Leaders, leaders, and leaders

[KeviR]

I find that with a knotted leader, I get significantly fewer wind knots. The loops seem to hang up on a knot along the leader somewhere, so it's a minor tangle rather than cinching down into a knot. If I was a better caster, this probably wouldn't be an issue, so ymmv.

 

[poopdeck]

Wind knots with a furled leader are like unicorns. The big problem with furled leaders are they can be made with different lengths, twist, taper, etc… if you used a furled thread leader and didn’t like it it wasn’t because of the furl it was because of the construction. Which is why to love furled leaders it helps to make them yourself so you can find your sweet spot.

 

[afishinado]

Wind knots with a furled leader are like unicorns. The big problem with furled leaders are they can be made with different lengths, twist, taper, etc… if you used a furled thread leader and didn’t like it it wasn’t because of the furl it was because of the construction. Which is why to love furled leaders it helps to make them yourself so you can find your sweet spot.

Agreed ^.

I've messed with tapers and materials for furled leaders for quite a while now. I have them dialed in pretty good for all types of fishing and flies. The fact that you can adjust them to suit your needs is the best part of using them, along with the fact they last for a whole season most times.

 

[Sylvaneous]

I just did my 1st Euro-nymph excursion Monday for Steelhead. I have been and continue to find my way in the Euro-nymph world. I saw lots of people's nymph leader formula. I got 15 lb Flo. Red Amnesia instead of Kelly's yellow 12 lb Stren. I tried a chunk (18 inches?) of 20 lb to help transition from the 3 wt fly line, but it wasn't heavy, stiff and thick enough. I had 35 lb Rio tippet sitting around from I have no idea what. I put a chunk of that on as the butt and it was less of the 'tail wagging the dog' You are NOT going to roll cast or anything like that with Euro stuff. It's all tension cast or elliptical 'flop'. So mine goes from this 35 lb chunk however many feet of 15 lb Amnesia, then however many feet of 0X sighter tippet (I forget if it was Orvis or Rio) to a medium tippet ring. Then I dropped 4X off that. I WAS thinking about dropping 3X or 2X off the 0X with a tippet ring, then tying 1 segment of 4X to the fly from the ring and another segment off the ring for the drop shot weights. (I do drop shot, not a heavy fly) Tippet rings are rare and expensive. I don't want to snap any off, so that's why I'd go for the significantly heavier tippet TO the ring. But I did use the 4X from the 0X tippet ring with the drop shot configuration on my inaugural trip. It held onto a few 6, 7, 8 lb steelhead. Oh, and even with tight-lining, I didn't feel the take in this martini-cold crick water. The steelies were just snags that started to swim. I might have missed them with a bobber rig.

 

[flyguyfishing]

Awhile back FlyFishersParadise had a Harvey leader kit. It came with the Maxima spools in various sizes and a pamphlet of leader formulas. They might still have them. I bought a kit and was hooked. Recently though, I have been messing with furled leader - simply something different.

The one constant on all my leaders is the tippet ring. I love the tippet ring.

 

[Billems]

The two leaders I tie are (1) AK Best's formula for early spring, when the wind is blowing. And (2) George Harvey formula with Maxima Chameleon in the butt section, soft mono begining at 2x. Best's formula is in his book, "Fly Fishing with AK Best." The Harvey leaders are posted in Joe Humphreys' "Trout Tactics."

 

[krayfish2]

After reading all these posts, I feel like I'm doing it wrong. I stuck with tapered leaders forever. For dry fishing, 9' - 12' tapered in 2x, 3x... sometimes 4x if it's smaller bugs. Hack some off the end and build out from there with powerflex. Range in length from 12' - 18'. LoL Ask anyone who's grabbed my dry rod by accident and strips the reel 3 times to get the leader out of the tip top. 🤣 Nymphing leader is 0-1x butt, section of 2 connect to tippet ring. 3-4x off of that. All flouro. Length varies but it's a given that it will be a nightmare to cast. Streamer leader is short 0x - 1x to a tippet ring and then 2x section to the fly. All flouro.

Moon,
We fish together enough, I know you've used my rods when we were in the boat. Did you have any trouble with my leader configurations or did they seem to work okay? I have the Harvey formula somewhere but I'm not inspired enough to build a leader. Whatever I'm doing seems to work pretty good but a lot of it is feel on how much to cut off and the length of sections when building out.

 

[moon1284]

After reading all these posts, I feel like I'm doing it wrong. I stuck with tapered leaders forever. For dry fishing, 9' - 12' tapered in 2x, 3x... sometimes 4x if it's smaller bugs. Hack some off the end and build out from there with powerflex. Range in length from 12' - 18'. LoL Ask anyone who's grabbed my dry rod by accident and strips the reel 3 times to get the leader out of the tip top. 🤣 Nymphing leader is 0-1x butt, section of 2 connect to tippet ring. 3-4x off of that. All flouro. Length varies but it's a given that it will be a nightmare to cast. Streamer leader is short 0x - 1x to a tippet ring and then 2x section to the fly. All flouro.

Moon,
We fish together enough, I know you've used my rods when we were in the boat. Did you have any trouble with my leader configurations or did they seem to work okay? I have the Harvey formula somewhere but I'm not inspired enough to build a leader. Whatever I'm doing seems to work pretty good but a lot of it is feel on how much to cut off and the length of sections when building out.

You're leaders are fine, I never had a problem with them. For dries they are around the same length as mine except I think you use tapered leaders and tie on tippet as needed.

I don't like tapered leaders because I'm cheap, stubborn, and superstitious.

That's the same reason I don't use flouro and the same reason I buy maxima one shot spools for making leaders. I'm going to say my leaders are the best because I tie them - I'm sure that's not the case but it sounds good!

 

[Canoetripper]

This is a good weekend for me to experiment with leaders. With my four rod Rod Vault I can rig one up with a flouro leader, another with a knotted leader, and another with a furled leader.

That gives me another tube in my rod vault for euro nymphing.

As I have posted numerous times, I am fishing for stocked trout. Green is their preferred color in wooly bugger and soft hackle, and also these silli worms/squirmy wormies.

My Orvis Recon 9' 7 wt. rod has really helped me with my fly casting.

I am kind of ready to retire my extra spools with sinking tip line since I can not cast that heavy line very well. I can always change those extras spools with floating line that I am much better at casting.