Joni -

I think you and I, as usual, are on the same page. The main difference is that you have chosen a much more varied experience, and you get to observe stuff that a lot of other people do, whereas I choose to fish a certain kind of water because it is in the places I like to spend my time, and I almost always fish alone.

My thinking on the steering effect of mono butt and mid sections is a rather recent thing. A couple months ago, on a chance meeting, I was watching an acquaintance fish. About mid point in his mono leader was a half coil - reel memory that he hadn't completely straightened out. I hadn't seen that kind of thing in years.

This fellow, who has been fishing for a long time, had never seen a furled leader. In discussing them, noting the half coil in his leader and pointing out the impossibility of holding any length of a thread furled leader vertically, the relative stiffness of mono vs. the absolute suppleness of thread furled leaders was really highlighted. In articulating what I intuitively knew about the advantage of thread, the steering / dragging effect of mono emerged as an idea.

Tom talks about drag in his article. He mentions ways to reduce it - while using mono leaders. It certainly would be interesting to get his thoughts after using furled leaders for some period of time.

John