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Furled Leaders

Reviewed by Terry Lawton

I came across furled leaders in Darrel Martin's very interesting and comprehensive book, Micropatterns, Tying & Fishing The Small Fly. He wrote about discovering "the soft, supple leader" in Spain and shows how to make them. Talk about complicated!

I came across Alan Bithell at the Chatsworth Angling Fair who was demonstrating how he makes furled leaders. Having seen him make one, the theory and practice are much clearer. The accompanying photos may help. I would point out that Alan has now developed a powered system which is obviously much better for regular production.

A furled leader is made from a single length of thread or mono that is wrapped around a series of posts, with more turns for the thicker end and fewer for the tapered business end. It is thus possible to vary tapers and produce, for example, double tapered or even weight forward leaders.

Alan normally recommends a five foot leader and a tippet as long as you want. To ensure that the thread leaders float, they must be treated with floatant before wetting them. The nylon leaders can be treated to float at any time.

Alan's nylon leader is a stiff, steep tapered leader that is for use on lines #6 and above, where turnover is more important than presentation and normally on still waters. He says that he knows of people using tippets of up to 16 feet with a standard five foot leader.
He makes two distinct kinds of thread leader for medium weight rod and line combinations: 4, 5 and 6 weight lines where presentation is vital. Thread leaders will not turn over the same length of tippet as nylon but do give better presentation while handling 4 to 5 foot of tippet. These leaders are coloured. His grey thread leaders are the same leader as the medium trout but made from a finer thread and designed for 0 to 3 weight lines.

I have been trying these leaders, both nylon and thread, and they do offer superb presentation. The thread ones, in particular float down onto the water like strands of gossamer.

Darrel Martin is quite uncomplimentary about using long leaders for shy, slective fish. He would rather use a long tippet. As he says, short, furled leaders have the mass to turn-over long tippets. The long tippet keeps the leader away from the fish and the whole leader is still short enough to be easy to cast with the exceptional presentation associated with furled leaders.

For anyone fishing regularly for shy fish, particularly in very clear waters, is encouraged to try one of these furled leaders. The quality of prsentation can be quite remarkable.

The biggest disadvantage of these leaders is changing tippets. They are NOT designed for changing a tippet in falling light with fish rising all around. I found that the easiest way to change tippets is to loop-on a new before cutting off the old one. You can use a darning needle to open up the threads but this can be a fiddle and it is easier to use the old tippet. Tippets must be attached with a loop-to-loop connection otherwise the tippet material may cut the thread of the leaders made from this material.

You can contact Alan Bithell at magic-al@cwcom.net