First furled leaders!

[morcey2]

I decided to put my day off to some good use and made a couple of furled leaders. I used 6/0 uni thread, one camel and one yellow. I made a jig out of a 1x6, a couple of cup hooks, and 5 empty prescription bottles. I screwed the bottle caps to the board at the proper intervals for the 8' leader.

http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/tips/fu...urled.html

The first leader popped loose at the big end and came somewhat unfurled so I ended up with about a 4.5' leader after I tied a loop in it.

The second one turned out much better, but I don't think I twisted it enough initially. Either way, it's about 5'8" long without a tippet and works really well. I added a 2' section of 2x and will attach a tippet to that for fishing. I compared it to a tapered mono leader of about the same length and the difference is stark. The furled leader would turn a fly over easily with my hand, but the mono leader wouldn't even think about it.

I can't wait to fish with it tomorrow, barring the opportunity to be a human lightning rod.

I'm thinking about tying a longer one for used with my 12' crappie pole to see how that works, just for fun.

Matt
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[flygoddess]

When furling, it should shorten 10% of length, so if you are making a 6' leader, the board needs to be 6" longer.
Not sure what your loops are but a shorb loop is nice and smooth. This would require a small peg. I use the plastic Thumb Tacks to transfer from the cup hooks. Nice and small and easy to work with. Get a copy of KATHY SCOTT'S DVD. Makes it so much easier than that article. You can also make leaders out of Nylon sewing thread.
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[morcey2]

I'm getting a little better. So far, I have a couple of usable leaders. The best one is about 7' long without any additions to it. I made it from some 2# Trilene that I had lying around. I also made several very complicated balls of various and sundry types of thread. It's amazing how quickly the suckers ball up when one end slips from the cup hook in the drill. [crazy]

The trilene leader seems significantly stiffer than the 6/0 and 3/0 unithread leaders. It's also more tightly furled also, but that might be irrelevant. I've actually got some time this week to try them out.

Matt
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