Furled leaders.

[pabrookie94]

Hello all,

I'm sorry if this has already been asked but I have been seeing a lot more about furled leaders recently and I have no experience with them. Could you explain exactly what one is and maybe some advantages and disadvantages? Thanks in advance!

 

[just_jon]

Furled Leaders are a type of knotless tapered braided leader constructed primarily of monofilament usually ending in a tippet ring. All you need is to add is tippet and you're ready to go. Furled leaders are sold in varying lengths and are matched to a specific fly line weights. Initially cost i$12-15) is more than a regular layered leader, but will last for many years. Unless you are one of those same guys who can make a single tapered moms leader last all reason, I think will find the are are worth the price and a time saver on the water.

 

[joseywales]

I believe they make a tad more of a "splash" on the top of the water. Enough to "lose" a fish, I don't know.

 

[troutpoop]

I've been using furled leaders for years. Their origin is the chalk stream of the UK for dry fly presentations. A properly constructed and maintained leader will last a long time. I put loon floatant on mine after every use and they will be ready the next time.
The customary length is about 5 1/2feet but they can vary a bit.
I prefer to fish dries most of the time and most often have about 4 -5 feet of tippet run off the end.
Nymphing can also be done with furled leaders but there may be better options out there if that is your primary focus.

 

[poopdeck]

Hate em love em hate em love em hate em love em. That pretty much sums up the responses you will get. Actually furled leaders are primarily thread based. There are some mono furled leaders out there but they are more suited for heavy weight fly fishing with Huge chunky streamers. While there are braided leaders, braided leaders and furled leaders are very different. Braided are braided like you would braid hair. Furled is twisted In Opposite directions that causes the line to furl around itself in an opposing direction making them much tighter which helps minimize spray splash and whatever. I know it doesn't make sense but I do not know how to properly explain it any better then that.

I love them for a number of reasons. They last a long long long time. They float like a cork when dressed. They are less susceptible to horrible casting skill knots (or what I like to call wind knots). They are easily interchangeable and store well with no memory. They are also incredibly easy to make and they cost mere pennies to make.

Now the down side. They are infinitely adjustable so unless you make them yourself and experiment with different lengths, percent of twist and taper you will spend a lot of money trying to find the right furled leader for different situations.

 

[pabrookie94]

Thanks guys! Wouldn't the fact that they're made from a thread base and that they're not clear kind of defeat the purpose of being stealthy with a dry fly and what not. Just don't know how it would be better than a clear mono tapered leader for that.

 

[poopdeck]

Good question but no, not as far as i can tell. Lets not forget they are fish. They are somewhere very close to the bottom of the food chain. They spend their entire lives with things floating By them. There is also 3 to 5 feet ft or more of tippet between the fly and the leader. I rarely if ever float my fly down a straight line following precisely behind and in line with the line. I am also relatively sure their memory sucks. Just look at the flies they get caught on. These flies do not even come close to looking like the real thing yet they eat them all the time. Dumb fish. Except for carp. I can't seem to catch a carp. Carp must see everything. Carp are very intelligent fish.

If you would like to try some pm me your address and your rod weight and I will mail you some to try in the next couple weeks.

 

[PennKev]

This has already been discussed several times at length. I encourage you to do a search on furled leaders and read the previous threads.

The use of furled leaders vs. conventional mono leaders is much like the tedious indicator/no indicator discussions. One is not better than the other and their success is largely dependent on properly matching the gear and technique to the situation.

Opinions in favor of furled leaders often take on the tone of promoting them as the ultimate miracle leader. That is definitely not the case. They do some things extremely well and other things rather poorly.

When it comes to fishing dries, emergers, dry/dropper rigs, shallow wet flies, shallow nymphs, and most small stream applications, yes they are a great choice and they will serve you well. When it comes to punching a bushy dry fly into a tight spot, they are unparalleled. If you need to present a small dry on a long fine tippet, again they do very well. However, it is a matter of finding the appropriate combination of leader and tippet.

On the other hand if you need to do some deeper nymphing, tight-line nymphing, and streamer fishing, put the furled leaders away and run plain ol' mono leaders. They are just a better choice in general for this sort of fishing. Furled leaders, while requiring a floatant to keep them floating, don't sink all that fast either. Mono gets down quicker in general. Also, most of the casting and presentation benefits are negated by adding weighted flies, split shot, and indicators. There are some folks who suggest using crazy lengths of tippet on the end of their furled leader in order to fish deep. This is mostly a case of making something work rather than using the best tool for the job.

There are a variety of materials commonly used to construct furled leaders and the finished leaders will have very different characteristics. However, all furled leaders take advantage of having generally more mass than conventional leaders. It is this extra mass that allows their superior turnover. This leads to the ability to use long tippets. You will no doubt see suggestions to use 4+ feet of a single size of rather light tippet with a furled leader. While you can make 4+ feet of straight 4x or 5x work on the end of a furled leader it is usually better to make at least one step down before adding your final size of tippet. For example, instead of using 4 feet or 4x, use 1 1/2 feet of 2x followed by 2 1/2 feet of 4x. Of course you can vary this arrangement depending on how much slack you want in your presentation.

At this point it may seem like you will be using a lot of tippet. Well that's true, but the durability and longevity of a single furled leader is such that the use of extra tippet is more than made up for by the fact that you will be buying far fewer mono leaders. Additionally, you will use far less heavier leader/tippet material since you will not have to "rebuild" leaders.

To summarize:

Pros
- Very good turnover
- Low Memory and very supple (varies by material used)
- Durability / longevity

Cons
-No real advantage over mono for many nymph or streamer applications
-Generally Poor sink rate and characteristics.


Personally, I use a variety of different leaders in a typical day of fishing. I use mono leaders constructed solely for indicator nymphing, mono leaders constructed for tight line nymphing, and usually a furled leader for dry fly fishing. If I am fishing a small stream I will usually run a furled leader for the majority of the time. But through it all I am not trying to use one type of leader for everything. Rather, I change to a specialized leader for every type of fishing I do. Yes, I spend more time than most changing out my rigs, but I am happier with the results.


Kev

 

[Chaz]

Tried and don't like them, didn't like tippet rings either. The reason, furled leaders get caught in a tree they are generally ruined. Tippet ring is weight added to the line leader and tippet that you may not want there.

 

[tctrout]

Lots of great tips given here, and I agree with most. Furled leaders have a place in fly fishing, and I use them on a regular basis. I use them for dry fly fishing, and believe they allow for a better presentation, hands-down (especially with bamboo fly rods).

To add to the discussion, a buddy of mine makes them, and he has given me some in hi-vis colors that are really nice for using in shallow-water nymphing areas, too. The hi-vis color are perfect for a Czech-style of nymphing, and in those shallow spots, you don't have to worry about their slow sink rate.

TC

 

[Bamboozle]

My only suggestion to anyone who is interested in trying one is to make sure to try both mono/fluoro & thread versions before you make a decision on whether you like them or not. There is a WORLD of difference between the two.

A couple of observations:

I tried MONO & FLUORO (Blue Sky, Feather Craft, homemade, etc.) furled leaders and ditched them quickly because if you get a snag and it suddenly pops free, you end up with a tangled mess. They also twist like crazy if you pull them through your fingers, especially if you want to grease them. I’ll NEVER use a MONO or FLUORO furled leader again!!

However, I am a fan of THREAD FURLED LEADERS.

GOOD POINTS OF THREAD FURLED LEADERS:

I use THREAD FURLED LEADERS almost exclusively for dry fly fishing because they are super supple, turn over dry flies like a dream and I can grease the furled part and it floats pretty good for a while which I like.

Most importantly, they don’t get all twisted up like the mono/fluoro leaders do when you get a snag or grease them. They MAY get slightly twisted, but it usually isn’t a big problem and nowhere near as bad as mono/fluoro furled leaders.

I like a very short leader on really small streams. I can get VERY short (33”-36”) THREAD FURLED LEADERS. I use them exclusively for all of my tiny stream fishing because I can add enough tippet to make them as short as 5 or 6 feet and they cast anything like a dream on creeks where a 20 foot cast is a rarity. Finding a store bought leader that short is near impossible.

The THREAD FURLED LEADERS I use have a 1.5 mm tippet ring on the end of them, which weighs less than gypsy moth poop so I don’t worry about it. It floats too and causes NO issues when dry fly fishing and makes changing tippets a breeze. Some makers use 3.0 mm or larger rings on the mono/fluoro versions because that’s all that will fit with the thicker mono/fluoro leaders but on THREAD LEADERS, you can get by with the tiniest of rings.

If you are inclined to be concerned about color, you can most likely find someone to make you a THREAD FURLED LEADER in any color you want. I don’t care because me and the fish believe it doesn’t matter.

BAD POINTS OF THREAD FURLED LEADERS:

If you ever fished with braided fishing line and HATED the way it gets all tangled around the rod up near the tip top, you may not like furled leaders MADE OF THREAD. They have tendency to do the same thing if you have just the furled part of the leader out of the tiptop and bump the rod. It can be a real pain, especially when you are fishing an evening hatch and already have the jitters. My buddy switches over to a regular mono leader at dusk just to avoid the late night tangles that come with thread furled leaders.

Pesky knots can happen in the furled part and can be especially hard to undo on a THREAD FURLED LEADER. However, I carry a 2.25mm crochet hook with me and it works like a charm to pick out the occasional mystery knot.

Another issue is floating duration when fishing dries (which is all I use them for). While a greased THREAD FURLED LEADER will float for a while, when it gets water logged it sinks and has a tendency to pull the tip of my line line under. The line tip sinking thing is especially pronounced when I fish with silk fly lines. I can't explain why my greased silk fly lines float better than my much lighter greased polyester THREAD FURLED LEADER, but the leader is always the culprit if my silk line tip goes under. The good news is when I see the leader sinking, I just wipe the thread portion with a piece of chamois or a bandanna, re-grease it and all is well. While that is NOT something you would do with a silk fly line, the THREAD FURLED LEADER shows no ill effects from being re-greased while damp.

You can’t buy THREAD FURLED LEADERS in stores, you have to find someone to make them for you.

Bottom line, do I think they are better than anything else out there…Naaa, I just like ‘em ‘cause they work for me and I tend to use very long leaders for dries when I can if they turnover properly. My THREAD FURLED LEADERS come to me @ 7 feet so I build out from there and they usually work just fine depending on the fly I am chucking.

I don’t like them for streamers or nymphs, as a matter of fact I think they suck for streamers and nymphs. A regular knotted leader works better for me and to be honest, a regular knotted leader works just as good as a furled leader for anything if it is tapered properly.

As always YMMV.

 

[dsmith1427]

I use floro furled leaders for nymph fishing and have been for years without any issues. I tight line almost all of the time. I make my own and use a drill to twist them. I made them one winter when I was bored and needed a project. I like them because they have no memory like mono.

Don