end, bend the braid back on itself to form the loop, and insert the tip into the bobbin threader.

Step 3: Retract (withdraw) the threader, pulling the end of the braid along with it inside the material for 2 1/2 inches. Remove the threader leaving the braid within itself. Tease the protruding ends back inside the braid by carefully pulling the inside leg of the loop to produce a clean finish. The result should be a loop about 1/2 inch long and 1/4 inch wide, with roughly 7 to 8 inches of braid remaining to slide over the end of the fly line.