In my experience, some fly fishers either care way too much about leaders. Most don’t care enough.
Fussing over the exact number of centimeters of 4X you need for a certain taper might be overkill. But simply looping on a knotless, tapered leader and using it until it won’t fit through your fly’s eye isn’t the way to go either.
In this episode I share a handful of easy, no-nonsense tips for a middle path to using leaders. With only a little bit of energy and effort, you can improve your presentation while also understanding how different components make your leader and fly “do” different things.
Listen to the episode below, or in your favorite podcast app.
Here are 3 articles about leaders:
- Untying the Mystery of Fly Fishing Leaders, I
- Untying the Mystery of Fly Fishing Leaders, II (includes diagrams)
- Fly Fishing with Furled Leaders (includes information on Appalachian Furled Leader Co.)
Episode Recommendation: Panfish on the Fly
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Furled and new tippet as needed. Did my own for years, but now good ones can be bought. Oh and I get most if not all of a season from one (but I keep a short a long and a spare in the vest).
That is a great point regarding durability, Dwyne. Furled leaders probably are cheaper than a few “traditional” ones.
Really enjoyed this one. I have been making furled leaders from regular mono for years based on this https://youtu.be/pbcVaEe3RIs technique. Really simple and and easy make a couple up just sitting around watching tv. I have just been using regular old Stren mono and they work just fine in most situations, 20lb for my 9wt, 12 for 7, 8 for 5, and 4 for everything lower. I still use a regular 7.5 4x for brookies but maybe I should give one of the furled ones a try.
Thanks for the link to the video! I love the furled leaders I buy, but it would be fun to give making them a shot.