Furled Leader Making

[albannachxcuileag]

I've read about them, I've seen one, courtesy of AMU and I wanted one. So I decided to make my own using the guide lines by Henk Verhaar that appeared in a Global Fly Fisher article.

 

The only thing I bought were the weights from the local tackle shop what don't do fly fishing! The rest came from the shed. A 1/4 sheet of 12mm MDF 1M x 0.5M, a length of 2 x 3/4 pine and a broom handle, screws, dowel and hooks I had in there as well.

 

Knocking it up according to the instructions was not difficult although this being Friday the 13th I did manage to short out the cable on my £150 jigsaw!

 

Step 1.

 

Cut 2 planks from the MDF

 

 

Step 2.

 

Join them with pine and countersunk screws so it can be disassembled for storage

 

 

Step 3.

 

Measure it out and fit the posts

 

 

Step 4.

 

Follow the instructions and hey presto! My first two 6ft Furled Leaders, one for the river and the other a Hi-Vis for buzzer and nymphing from a floating line!

 

 

Furled Leader anyone?

[albannachxcuileag]

More on it here

[ogilvie]

Hey,

Very nice job....Furled leaders are excellent...a bit expensive but goooood.

Are you going to sell some?

C

[Conor]

I use them for dry fishing. Turn over is excellent, and they are so supple, I feel they help reduce drag a bit.

 

I plan on whipping up a peg board this winter.

[albannachxcuileag]

Hey,

Very nice job....Furled leaders are excellent...a bit expensive but goooood.

Are you going to sell some?

C

 

 

Expensive? No Way! They only cost about C$2.00 to make after you have made up the board. All you need are a couple of spools of UNI 6/0 or 3/0 thread, mono if you want super strong and from 100M of mono you get 3 x 2M furled leaders 15lb BS.

I am Scottish and anything that involves expense is scrutinised very closely!

Sorry, but just making them for fun and not retail.

 

Conor,

 

if you do PM me and I will send you drawings of the modifications that I made to the original design that makes it more flexible in constructing different tapers and lengths.

[Conor]

Even retail they are cheaper than knotless.

 

I get mine from a guy on Ebay for $8 ea. One or two will last all season, typically.

[youngtc]

For those looking for more detailed instructions, go to flyangler.ca and an article by Greg Scratchley dated Mar 23/06. His instructions give 3 leader lengths. I have been making furled leaders for 3 seasons using monofilament Berkley Trilene 2 lb(.005 dia) and Rapala 4 lb (.006 dia) for floating uses and flurocarbon 4 lb for sinking lines. Not quite as limp as unithread but still most satisfactory. Cost typically less than $1Cdn per leader. Have been using Shorb loops at both ends (can be googled for instructions).

[kelmic]

Notice you used 6/0 uni thread, could you tell me how many wraps you used at each dowel? In all the instructions I looked at there is only reference to the number of wraps when using mono, and that if using uni you would have to use more.

[Conor]

http://furledleaders.proboards26.com/

 

Lots of info on this forum. It is not very active, but there are some great threads to learn from. Some recipes as well (regarding number of loops per link).

 

Since this post I have made a peg board and tried it out. It is a bit fiddley, but pretty easy once you get the details down.

[kelmic]

Thanks Conor, very worthwhile link. I've built a few now and can't wait to try 'em.

[newflyer]

What length of furled leaders does everyone use? I assume that smaller streams have shorter leaders...