Leader Storage?

[smij]

I hang my fluoro leaders off of nails in order to prevent coils. The problem is, sometimes I forget what's what. Yep. And I'm too lazy to stretch anything before I fish.

What do you guys use?

[Kaboom1]

I use furled leaders. I leave them on the reel and never worry. Life to too short to worry about leaders.

Brad

[John_N]

I stretch mine out streamside, but I think if I were doing it like you are, I'd take a Sharpie and mark them before I hung them up the first time. Do it kind of like a Roman numeral system - use a narrow line to denote one and a thick line to denote five. Starting from the loop end and marking it close to the loop, a narrow line followed by a thick line denotes a 4 weight, a thick line followed by two thin ones indicates a 7 weight, etc.

[tailingloop]

I hang my fluoro leaders off of nails in order to prevent coils. The problem is, sometimes I forget what's what. Yep. And I'm too lazy to stretch anything before I fish.

What do you guys use?

If I need to identify a leader I use a tippet gauge to measure the end.

[johnstoeckel]

Hanging leaders in my house would result in a chewed up leader and / or a strangled cat.

Mine stay on the reel or in a slim leader wallet in my pack. Only takes about 5 seconds to stretch the butt of the leader at the stream.

[DG]

I use 7.5' 3x mono leaders I get from fly shops, and carry the packages around in my bag for when I need to change out the whole leader. Keep a half dozen on hand, when the packages look too ratty or I run low I buy another couple 3-packs. One good tug to straighten out the butt section when I tie on, and then fish until I have turned it into a hand-tied leader or something drastic happens and I replace it.

If I need a lighter tippet, or a longer leader (which I seldom do), I loop the end of the leader and add some tippet. Of which I carry three sizes, 3-5x. IF it sits on the reel long enough to get springy, one good tug and I am fishing again.

The more I do this, the simpler I try to make it all. I catch just as many if not more fish than I did back in the gear days, with less sitting on the bank fiddling with stuff, and less stuff to carry around. Just got back from a week in Montana, where I fished 8 patterns/sizes on three rods (broke my 4wt primary on a 10" bow and the 1-wt just aint a nymphing or streamer rod) in eight days on half a dozen waters.