I have built my own Knotted Tapered Leaders, in the early years of my fly fishing. Later I move on to Commercial Made Tapered Leaders. Both of these Tapered Furled Leaders where lacking in one thing, uniformity of continuous taper from the butt end to the tip end of the leader.

Knotted Tapered Leaders had the knots that attract algae when casting.

The Commercial Nylon Tapered Leaders have a Butt section that is 60% of the total length, then they cram all the other segments into 20% of the leader, finishing off with the tip section being the final 20%.

I have written on furled taper leaders on this Bulletin Board, and have written articles on FAOL about, my "Big Furled Leader Formula". Furled Leaders can be any percentage of taper, 50%...53%...57%...60%.


The furled leader can be 7?-5?-3?, 6?-4?-2? or what ever loop sequence you wish. The thread can be of any diameter, weight or material.

You can use any color of thread, or combination of two colors, to match the color of the water your fishing.

You can dip your finished furled leader in a can of warmed varnish, wish will help seal the threads tightly together, and give the finished furled leader a backbone to help the cast.

You will need to build a furled leader board the look like a 9 foot long cribbage board, with just the hole positions you need for a the loop sequence and length you wish to build.

I am willing to mail anyone who is interested in furled leaders a PDF Version of my "Big Furled Leader Formula's. These are my calculations in three tapers (50%, 55%,60%), in three lengths (6 ft, 7? ft, 9 ft), These calculations are done in both Metric (centimeter) and English (inches) for the peg positions on the furled leader board.

I cover all costs of the "Big Furled Leader Formula CD" and the cost of postage anywhere in the world...

contact me at my email address: parnelli@comcast.net

~Parnelli