New to the Board?

[Paul Arden]

Hi Keith, welcome to the Board!! Great to have you here!!

I was lucky a few years back to be invited on a Nomad trip to Claremont Islands. That was some great fishing. I’ve also fished Exmouth a few times on the other coast. It’s my intention in a few years time to throw away the land shackles and go sailing for an extended period of time. I figure that navigating the top half of both Aussie coasts to be a great place to start. Amazing fishing. What a life that’s going to be! Just have to make some money first or become a pirate.

Looking forward to discussing furled leaders. I’ve been using hand twisted leaders now for about 4 years for Snakehead after being shown how to do this by a friend in Singapore. It’s a vast improvement on what I was previously doing and I like the lack of memory that would normally be caused by storing the leader around the tip ring. But we also need to talk a little bit about braid (because of our email email exchange when you joined!). Braid has been a game changer for me when I’ve needed strong but fine tippets and might be worthwhile experimenting with for “Brim!!” it might seem strange to be suggesting an opaque leader for spooky fish but it works for Gourami and they have an IQ!!

Cheers, Paul

[Chess]

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome and yes, be good to compare things with another and learn. IMO Furled leaders are a strange thing to assess and communicate as the options of materials and formulas for making them are almost endless. I began with a drill and a simple board but wasn't happy and eventually bought a 3 strand machine from www.eclecticangler.com and with some trial & error, some handy carpentry, two super long boards, a sewing machine engine and lots of cheap embroidery thread, started producing. I found 3 strand leaders more uniform and produced a neater product, but 2 strand with the same machine makes some extremely fine dry fly leaders. As we go into winter here I will conduct more experiments and will share what I conclude at times when I'm happy with casting them. By the time summer comes around again I should have something more effective to offer I hope but the fish will be the ultimate judge.

[Paul Arden]

Hi Keith, about half way through this video I show the hand twisted leaders I make. They are nothing like as tightly packed as a furled leader. Apart from the lack (or reduced amount) of memory with the leader hooked around the tip ring, what I also like about them is that I can fight a Snakehead into the leader without risking a rod breakage with any knots getting trapped in the rings if the fish decides to take off again. However it’s precisely that which happens with trout tackle and the loop to loop gets stuck in the trout rod rings, which is why I don’t use them in trout setups (it’s hard to beat a 2 turn needle knot sometimes!). So I have a love/hate affair with them. Looking forward to seeing what you make. My mate Tim who writes FPs from time to time also makes furled leaders. I have quite a few here with me in the boat.

I thought I had written a page on Graeme’s leaders and using braid instead of mono for tippet, but can’t currently find it. I shall look again later! The point about braid is that if you are using 2lbs mono, which is approx 0.10mm, the same diameter in braid is approximately 8lbs. Also I find this stuff far less prone to cutting on snags. I don’t use 0.10mm braid; I’m using 20lbs! Which is something like for the equivalent diameter in mono as being around 6lbs. There is no way I can land a Giant Gourami on 6lb mono, but the size of the flies requires this sort of diameter tippet.

So this might be an answer for your difficult Brim fishing. The only thing about it is a) it turns over poorly and b) it’s opaque. The first problem can be fixed with one of Graeme’s leaders. The second one - well sometimes the Gourami see it, but usually I think fish see what they are looking for and the tend not to notice things like hooks and braid tippets!

Cheers, Paul

[Chess]

Thanks Paul, good to be here. Boy, you're in for a treat and adventure of a lifetime if you tackle navigating the tropical Australian waters. It takes courage to be up there and be prepared for a real adventure in the true sense of the word. There's really remote areas to get into, but the sea life and the fish will blow you away, saltwater crocs and countless sharks add to the flavor of the place too. You'll see many things and fish of all kinds but there's also many fish up there that seem to get their jollies spooling you, You'll work it out, you have no choice in those waters. But one thing I discovered when over inshore reefs and the fishing goes a bit quiet, up anchor and move 1-200mts, drop the anchor again and start fishing immediately, the boat tugging on the chain makes a good fish attractor. Oh, you may already know this but over coral you don't need an anchor most times, just a long section of stout chain, it'll wrap around the coral soon enough and generally holds fast quickly but is a lot easier to recover. We lost a few anchors before we worked that one out, but you still need standard anchors as well, lots of sand and mud ( = mud crabs around the mangroves, Delicious!). Yes, you sparked my interest with braid, keen to know more about it, bream and other flighty fish in the estuary shallows and snags can be quite the challenge not to spook with a fly line and then you've got to try to fool them. Funny thing with bream is they seem less concerned about (pale) chartreuse I've observed. I have an idea they don't see that color as a threat, it is a very common color to use in flies for them too. Yes, keen to know about strong but fine leaders of any type. Flathead are savage beasts of things, almost prehistoric, get to a metre long and are armed with all sort of razor sharp bits on their heads, they frequent the same shallows as bream and get spooky too, but take flies readily if presented well. Oh, making money is always a challenge and you have to put the hours in, but at least with piracy, the hours are better and customer satisfaction isn't an issue.

[Chess]

Thanks, I'll check out that video tomorrow and yes braid seems very logical with it's small diameter and strength. You've given me some homework to consider and some thinking to do. Cheers

[Paul Arden]

But being a pirate sounds like so much fun…

I’ll put together some info on the leaders. Lars had the idea of a leader database but we are still at the idea stage!

Cheers, Paul

[Chess]

Had a good chuckle to myself seeing your video of 20,000 days fishing. Yep, you're just the type of guy who'd fit right in sailing & living of the land/sea at the top end of Australia. We ended up stowing bags of potatoes & onions on board, they keep pretty well if you look after them, air them out regularly, and living off fish. A number of islands have goats, put there for ship wrecked mariners in the colonial days (they have exterminated quite a lot now as they have eaten the vegetation bare) and wild pigs are common on the coast. That twisted leader and wire tippet will serve you well with the toothy critters up there, like mackerel of all sorts and their mouths full of razor blades.
Got the concept of that twisted leader, brilliantly simple, must give it a go making some. Love the idea of twisting the rod hand slightly to get the fly to land first. It's not the same by I did see a video by Lefty Kreh do something similar by turning the hand and rod upside down if a knot formed in the fly line at your feet, makes it travel more easily up the guides more easily when a big fish is hooked - of course it would affect the trajectory of the fly in the cast, nice one Paul.
Well, I see some furling experiments with braid and also composite mixing of materials in 3 stranded furling in my crystal ball, even have some keylar thread on order - just have to satisfy my curiosity and see what that thread is and does.
I do have a calling in a couple of weeks though, heading up to the gem fields of central Qld for a bit to hunt up some sapphires and boulder opal. It's a deal I have with the wife, but I do get to fish for freshwater cod and yellowbelly. Yellowbelly apparently on fly are almost impossible to hook as they spit out the fly out so fast, lures are mainly used on them - we'll see (articulated, multi hook flies come to mind).

[Paul Arden]

Beans and potatoes. What more do you need in life. (Apart from beer)?

A gem stone hunter, eh? I met a couple doing that before, many years back when I drove a van around Australia. I reckon that would quite suit me actually. So she’s takes you up there? you’re a lucky man!
I’m just heading down the lake. Back tomorrow. I’ll dig out or write a post about the braided leaders.

Cheers, Paul

[Chess]

LOL, Other way around. I'm the driver/engineer/garbage disposal technician, and I take her where shes wants to go. She's American and we did the same sort of thing thing over there while working shows & expos selling stuff to the masses etc. I've tried my hand at gold prospecting, gem hunting, opal mining and general beer drinking duties for most of my life. Was a military engineer once as a young fella but too many rules and was quite boring overall, but had a few scary moments.
Hint, onboard we found wine casts were the way to go for extended periods. Throw the box away and the bladders stow in any corner or weird shaped space, even white wine in the bottom of the freezer.
Good luck...
K

[Graeme H]

Welcome to SexyLoops Keith.

Cheers,
Graeme (in Perth. )