Furled VS Mono leaders

[Flyflinger2421]

Hercules and I bought mine on Ebay for about $18 for 1,000 meters.
Also, I got to thinking about line stretch. Furled leaders should have very little stretch since they are braided the same as braided rope. Twisted rope will stretch a great deal, however braided rope does not stretch. If you are familiar with anchor lines for boats you will understand this as twisted rope will allow for movement due to wave action without pulling the anchor loose.

[Graeme H]

Thanks for that. Much appreciated.

[Paul Arden]

That makes me wonder if I’m missing setting the hook as a result of my twisted snakehead leaders. Something else to experiment with now. I’ve been having a hell of a problem that I haven’t been able to solve. I missed 6 fish out of 7 in the last week. Next week I’ll switch back to straight mono to test.

Thanks,
Paul

[Graeme H]

Aren't the tapered hollow braid leaders working for you Paul?

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Paul,

Are you using low stretch flylines?

They make a significant difference in hooking tarpon.

On a typical cast, there is usually much more flyline available to stretch than leader.

[Paul Arden]

I use the hollow braid for Gourami, Graeme. I tried it for Snakehead but they are hard to float waiting for the shot (which is essential) and because they are thin they don’t seem to slow the fly for a more gentle landing or offer as much control if I need a small direction change mid-cast. I will try again but I seem to have more control with mono for the subtle things.

No Gary. I’m using SA Bonefish 8 and sometimes SA Infinity 10 lines. Which low stretch lines can you recommend?

I don’t know if this is the problem but I need to explore it. That’s nuts. On a hard week of 7 full fishing days I get 7 Snakehead eats to one hook up. This is doing my head in. And has been for about 3 years now. That’s the difference between a great week despite slow and a crap week. Oh I landed another yesterday when I reverted to the pencil popper idea. But still 2 out of 8 is not what it should be.

But the comment there on twisted leaders got me thinking because I’ve definitely gone backwards trying to go forwards.

Cheers, Paul

[whinging pom]

Interesting to read the fish loss ratio: I had been fishing mayflies earlier in the month on the small brook. Knowing a few lunkers were showing themselves I stepped upto 8’6 4wt winston.( from the usual6’ 2wt). Matched with a silk 4wt DT and a 6.5’home made furled leader( from flytying uni thread) the pattern copied off the video I saw on this very site!
I rose and lost two great trout after short battles. I tried patterns with different hooks ( we use barbless so there’s always the odd loss over the season but not in one night), my usually method when I strike is to walk back a few paces and pull the fish down stream into already disturbed water and insure it gets no slack, and then play them in to the net way below the next fish. However I went on to lose 8 fish of varying sizes from half a dozen different hook sizes and patterns. I tried adjusting tippet length delaying strike, everything!!!… they just kept coming off. Each one of them spooked and put down, It was maddening!

I remembered last time I had the Winston out (b2t) earlier in the season a really good fish coming off after a three or four minute tussle, that I chuckled about and told it I’d meet it again later in the season, and a few more trout that evening that stayed on for a few seconds before parting my company.
But put it down to early season rustiness and my cruddy technique !

So with fish still hammering the mayfly and knowing I’d lose the next one, in frustration I cut off the furled leader and attached my usual small rod set up a 3.5’ unithread furled leader. And went onto catch the next four fish with no problem before dusk stopped the frustration and fun.
I’ve not gone back to the six foot! I’m not 100% sure the extra3’of furled leader was the sole culprit combined with the soft tip of the Winston. But I’ve as yet not had another session like it and have regained the confidence in my set up… which I think , for me, is half the battle.
All best to all
The whinging one!