furled leaders

Hey Gang,

I got into making my own furled leaders (like I really needed another hobby hehe).

Anyways, I was curious, they cast great. I am making them out of 6/0 and 3/0 unithread. I've been grayling fishing with them a few times now and have noticed that upon catching a fish they have a tendancy to twist my leaders. Not sure if it's the fish as they do like to spin quite a bit. I dont have this problem when using regular mono and I have yet to try doing furls out of fishable mono. Have done one out of some 10lb mono for kicks, yikes that was a heavy leader.

Your thoughts?

btw, Kathy, great dvd!

Thanks
Dan

[This message has been edited by Lilhunter007 (edited 11 May 2005).]

[Kathy Scott]

Hi,

Thanks

The spinning is a new one to me, at least, but my head is spinning with just the thought of being able to catch grayling and on furled leaders, no less! You don't mind if I live vicariously (for a few weeks more), do you??

Kat

[kengore]

Furled leaders can sometimes have a built-in twist to them that shows up after a good tug. A furled leader is sort of like two long springs that are acting against each other to balance twisting forces.

I take extra care during construction to prevent unbalance. Make sure you have the same 'tension/number of twists' one each strand before twining them. Unequal strands will make it difficult for the forces to balance and provide 'neutral' twist.

Take any left over twist out of the completed leader by giving it a few strong pulls. Then starting at the butt end run the leader thru your thumb and forefinger under tension, just like straightening a mono leader. Repeat this a few times and the leader will have a chance to relax.

If you store your finished leader by wrapping it into a circle (like mono leaders come from the store) you might actually be introducing twists. Everytime you wrap a circle you introduce a half twist. Try this with a small ribbon and the problem becomes apparent.

I wrap my leaders (and my ropes, ext. cords, etc.) in figure 8's. In a figure 8 the intoduced twists are opposite each other for each half of the 8. As a result they balance out and no more tangles.

[bubba_orvis]

My jig makes the same turns on both "legs", I haven't seen anything like this.

But I also take a few minutes to make sure that all the "twists" are releived from the leader. I stretch it several times at the end of making it, to take those last couple turns out of the final product.

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bubba_orvis