[Huckleberry]

Question for Grampa Spey (and all others who use furled leaders):

I noticed that you mentioned furled leaders in several of your posts. Do you make them yourself?
If so, could you elaborate, what material do you use, how do you determine length, etc.

If not, where do you buy them?

How do they compare to poly leaders in your opionion?

I've made a few myelf using tying thread and monofilament nylon. I find it gets rather unwieldy beyond a length of 11 -12 feet.

Thanks in advance,

Tom.

 

[speyman]

Furled leaders

I carry furled leaders from an excellent company in the midwest. The leaders turn over perfectly and never tangle. You add a few feet of mono to the end and off you go. They are not cheap but they last forever. They were originally made for lake fishing because they turn over so well. You can fish a 20' leader and it turns over like a dream. They spey leaders I carry are 9' to which I add a meter or so.

They do not have quite the energy absorbing property of polyleaders. I prefer the furles leader to a floating polyleader for greased line and dry fly work.

 

[Grampa Spey]

I get them from Gary Fountaine's site, the book mailer. These are The Fly Fisher's Furled leaders.

http://www.thebookmailer.com/Gear/Leader/leader.html

The floating furled leaders work best with my shorter and lighter rods and WC and MS lines. The Fluoro Carbon sinking furled leaders work pretty well with the Grand Speys and Jet Stream. I have a problem with my 14' rods and long belly Spey lines and the furled floating leaders. The floating furled leaders with the long lines just don't tranfer the power as well as Rio's 15' steelhead leaders. On the other hand the sinking fluoro carbon furled leaders and the Jet Stream work very well. The Fly Fisher has one that is 105.5 inches long you add 2 to 3' of tippet and it will enable you to get down in the intermediate zone fast.

They last for years. I wouldn't recommend bring the FC furled leader into the eyes of a rod. They might do some damage as they are kinda rough and tough.

Blue Sky has a Spey Furled leader, and I used it a little last fall. It is limited to size and a 6 or 7 weight is the max for it. It worked okay for my 6126 and 7136.

There is a good discussion re Furled leaders on Dan Blanton's site. My comments are under "Dave".

The fc furled leaders may be of use with the Skagit lines if they were shorter and had the little ring in the fishing end and offered in a package with several lengths.

All of the furled leaders attract moss, weeds and other stuff in the water.

Go Blanton's site and read the pros and cons.

 

[Gillie]

Hey Speyman,

Have you thought about sponsoring the site ? :roll:

Gillie

 

[Grampa Spey]

Dana, Juro, Gillie how does this work

Hey Speyman,

Have you thought about sponsoring the site ? :roll:

Gillie

How can we contact a manufacturer like The Fly Fisher's Furled Leaders to see if they want to be a sponsor.

What is the protocol? I would like to contact them and the manufacturer of the new roll on Sun Blocker in the small handy tube.

 

[Moose]

I've used furled leaders quite a bit and there are 2 distinct things to mention about them. First, they do improve turnover greatly. I love the way they enhance a lines castabillity at short to mid ranges. Second, they sit in the surface film rather than floating on top of it (even the so called floating leaders) and create added stick, which is fine with short and mid length casts but detrimental with long lines. Throwing these on an XLT with 70 or 80 feet of line out becomes a problem as the lift is extremely difficult with the leader stuck in the surface film. If they floated like poly leaders or single strand mono they'd be awesome. I tried greasing them which produced better results, but being made of mono the dressing doesn't penetrate and soon wears off.

 

[Verne]

The Fly Fisher furled leaders are made locally here in Lacey, WA., by George Beech and his son Bjorn. I use them for all my fly fishing spey and singlehanded.

 

[sean]

Actually the Irish Angler is one of our newest sponsors and and announcement and banner will be up in the next couple weeks.

Grampa spey just send them an email and CC [email protected].

Include this link:

http://www.speypages.com/advertising/new.pdf

-sean

 

[Grampa Spey]

Thanks Moose re the Furled Leaders and the long lines.

I've used furled leaders quite a bit and there are 2 distinct things to mention about them. First, they do improve turnover greatly. I love the way they enhance a lines castabillity at short to mid ranges. Second, they sit in the surface film rather than floating on top of it (even the so called floating leaders) and create added stick, which is fine with short and mid length casts but detrimental with long lines. Throwing these on an XLT with 70 or 80 feet of line out becomes a problem as the lift is extremely difficult with the leader stuck in the surface film. If they floated like poly leaders or single strand mono they'd be awesome. I tried greasing them which produced better results, but being made of mono the dressing doesn't penetrate and soon wears off.

As I noted above, the Floating Furled leaders work well with my WC's and MS's. However, with my Grand Spey and Jet Stream lines, they just didn't work well. Now I understand why. Simon made the correct diagnosis on the American River during his class last year. He gave me one of Rio's 15' steelhead leaders to replace the floating furled leader on my GS with floating tip. It was like I had a different rod and line re the improved performance.

 

[Grampa Spey]

Verne re Fly Fisher Furled Leaders

The Fly Fisher furled leaders are made locally here in Lacey, WA., by George Beech and his son Bjorn. I use them for all my fly fishing spey and singlehanded.

Verne, could you contact George and his son, Bjorn, and see if they would like to be sponsors on this site.

They make great furled leaders, and most Spey fisher/casters know nothing about them. I own several of them, and they are two plus years old, and they still perform like new. I just remove them from the line and put them back in the little plastic envelope they came in at the end of the day. Then they are ready for the next time I need them.

 

[Green Butt]

I have also used the FlyFisher furled leaders for many years. I use them on long lines but they do require a modification in the cast. I like the FC ones for using as a mini sink tip. They are at times difficult to pull out, but less difficult than a heavy sinktip. I got one caught up under a log jam once and had a very, very difficult time breaking it. I really like them on a windy day.
They are not cheap but last forever if you don't snip the loop at the end where the tippet is tied on. I have redone the loops but never could get them to be quite as good as the original. They now make them with the little metal ring on the end.
I have taken ones where I had snipped the end loop and made shorties for sinktip lines.