Furled mono leaders and ......

[Lee Haskin]

I have been using "Leo's furled leader" for 3 years now, and can say that they are fantastic. Last year I used them in Florida for big tarpon, over 80#, and some well over 100#, and between 3 of us we did not have one failure.

I have used it exclusively for baby tarpon, for 3 years now, with no failures. With a little practice, they are fun and easy to make!

It is my standard striper leader, for subsurface flies. I keep them short-maybe 4-5 ft. long, with loop-to-loop for the bite. It is great that you can make them any length.


However, I did not like the 20# leader though, due to the high testing of the loop knot (fuse). I use 15# mono, which drops the breaking strength of the loop (fuse). This also works better for top water bugs too, since the lighter mono does not sink as fast as the 20# material. I see no reason to use heavier mono for ANY fish.

The other "revolutionary" thing I discovered was how to straighten heavy leader, for perfectly straight bite leaders (very important for tarpon and other species)! Any coiled mono can now be straightened easily. I cut them 24" to 30" long and store them in a 1/2" pvc tube. Drop me a note, if any of you are interested.

I just returned from a trip to Alaska, for pike and sheefish, and the furled leader was just the ticket! By using a loop in the Tyger wire I could go loop-to-loop for pike, and then switch to a regular mono bite leader for sheefish. Very convenient and between 3 of us, we had not one failure. Very impressive system and just about as simple as a leader system could be!

For a longer mono leader, for spey work (Rick?), I would opt for a true furled mono leader, made with the standard "peg technique", for a more continuous taper. John Quigley is now making them, and I see them advertised elsewhere too. Of course they are more expensive, and can't be "hand tied".

I have a wallet full of furled mono leaders ready to go, next month, in the Yucatan!!!

$.02
Lee

[Darian]

Hi Lee,.... Not sure if you saw the discussion on this down the page (maybe about 7/12) under "Leader Systems". Your comments add to that thread. One of the problems with using twisted leaders is that I've been struggling to determine the pound test of the twsted leader. Your comments about using a lighter pound test to construct a twisted or furled leader are very interesting.

[Rick J]

Hi Lee,
I think using 15# makes alot of sense as I was using a slim beauty at times - the loop on the furled leader does not hold up if you have to repalce the bite tippet and cut it out and undo the knot. So in a rush when this occured I just put an overhand knot in the furled leader end to keep it from unraveling then tied on a new bite using a slim beauty - but this now really became close to a 60# breaking strength which scares me! Though if I hung a fly in the mangroves I would have no trouble uprooting the entire tree

Your thoughts on straight bites is a good one. I think Leo went one step further - he poured boiling or very hot water into the tube and this really quickly straightened the bite tippets.

[Lee Haskin]

Hi Rick,

Yes, Leo and I have been working on this for a year, or more. Once I found the formula for the "tube in a tube" and boiling water, the rest was a snap. I made up some leaders with Frog Hair mono, and am anxious to try it next month. The 50# material might be the perfect mono for baby tarpon. It is amazing how narrow the 50# is, compared to other mono.

Hey Rick, I hope we don't find any of those bigger tarpon in Campeche, next month! Grin!

40#, or less, is all I am interested in, any more. Those big ones are just too much work for this old guy.

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with those ocean fish. They really weren't available last year, when we were at TCL.

Did you get a chance to prowl around in the narrow creeks? Those fish were probably the highlight for me. It reminded me of fishing a small brushy trout stream, with roll casts and such. I was always afraid I would lift the rod, on the set, and hit the downed trees that covered the creeks.

Cheers,
Lee

[Rick J]

Hi Lee - My brother did not want to cast to those big fish anymore!! -Too much work!

We spent alot of time chasing those fish in the creeks - I had a hard time geting my brother off the deck - he brought conventional gear and is a superb bass fisherman so he could drop pin point casts into places I could not even imagine.

It is lucky I had a number of rods rigged - at one time with me on the deck I made a cast and got hung up in a mangrove tree on the left. Handed that rod to the guide, got another rod and promplty hung that cast up in a mangrove tree on the right!! Handed that rod to my brother and got a third rod and put that cast down the middle and hooked a tarpon - in the photo, you can see fly lines going everywhere

what a gas!

[Lee Haskin]

Rick,

That's awesome! Those little guys can sure put on a show, can't they? We had several that landed high in the mangrooves after a big leap. What a kick trying to pull them out of the tree! I'm hoping to get some video too, on the next trip. I would love to get a clip of a tarpon jumping high into the mangroove!

Did you get a chance to try the Neutralizer? Did any colors stand out as better than others?

The smile on your faces tell the tale.

Lee

[Rick J]

Don was able to tie up some neutralizers but would not share (I thought that highly rude :P ) He had success using them - Not sure what colors he used mostly - they did not seem highly selective though neutral colors seemed to be best - muted oranges, browns and ginger

The big fish went after almost anything you threw their way!

[k.hanley]

Say Hey Lee,
I love that small tarpon game. My first tarpon in Campeche literally shot over the bow of my panga and pinned itself in the mangrove tree above me. It was amazing! Nice way to begin the mangrove exploration. I also especially enjoyed the birds down there. Fantastic wildlife encounters.
Cheers, Ken
PS: My first trip to the area was back around '85.