DIY Leaders

[Morrowboarder 0]

Maxima Clear can be used but it has been harder to find that Chameleon. Don't use Maxima Green. It is too supple for the butt section.

 

Thanks for the info

[flytire 0]

[ditz2 0]

Silver....I confess that I use some home made furled leaders mostly but I do have a question on your formula. I have never tried it but I very well my do so in the future and thanks for the explanation. My question is how does a bite tippet of 80# or wire fit into this formula?

[Morrowboarder 0]

Flytire, so that model calls for straight non-tapered mono? Do you use that?

[SilverCreek 0]

Silver....I confess that I use some home made furled leaders mostly but I do have a question on your formula. I have never tried it but I very well my do so in the future and thanks for the explanation. My question is how does a bite tippet of 80# or wire fit into this formula?

 

I have never tried it.

[mikechell 0]

I do ... and I love that chart, Flytire.

[Nate 0]

I tried that. I felt like the fly did NOT want to straighten out on longer casts (amazing how many of those are required on Montana's big rivers.) Since I switched to a hand twisted furled leader of 4# fluorcarbon with a 4# tippet I have the best of both worlds. I only have to take ONE tippet spool which is a a 250 yd pony spool of Vanish and i have dozens upon dozens of leaders with 4# fluoro tippet that last for years (I have had this one on my rod now for 15 months and only changed the tippet on trips) and it turns over on an 80 foot cast with ease laying my tiny little 18 dries out there for fish perusal. I highly recommend it. Best leader system I have used in 35 years of flyfishing.

[SilverCreek 0]

How do you adjust the length of the furled leader, for example, if you want to go from a 9 ft leader to a 15 foot leader? How do you use the furled leader for nymphing instead of dries. What if you want to fish a larger streamer or a large dry like a Sofa Pillow for the Salmon Fly hatch?

[Fisherboy0301 0]

I would not reccomend flouro for dries. Mono, sure, but flouro is dense and sinks, as where mono tends to float...

[PENZZZ 0]

Regarding leader composition, an area to focus on is the transition of energy from your fly line to your leader. In my opinion the stiffness (not diameter) of the butt section of your leader should be similar to the stiffness of the end of your fly line. Fly line and specific leader material stiffness will vary so no hard and fast rule here. I've found that the tip section of my DT 4WT fly line was way more supple than 25 pound Maxima which was causing my leader to not roll out properly (more pronounced on a bamboo rod than fast action graphite). So for the slower bamboo rod I went down to fifteen pound butt section Maxima, and the problem went away. I did the same with leaders for a three weight graphite with good results.