… dry …
… and wet …
John
John I remember a few years ago giving you a furled leader at Jimmy’s All Season’s while I was doing a Tying Demo. You had never seen one, but man that has changed. We even did a furled leader swap here, and funny what each person thinks is the best.
I like the supple front taper. I do not care for a limp leader, which some do. Fluoro is stiffer by itself, so of course it is going to be stiffer as a furled leader, so not sure where you were going with that. I just stated, make a furled leader out of Fluoro made no sense to me because it is the Tippet that needs to be, and it does not sink like a brick.
Carry on,
FG
I am glad you like the Danville thread. I prefer the Uni, but again, I think it is personal preference. I have had several customers that purchased from a Furled Leader Company out there order mine because they said mine where more supple and tighter wound. I just go with that.
Actually, Joni, I started using furled leaders three or four years before you were up to Jimmy’s for that demo. I think the leader you gave me is still on my 3 wt.
John
… fishing a furled thread 10’6" Tenkara line / leader off my 7’9" for 4/5 Hexagraph fly rod, with your question in mind, Mike. The line / leader is bright orange. I fished it with about 9" of 4X tippet to an FEB Salmonfly.
I had one other fish in hand, and had another one come to the fly but I pulled the trigger too fast and missed him, using the same set up.
John
Sorry haven’t posted for awhile, been fishing, and helping my son finish his Webelo req’s.
Thanks to all who posted, I enjoyned the spirited debate over suppleness of thread vs. mono. I think I am gonna have to get out there and try longer tippet until I get it right.
Thanks again…and John…I may have to try the orange leader for nymphing sometime…
Joni,
I’ve seen no reason to leave the 5’6" uni-thread leaders you have been building for me for the past 3 years. I fish them exclusively with flourocarbon tippet for all applications, and they roll over a 6’ 7x or 6’ 3x flouro tippet with perfection.
Thanks for an awesome leader,
Ralph
Thank you!
… was an experiment, Mike, to see how leader color close to the fly might effect results. The experiment was “successful” in that I caught a good number of trout with very short tippets ( down to a couple inches ) off that brightly colored leader. But it is not a fun way to fish, and I wouldn’t recommend it, at least to myself. The furled thread leaders are fine for dries and trailing an emerger or smaller nymph. But for the big nymphs fished deep in faster currents, they actually work against you because the relative mass of the leader inhibits the fly sinking as quickly as it will with a fluoro or mono tippet.
The very short tippet experiment with a dry fly yesterday was also a successful experiment, in two ways. First, catching fishies with a large dry fly fished off a bright orange furled leader and a nine inch tippet. Just to make the point, again, that having a brightly colored line / leader very close to the fly doesn’t necessarily effect the catching. Second, and this was really interesting, is that with the very short tippet, the Danville 210 thread furled leader, which always submerges, but doesn’t sink the fly when used with the typical 3 feet plus of tippet, did want to sink the fly rather readily. Not only interesting, but surprising given the seven year history I have with this leader.
John
Seven years…wow, you should be publishing this stuff, you put a lot of though into it.
I like the idea of a bright leader. Does it work as a semi-indicator to detect movement?
Not for me. But it might for you if that is your intent and you focus on it.
John
To add to John’s response;yes,it will serve as a strike indicator; BUT, as he said, you have to concentrate on it.
Frank
I put a BRIGHT color in the first section of my leaders. Example, on an Olive leader, I add Chartreuse. It is the first 18" or what ever the first section is on the different length leaders. My most popular leaders I call Desert Camo, the other is Forest Camo which are shades of Browns or Olives with bright first sections. And of course with the off set pegs, the colors do blend nicely.
The contrast is a great indicator. I am a wet fly freak and this works killer for me.
Man I have missed alot while durring the weeks long absence from checking the board. I have made a 12 ft thread leader for a genteman to fish the South Fork of the Snake last summer. He said that it worked great except for when he was trying to make shorter casts, and it had tendency to ball up on him. I believe this has to do with the taper of the leader. My Tenkara line I made seems to lay out just fine, and would probably work just fine on my regular rod as well. As far as materials go I am on the fence. I have used either a straight mono or thread leader only thus far. The thread leaders offer a softer more gentle presentation of the fly and a more natural drift due to the lack of memory. I have sold some leaders with a fluorocarbon core and tip for fishing nymphs and streamers. They have all been satisfied with them and caught several hogs with them on the Reservation. I also have a customer who uses my thread leader for his fine dries and a mono core with thread and mono tip for his heavier dries and nymphs and streamers. He loves them as well. I like the thread leaders for their supple nature, and a bit of mono can be added to help stiffen them up. The thread absords the water and sinks very well. Kevlar does furl nicely Joni! I personally like the mono core to help give them a little more bite to them without losing its suppleness.
Brandon