At the end of last season I had a chance conversation with an angler on the River Fillan. He was singing the praises of furled leaders for his trout fishing and I was intrigued! This guy was making his own out of mono which I didn't really fancy but I liked the concept. Furled leaders will not be new to many anglers but they are essentially a tapered join between your fly line and tippet. They can be made from mono or thread. Some anglers will tell you they aid presentation, others will argue this.
Once I had decided to give them a go I asked a wee question on a fly fishing forum I frequent (more than I should) and I was pointed in the direction of these....
These furled leaders are hand made by a fellow forum member and they have a fairly large following. The start of the trout season is the first real opportunity I have had to experiment with them.
I purchased the standard 5ft leaders and was advised to treat with muclin when necessary to get them floating. Apparently, over time, they float better. I totally ignored this advice and treated them with watershed....
This stuff is basically a permanent waterproofing agent which I and many others use for dry flies. It saves you having to "gink em" all the time.
Soaked soaked and dried for 24hours, my leaders were ready to go.
After this slight detour, I followed the excellent instructions to the letter. Simple stuff really, 5ft furled leader attached to 5ft tippet 6X via perfection loop, de-grease your tippet and whack on a wee dry fly.
Up until now I have always used tapered mono leaders, sometimes shop bought, sometimes I made my own. I was initially dubious about presentation but I need not have worried. Turn over was superb and they have already accounted for several fish. The watershed treatment seems to have done the trick and I find them far less fiddly to use than mono tapered leaders. I am reliably informed they will last me a long time if I look after them too. (credit crunch n all that!!)
My fishing with them so far has been on my local hill lochs but I am on a wee river at the weekend and will be using them there. I am a great believer in keeping my fishing as simple as possible and these fit the bill perfectly.
They may just have changed my dry fly fishing for the better!
Paul, I am also a convert to these leaders. I use them for all my fishing now. Treated as you say to float for dry fly and left as is for wets and nymphs. Also saves a lot on tippet material
ReplyDeleteI have been using them for a wee while now Eddie and I really am a convert! Very simple, good turnover and has had no effect on my catch rate. No brainer!
ReplyDeleteThanks for having a read at the blog. Its appreciated.
Tight lines
Paul