Furled Leaders

[flytyer57]

And, yes furling is letting two oposite twists untist against eachother. But you can add a lot of complexity to how it tapers, but you have to build a jig and a drill and some weight and appearently some free time and quite a bit of patience.

Yeah. That's why I'm just gonna stick to a store bought tapered leader. I'd rather spend my time fishing than pulling my hair out.

[3wt]

There's a guy on craigslist in St. Louis that makes and sells furled leaders for somethign like $5 or $6. I'm sure He'd ship. Never tried them, but he's got a website and looks pretty legit.

[trout fanatic]

So I take my "twisted" leader out for a test drive this morning to a local lake. Last nights storms left the water high and the color of coffee with lots of creamer. Steady wind blowing right in my face but managed to punch several casts through the wind. Only managed 1 small largemouth, 1 nice gill and a nice sized crappie. Leader performed flawlessly but I had no snags or breakoffs so I could not test the birds nest theory. So far, I really like these leaders but lots more testing will be in order before I am fully convinced.

By the way, I tied up 3 of these leaders with no problems but further efforts resulted in me trashing the line and starting all over. The line wants to tangle around itself during construction resulting in a total mess. I went back to faol and re-read the links. One of the forumites posted a tip that he passes each end of the line through the handles of coffee cups before he begins. This helps in keeping the two lines separate. So I tried it and voila. Works like a champ!

[Paola Cat]

There's a member of this forum that makes furled leaders with his daughter as a side job. His forum name is KSBASS. They perform very well and more than reasonably priced. See link below. Cheers. PC

Furled Leaders

[jjtroutbum]

There's a member of this forum that makes furled leaders with his daughter as a side job. His forum name is KSBASS. They perform very well and more than reasonably priced. See link below. Cheers. PC

Furled Leaders

Thanks for the link I will give a couple of these a try

[ksbass]

Thanks for the link I will give a couple of these a try

Bum,

PM me your address and I'll send you one to try. Let me know your rod weight and what you want it to do, float/sink/nymph/dry, etc. Offer goes to anyone on OA Forum... well ok... to the next ten replies.

Wrench,

You too. I've got a furled leader breed without the twist. It floats very good and is very strong. We call it the stealth spider. I originally developed it for bass and carp in heavy timber on a 7-wt rig. We can make one in just about any weight. We scaled it down for a guy in Jeff City as a 3' - 2/3-wt. and it's now one of our best sellers. We also can use a micro swivel instead of the tippet ring if twisting is a concern.

PC,

Thanks for the endorsement! Let me know next time. I just saw the post today.

My daughter and I are making the furled leaders to support her wildlife charities, savings, and spending money. Emma plans to donate the next $100 in profits to the Dry Run Creek restoration project in Northern Arkansas along the Norfork. She's already donated several hundred dollars to the World Wildlife Fund and "adopted" several threatened animals. For a 10-yr old she's quite a selfless caregiver to the planet. We're very proud of her.

Here's a few shots from our recent Easter trip to Dry Run Creek at the Norfork tailwaters in northern Arkansas. Emma and I camped Thurs through Sunday. A "product testing" trip. Beautiful weather and redbuds and dogwoods were blooming. Great father/daugher trip. We worked on many techniques and I will proudly say she is a quick learner. This is really tight quarters fishing, lots of tree hazards, with no room for back casting in some fast moving water. She quickly picked up on roll casts and flip casts and great line mending control. I believe girls are easier to teach to flyfish than boys.

She took the 26" brute on her own tied pink SJW and the brown on her own designed Scoubi Snack - a plastic tubing nymph. She used a thread based Em's Pink Bubblegum furled leader the whole trip on her 7' 3-wt rod.

If you're ever at Lilley's Landing, check out our leaders there. Phil stocks some of them there.

BTW - the improvements they have made at Dry Run Creek are awesome. If you've got a <16 yr old. Take them to DRC. It's a beautiful stream that happens to hold some nice fish!

Thanks!

ksbass

[eric1978]

ksbass, PC sent me one of your leaders last winter and I love it. I haven't taken it off my line since I put in on. It's still in great shape and it's been months. Nice work, and it's cool what you guys do with the proceeds. Keep it up!

[Justin Spencer]

You should be very proud of your daughter, I have a suspicion that her parents may have something to do with how she is turning out. Well done! After the upcoming busy season for us I am hoping to ramp up my campstore with fly fishing gear for our offseason. When I do so I will be getting in touch with you as I would love to carry your leaders. Great product for great causes, sounds like a win win for everyone.

[DaddyO]

KSBass,

I've been thinking about trying a Furled Leader. I have a 8.5ft 5wt. I, mostly, midge/nymph fish, sometimes streamer fish and occasionally dry fly fish. What do you recommend?

[ksbass]

DaddyO,

I'd recommend a 5 1/2' 5-wt thread based floating furled leader for starters... I really like the thread based furled leaders for single rig nymphing, soft hackles, and dry flys. They float well - nice drift, have no memory (thingamabobber won't kink them up), turn-over decent and present a dry fly really nicely. They do have some stretch to them which I feel helps to prevent light tippet breakage on a hookset or hard run. Yes they will twist some. But I haven't found it a real problem or felt I lost a fish because of it.

I prefer the monofilament based furled leaders for fishing heavier stuff, streamers, multi-fly rigs and large top water stuff. They do have some memory and can be kinked with a thingy, but turn over very positively. If I need to go deeper I use the fluoro based furled leaders since they sink. Try stripping a crackleback on a fluoro furled leader down at Taney. A good time will be had!

Length is somewhat a personal preference\part task. Given I usually fish for trout at Bennett or Roaring River with a single nymph, soft hackle or dry, I generally like my total leader length to be about rod's length. So for my 7' 3-wt small stream rig I typically use a 4-5' thread furled leader with 2-3' of 6x tippet. For my 9' 4-wt rig I will use a 6' furled leader with 3' of tippet. This lets me land and release a fish without having to pull the leader butt through the guides. Like I said a personal preference.

When I'm bass (or carp) fishing with my 9' 7-wt rig and throwing something heavy or big & light, I use a 4' mono based furled leader and only 2' of 8lb tippet. The shorter length assures positive turn-over but with a heavier landing. If I'm in some serious cover I use the spiderwire furled leaders. They have zero stretch, no memory, extremely strong, float well and turn over better than thread but not as well as mono.

Are furled leaders for everyone? Maybe, maybe not. In general, furled leaders perform well when matched to the application. They cast well, resist wind knots, and last a long time. The tiny tippet ring makes tippet changes quick and easy. I found furled leaders when teaching my son to flyfish. On one Bennett trip we went through 5 knotless tapered leaders that ended in birdnests on his rod in one morning. We tried some furled leaders and were impressed. I stumbled into making my own when I wanted to experiment and add what I thought were improvements. My daughter Emma joined me in the endeavor and we're currently making 30+/month. We enjoy feedback from our customers and the challenge of a making a new style to meet a particular need. Give us a try.

Hope this helps.

-ksbass