by Lotech Joe, February 25, 2008

I first heard about furled leaders about 5 years ago. I had the opportunity to test cast a friends fly rod and his line had a furled leader attached. I wasn’t casting his rod very well and the yard we were in wasn’t maintained at all, so it had a lot of weeds in it. Often, my back cast would land on the ground and the leader would pick up almost every weed it came in contact with. What a tangled mess that was! It soured me badly against furled leaders.

I believe furled leaders were first used in ancient years, when they used to furl horse hair to make lines and leaders. At least it’s my understanding that they’ve been around for that long. Since the advent of silk lines, then mono leaders, the horse hair has gone by the wayside. I’ll bet the horses are happy about that. Also, in days gone by, the bamboo rod was the only type fly rod available for the angling art. Companies like South Bend, H&I and Montague were making tons of inexpensive production rods for the common man. They seemed to be for sale in department stores, granges, hardware stores and any other place that could sell them. When fiberglass, then graphite came along the bamboo rod took a back seat to them and you hardly saw anyone fishing the noble grass rod anymore.

As is often the case, when modern technology takes over there always seems to be a segment of society that harkens back to the old days. This phenomenon happened to me as well. When I started archery hunting, I dabbled with compound bows a little but my favorites were the old fashioned recurves and longbows. I moved away from aluminum arrows and started building my own cedar arrows. When I went firearm hunting, I wasn’t at all enamored with the Hi-Tech, inline tools of the day. I used front stuffing muzzleloaders and the flintlock was my choice of weapon. I even started knapping my own flints and actually built a couple of rifles myself. Such was my tendency toward traditionalism and so it is with the case of many a bamboo fly rodder. And, in the spirit of traditionalism, the bamboo fly rod user has moved toward the furled leader. And, because I’m afflicted with the same traditional bug, I’ve moved toward the furled leader also. I use them with my graphite rods and like the way they lay out a line and turn the fly over.

Furled leaders are made by a series of twisting materials together and actually tapering the material so the leader starts out heavier than it ends up. I acquired a DVD by Kathy Scott that explains how to make a furling board and then how to use it to make your own furled leaders. The leader material can be almost anything from steel strands, fluorocarbon, monofilament, or horse hair as mentioned before. The most common material used is everyday fly tying thread. 6/0 works very well. You can make them in any color that thread comes in. So, I like to use high visibility colors like red, yellow and orange for my floating lines, and dark greens or browns for my sinking lines. You can treat the furled leader with any kind of floatant and it will work well for a floating line for several hours. A quick re-treatment extends your fishing time. The furled leader works well for sinking lines as well. Just don’t treat it with anything and get it wet. They are also quite durable (If you stay out of the weeds.) I’ve got furled leaders on some of reels that have been there for over 2 years.

I make my leaders 6 feet long and add about 2 feet of tippet. That combination works well for me for all applications. I couldn’t be happier with their performance. They have virtually no memory so you’re not constantly straightening them out. They turn over perfectly and lay the fly down the way it should be presented. I once fished a remote hole on the Little North Fork of the Coeur d’ Alene in northern Idaho. It was a beautiful secluded section of the river and looked like it should be loaded with fish. Nobody was around, and I had that stretch all to myself. Everything about that setup was perfect with one exception, there were no fish there. For some reason beyond my ability to understand, that didn’t bother me. I was so fascinated by the way that furled leader was working, that I stayed there and admired my casting for about 2 hours. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but it was great practice and it sold me on furled leaders.

I don’t know if you think saving lots of money is that important, but in the end your homemade furled leaders will cost between 6 – 10 cents each. If you are interested in making your own furled leaders you can contact Kathy Scott for a DVD at;

Andrea Bamboo Rods
RR 2 Box 1235
Norridgewock, ME 04957
Phone: 207-587-4524
Email: [email protected]

I guess you can tell I like furled leaders. Have fun with them, good luck and God Bless.


Lotech Joe