Furled leaders for surf fishing

[Martin McFly]

I have been hearing people talking about furled leaders and how great they are, today that I was able to sit down for a few I watched a u tube video about it...it's really simple and I was able to tie a test and I really liked it now, the question is. Are these useful for the surf and what pound test line do you guys recommend for an 8 wt fly sinking tip line.
Thanks a lot.

[dudley]

I tested furled leaders versus hand tied mono leaders in the surf earlier this season
For me there was no advantage of one or the other as they both worked equally well

[SkipS]

For the surf you really dont need a tapered leader,especially with a sink tip line.A straight piece of #15 mono about 3'-4' is just fine.With a floating line I would use about 6'.

[tailingloop]

My experience is that furled leaders sink slower than a single piece of mono thus are less effective when you want to get the fly down. When fished on a sinking line the tip of the fly line may sink below the leader so the fly may not fish as deep as you need. For most of our So Cal surf fishing, you want your offering on or near the bottom so you do want anything in your system that may work against you. On the other hand furled or twisted leaders can be great for tossing surface patterns, however I have never encountered much in the way of surface action in So Cal waters.

[ducksterman]

Tailingloop, Have you tried fluorocarbon sinking leaders?

[tailingloop]

I have used a single piece of flourocarbon for a leader. Compared to standard mono of equal diameter they seem to sink a bit faster. I would expect that given my understanding the flouro is more dense. I haven't tried a furled leader made from flouro, but would expect it one to sink slower than a single strand flouro just as with regular mono. Fishing in the turbulent water of the surfzone with a sinking line and weighted fly I don't find much benefit for flourocarbon over standard mono. Seems to make more of a difference with floating line/nymphing setups.