Tapered Shock Leader

[LONGCAST JOE]

They havn't arrived yet but a few days ago I ordered from Italy some 5 packs of knotless mono tapered surf casting shock leaders. Each one is shown to be 45 feet long with 30 feet of it being the thickest heavy 80# portion, which is easy enough to trim down to 20 ft or less if wanted, and the other 15 feet being a taper down to the lighter end. The heaviest, lighter end I could find was 18# tapering up to an 80#) but my thinking is I can find the place in the taper that comes close to the diameter of my top shot that I'm splicing it onto and cut it off and tie in there, leaving somewhere between 7-10 feet of taper. Hopefully this turns out to be a legit way to solve that damn top shot to shock leader bulky knot's associated issues of running through the rod guides smoothly, laying on the reel spool and salad collecting.
Anyone ever tried using  tapered leaders before? (other then for flyfishing)
I'll update after they've arrived and I try them out...
and no, I couldn't find any that tapered up to 100#. Seems like there would be a market for a 30# or 40# tapering up to 100#, from members on this site alone...
JOE     

[xjchad]

Wow, never heard of a tapered leader in that heavy of line before, sounds beafy.
The idea of matching the tapered end to your main line is really cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out. I run a 100 yard top shot of 40lb big game mono and an 80lb shock leader. I've been tying a spider hitch in the 40 and then tying the shock leader to that loop with a bristol knot. Both knots are fairly low profile and separated by a couple inches. Plus the 40lb is doubled where the shock leader ties in. I haven't had any issues casting it,  but I can feel it come through the guides when reeling it in.

[LONGCAST JOE]

Well , they have arrived...There's 5 leaders on a spool and they taper from 18lb (.38mm) up to 70lb (.75mm) in a little less than 25 ft of the 50 ft total length of the leader with over 25 feet being 70 lb mono. Damn I WISH I could find these that tapered up to 100lb or 80kb but 70lb was the heaviest I could find. It was really easy to find the point in the taper that matched the diameter of my mono top shot, cut it off about 6 or 7 feet from the begunning of its orinal taper start, and then connect to my main with a slim blood knot. Have'nt cast with them yet but I'm optimistic. I'll let you guys know how they perform on the water soon enough...

[LONGCAST JOE]

Well I'll still leave the jury out on these but fished and cast with one last night for a few hours but my first impresion on these is that they might be the best new thing Ive tried since chocolate milk. Of course they're use is going to be situational along with the matched set-up, but with the 30lb top shot and 6oz of lead I was throwing last night into clean conditions it worked great. It's feel like a shock leader without any connection knot. Picked up about 10 yards of distance on my cast but alot of that could be from stepping down my usual 80lb shock to the 70lb diameter of these. I see me using them mostly along with pulley rigs where I can have 6' or more of 100lb or heavier mono on the rig to act as a rub leader once a fish is hooked. ..
Just for kicks I spooled up my spare spool on my Aerotechnium with about 500yds? of Ande 12lb I had laying around and was getting 175 yards with small clipped down baited rig and 5 oz of lead pendulum casting. Obviously a 12lb main line out that distace isn't going to have many practicle applications I can think of but it was a kick just casting that distance. I might try connecting the 12 down to an 8 (if I can find a few hundred yards laying around on a bulk spool)and see if I can hit 200 + with it.
JOE

[LONGCAST JOE]

Whelp, after using these the last few sessions I the jury has more of an opinion of them through observation and that is...the concept is good but the characteristics of the mono of this particular brand at least, leave something to be desired. It has to much of a memory and is prone to kinking and curling and roughs up quickly. I'm not sure if this is caused by the manufacturing process used to obtain the taper or the type of material required to be able to create a taper. I think I'll try one of the other known brands and see if it has more desirable characteristics after a session or two. The smaller connecter knot did reduce salad cling and the taper did add to casting distance but the memory will cause issues eventually...more trials coming

[Latimeria]

Thanks for the updates, Joe.  I like all of the reviews from everyone, but really appreciate your detailed notes.   

Im looking forward to the upcoming trials.

[LONGCAST JOE]

Thanks for the updates, Joe.  I like all of the reviews from everyone, but really appreciate your detailed notes.   

Im looking forward to the upcoming trials.

OK, just received this spool of tapered surf shock leaders by Rovex in the mail today. Opted for clear ones this time, instead of the solid bright orange color again.
Actually I just tied on my last fresh one from the previous spool of 5 made by ASSO last night, so those first 5 did last me for a decent while considering I used them on both of my set ups. I think only one of them got lost by breaking at the blood knot connection point to my main running line when my lead got caught up and I had to break off. 

You can see the specs of these printed on the label spool in the pic. Time for some more trials and testing soon with this Rovex brand