Furled Weight Forward Leader

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

Not often am I struck with a bolt of inspiration when it comes to leaders (or anything else for that matter). I’ve been furling leaders for a long time, and aside from adding a few strands, and using a different type of material, it’s pretty routine stuff. A few months back, I happened across a reference to an article written by an American engineer named Bernard Beegle.

In the article, Mr. Beegle discussed the idea of using what he called a convex leader. He tied up single strands of mono to create in effect, a weight forward leader. To be honest, the idea did not seem very intuitively obvious to me. As I thought about it more and more, it seemed like weight forward fly lines preformed very well, would the same concept apply to leaders?

I got busy furling and after a bit of fine tuning, came up with what appeared to be a good design. I like to test my leaders by first casting them by hand, to see how well they turn over. Not only did the weight forward leader turn over well, I could actually very easily throw a nice tight loop.

Next step, field testing. Took the leader out to do some lawn testing. Attached a quarter sized chunk of fluffed out yarn to see how well the leader would fling it. It did great, I think that extra mass up front helps power out the cast and turn over the large, wind resistant fly. I think it’s the same principle as to why bass bug fly line tapers are in a weight forward configuration.

Next I tried to cast a very short line, well actually no line, just the leader. It cast in a nice tight loop, I think this configuration would work very well for tight, close quarter fishing situations.

I also fished the leader on my local pond. It fished bulky pan fish and small bass bugs very nicely, great turnover of the wind resistant bugs.

Since it’s been pretty cold up here in Michigan, I’ve yet to fish the leaders in any moving water situation. Don’t know how they will perform there, but I do think I’ll be using them from now on for still water bugging.

2

Pszy,
Don’t keep us in suspense. What are the details?
Sweets

3

Darrell Martin shows a typical layout for a weight-forward furled leader in his book “MICROPATTERNS”, published in 1994. He also shows a layout for a double tapered furled leader, as well as for a couple of others…

4

So why all the extra work to build a WF furled leader. A good furled leader will cast by hand easily too. Not trying to be a smart arse, but it’s just a leader (furled, that is).
Plus being a WF furled leader, would it work with a DT line?:wink:
Good luck with it anyway.

5

Sweets,

As with any furled leader, there are unlimited combinations and permutations with regards to the materials and the tapers used.

I’ve pretty much developed my own method of furling, so I don’t have a nomenclature that means anything to anyone but myself. I have a number of leader customers who fish for panfish using bugs and other bulky flies. The wf leader helps to power them out on lighter rods, so that’s the application for which I initially designed.

Basically what I’ve been making is something that looks like this -

flyline ========================<:::::::::>------- tippet
60% 30% 10%

Aged Sage,

Thanks for the reference. I’ve been trying to find any info on the subject that I could find. The first reference I saw turned on the light bulb for me with regards to the possibilities.

6

Mojo:

The truth of the matter is that 6 ft of 15# Spider Wire that the baitcasters use makes a very effective leader for throwing large, wind resistant deer hair bass flies (1/0-2/0). It turns them over beautifully, and they are a whole lot faster to make than the most fundamental furled leader. And, like furled leaders, they are knotless and therefore are NOT moss collectors. However, they don’t have the “sex appeal” of a furled leader in my books (I have both).

I see absolutely no reason why a WF furled leader won’t work with a DT line. You have just prompted me to make a couple and give them a try on my DT lines. A report on the outcome will be forthcoming

7

Aged,

I actually conducted most of my field testing using a DT line, and the weight forward leaders worked great. To be honest, a weight forward leader wasn’t particularly intuitively obvious to me, irregardless of the line being used, but I found the idea interesting, which is why I spent some time playing around.

have fun,

8

Pszy22 check out the other North American site. BTW the WF leader with the DT line question was a tongue-in-cheek.:lol::lol:

9

Are you talking a 6’ single strand of 15 lb. Spider Wire for a leader, or a furled leader of Spider wire.