Furled Leaders

[Glenny]

I have a few furled leaders with a two foot orange tip for Nymph fishing. I haven't had much luck with them. how long of a tippet should I be using? I usually tie on about 3 ft of tippet. Does the heavy leader and orange indicator scare fish away?

thanks Glen

 

[Dave_W]

The heavy leader and orange section should not scare fish.

What you want to do (if I'm picturing your system correctly in my mind) is add a length of monofilament leader to the orange section. When your leader is complete, including tippet, the orange section will be roughly in the middle of the leader or closer to your fly line. I like my colored sections (called "sighters" these days) about one to two feet below the end of the fly line.

Tippet length is up to you and can depend on a variety of issues. I usually use about 2' of tippet when nymphing. For stream trout fishing my nymph leader is usually about 8 feet and built something like this:

~ BUTT: 2' of 30lb test
~ SIGHTER: 1' of 30lb test
~ MID SECTION: 1' of 20lb test, then 2' of 12lb test
~TIPPET: 2' of 6lb test.

 

[poopdeck]

I furl my own leaders but I'm a little confused. I assume this is a thread furled leader and not a mono furled leader. I'm also assuming it's a tapered furled leader.

Sighters on thread furled leaders are usually tied on the butt end not the tippet end since the tippet end of the furled leader is the part that may get pulled under.

For nymphs I use a 5' furled leader. My tippet is simple and is typically a 3' to 4' of 4x to 1' to 18" 5x. Sometimes it's 5x to 6x. Some times the tippet is 3 or 4' max but this depends on depth and flow. My measurements are not that exact as I usually do not sweat the minutiae like most. I also never use sighters on my furled leaders for no other reason then I don't think they are necessary.

 

[Glenny]

thanks and yes sorry for the confusion colored section of furled leader is tied to fly line

 

[poopdeck]

Generally furled leaders are not preferred by nymph fishers. The sighters never made sense to me since the fly line itself is just as much a sighted as the first foot of a furled leader.

I'd try a longer tippet.