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Tie your Own leaders?

How many of you out there tie your own leaders? What is your favorite recipie  

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Here in the forum I asked about the trouble I had casting a big woolly bugger over the summer. It turned out to be the leader was too light for that fly weight. Live and learn - right? I played with a couple cheapo knotless leaders I had and realized I "could" get those buggers where I wanted them with the correct leader. Next I learned that there are tons of charts online with leader recipes and buddy here in the forum (Dave) gave me some tips for brands and away I went. I admit that blood knots are an acquired skill and bought a tool to help me out here at the desk instead of tying them at the water. I enjoy tackle craft so this just adds to the enjoyment of fly fishing as a whole. What's next? Rod building??

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I use feruled leaders that I build out of 140 denier tying thread on my bamboo rods. Normally out of olive thread, sometimes I will make the tip or butt out of orange for a strike indicator.

 

For bass I will make them out of 2lb test mono. For salt I have used 5lb to 10lb test mono to build them.

 

I will not the forget the feeling on the first fish I caught with a rod I built using a leader I made on a fly I tied.

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I haven't tied a leader in probably 17 years, I was introduced to furled leaders in 1998 or 99. I got mine from Jim Cramer when I swapped some spinner bait skirt layers for some furled leaders. There were a lot of discussions with Henk Vehar and Claude Freaner and others on the FF@ list at that time. I think they, like CDC, they came over from Europe. Who knows how long they've been used over there. I've gotten most of mine by swapping flies or materials for them. I'm not mechanically inclined so I've never attempted to build one. One thing I like about them is they're durable. I've been doing an inventory of my leaders and tippet material and I still have some of the original ones I received including one of that's seen a lot of use and has been reduced in size from 6 feet to around 3 feet but will still turn over a fly. You can get wind knots in them but the leader is not weakened like a mono or fluorocarbon one. With the thread ones you can treat them with a product like Water Shed and they act like a strike indicator. For subsurface I have a couple of fluorocarbon ones.

The benefits. Durability, turning over the fly, and for the ones tailored for trout, they allow me to make a delicate presentation of small flies. You don't have to add on material to the leader to keep the taper functional, just use a loop to loop connection to add the tippet. I guess they're on their way to becoming traditional in the states.

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Ok I have a question what are the benefits of a feruled leader or is it just traditional?

 

Absolutely zero memory, no hard transitions or 'nodes' like a knotted leader, no kinks or curls like a knotless extruded leader, a lifetime measured in seasons instead of outings (or hours), slightly more resistance to wind knots (though when you *do* get them, they're tougher to undo once pulled tight), much more supple than any hard/solid nylon or fluoro leader, takes dressing (floatant or sink agent) far better, slightly more susceptible to high wind, better shock absorption, softer presentation with small patterns.

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Ok I have a question what are the benefits of a feruled leader or is it just traditional?

Absolutely zero memory, no hard transitions or 'nodes' like a knotted leader, no kinks or curls like a knotless extruded leader, a lifetime measured in seasons instead of outings (or hours), slightly more resistance to wind knots (though when you *do* get them, they're tougher to undo once pulled tight), much more supple than any hard/solid nylon or fluoro leader, takes dressing (floatant or sink agent) far better, slightly more susceptible to high wind, better shock absorption, softer presentation with small patterns.

Thanks Cold, are they saltwater friendly and abrasion resistant? Im tough on leaders my mono ones last one trip!

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Here in the forum I asked about the trouble I had casting a big woolly bugger over the summer. It turned out to be the leader was too light for that fly weight. Live and learn - right? I played with a couple cheapo knotless leaders I had and realized I "could" get those buggers where I wanted them with the correct leader. Next I learned that there are tons of charts online with leader recipes and buddy here in the forum (Dave) gave me some tips for brands and away I went. I admit that blood knots are an acquired skill and bought a tool to help me out here at the desk instead of tying them at the water. I enjoy tackle craft so this just adds to the enjoyment of fly fishing as a whole. What's next? Rod building??

Freddo, Rod Building ? You bet, LOL ! You must need a good 3 or 4 wt stream rod by now.

 

how did I miss this message I wonder

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Freddo, Rod Building ? You bet, LOL ! You must need a good 3 or 4 wt stream rod by now.

 

how did I miss this message I wonder

Ha Dave - Caught you off guard! As a kid I snapped the end off my favorite Garcia 3 Star UL rod. Replaced the rod tip guide to find the line cut into it over time and so I wrapped ceramic guides on the entire rod way back when. I enjoyed doing that "tweak" (rob building of sorts) and sold that rod after a bit to buy a Garcia 5 Star upgrade. Always UL for me. So I'd admit now that I can fly cast pretty well and fell headstrong into fly tying and fly fishing that the thought of a 3 or 4 weight has crossed my mind many times and continues to do so at exponential speed. So has fly fishing in the surf in NC while vacationing (and retirement down the pike [a whole bunch of years from now]). I'm not sure of my 9' 5 wt would "do" surf fishing. And for trout? I'd like a smaller setup. I was warned this would happen! Uh oh, I think my wife hid my wallet!! LOL! smile.png

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Freddo, Rod Building ? You bet, LOL ! You must need a good 3 or 4 wt stream rod by now.

 

how did I miss this message I wonder

Ha Dave - Caught you off guard! As a kid I snapped the end off my favorite Garcia 3 Star UL rod. Replaced the rod tip guide to find the line cut into it over time and so I wrapped ceramic guides on the entire rod way back when. I enjoyed doing that "tweak" (rob building of sorts) and sold that rod after a bit to buy a Garcia 5 Star upgrade. Always UL for me. So I'd admit now that I can fly cast pretty well and fell headstrong into fly tying and fly fishing that the thought of a 3 or 4 weight has crossed my mind many times and continues to do so at exponential speed. So has fly fishing in the surf in NC while vacationing (and retirement down the pike [a whole bunch of years from now]). I'm not sure of my 9' 5 wt would "do" surf fishing. And for trout? I'd like a smaller setup. I was warned this would happen! Uh oh, I think my wife hid my wallet!! LOL! smile.png

Off Topic I know : You can build on a scale of " one up" though vs buying run of the mill for maybe a bit less money. That's if you don't go nuts on the purchasing of tools, goods etc.

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I've always been leery of using the thread ones in salt water. Very visible and can picture a bluefish getting a hankering for one. One of the reasons I have a couple of fluorocarbon ones. Mine are made from 20 lb fluorocarbon. 80 lb at the butt end 40 lb at the tippet end. Just tie on 20-30 lb tippet. I'm not sure of the durability of those that are made of tying thread if used in salt water. I would imagine that you would have to wash them after ever use. Now I used Dacron on my trolling reels I'm not sure how that would work for a furled leader should be more durable than tying thread. Still the reels and the Dacron got a freshwater wash down after every trip.

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Dacron is what made me ask in the first place, I was wondering about durability because Dave on is tuff stuff, all my gear gets washed every trip no exceptions!

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Make your own leader? .........is there another way LOL? I started to fish 65 years ago (in Italy), I never owned a reel (of any kind, till I moved to USA in 1972) and the line was made with horse hair. I still use horse hair line and the rod, the "Valsesiana",that was made for me in Italy. Back to the leaders. When I fish like in the modern days, I make my own leaders. Among the lines, in mine opinion, the best of all is Maxima: the only problem is that the diameter of the line in the same spool is not uniform. You might say it that has a memory, but there are ways to make it act like "Amnesia". I am totally against extruded leaders because if the river (particularly during spring) are full of debris: in a knotless leader they all end on the fly; if you have some wind knots they don't get tight and very easy to undo.

Furled leaders bring me back to the time of the silkworm guts (Hemingway's Indian camp book).

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I don't use any metal rings but I do go loop to loop from leader to tippet, or have. You can do a one or two foot section of tippet two sizes down then a 3-4 ft section of the next one down off that tied in. And that tie in point is a good place to put a tag for fishing double nymphs. That whole tippet system is then removable simply by slipping the loops apart. Replace that with a straight 4 ft piece of what ever ( maybe 3x on the 1x leader for instance or 4x on the 2 x leader ). But I don't use metal rings.LOL, the loop is more versatile and the tippet system reusable a couple of times or more. Just sayin.

 

The simplest solution either mentioned in the article or in the comments section is something else I do. I tie up all my maxima leaders using surgeons knots and ended forever the trials of other knots used in leader building. Works every bit as good, maybe not as pretty. People work too hard at it. You can whip a leader out in no time with surgeons knots ( actually what I use I believe is a double surgeons knot), I've even rebuilt a few stream side with what I had in my vest ( most sizes, since the butt section lasts about forever). it's been like this for 20 years or more now.

 

I am interested in trying this furled leader idea for dry fly fishing though. That could happen sooner than later !

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