Furled leader for steel?

I plan to try em too.

They'll work great till the water starts to freeze up, then I imagine it'll be similar to casting a copper wire. I think their "spring" will be a good shock absorber as well.

Thing is, it takes a good build up of ice to freeze a guide shut, and its only water that beads on it that can freeze. A furled leader will soak up water. Even if you dress it, it will either float, or soak up water.

HC - I've been using the furled leaders now for some time and really like them. I will warn you though that when it gets real cold out - they will freeze up since they do hold water. In fact last year when I was up fishing in December - I had to periodically take the leader and rub it in my hands to get the ice off of it. They do cast very well though. The type I use is The Fly Fisher's furled leader. It has a small ring on the end for you to attach the tippet and they come in flourocarbon. Kind of expensive though costing anywhere from $12 - $16 a piece. You can get them at Gary LaFontaine's website at:
http://www.thebookmailer.com/Gear/Leader/leader.html
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ORIGINAL: HCsteel

Does anyone have any advice for or against using a furled leader for steel? I think that is what Im going to try this year or tie my own leaders. I can buy all the leader material for the price of a couple tapered leaders. There arent any weeds for the knots to get tangled in and I am comfortable with my knots. So what do you guys think?

 
 
how in the heck do you tie the dam things. i always buy mine   dont think i could even begain to start to tie one..   i use braided witch are almost the samething gonna try some differnt ones this year. i have had no probs with them freezn up to bad. a  if you guides are freezn get some stanleys ice off paste it works great

The way to tie your own leaders is to get 3 or 4 different types of mono usually. You start with a butt end, say 20# for steel, then go 3 ft and choose a smaller one. You connect then with a uni knot or a bloodknot. You should end at a 6# or 8#.

I think that yoou are confusing a tapered leader with a furled leader. My buddy Mike and I make our own furled leaders with a jig. They end up tapered, but with no knots. I loop both ends of the leader to keep it from unfurling. I used them all year so far, but not for steel. I'll deal with the freezing however I have to. The furled leaders that we make are limp, knot free, ane cast very well. Treated with floatant, they made fishing dries very efficient. You can get plans for the jig off Google. Cold, di you try to make any yet? Once you iron out the bugs in the process, you can make exceptional tapered, furled leaders in about 10 minutes. I should save a lot of cash by not having to buy so many different leader strengths to make up heavy duty tapered leaders for steel. At least I hope that it is how it works out. 

ORIGINAL: Cold

ORIGINAL: norm289

I use furled leaders all the time. The only time they really iced up on me is when there is ALOT of slush on the water. Like in the middle of winter but usually once the sun comes out good they are ice free. I have only had a few outings where I had to actually thaw them out in order to fish.

Yes, obviously, they're only going to freeze when temps are cold enough to freeze the waters you're fishing in. If its cold enough to freeze the water in your guides, its cold enough to freeze the water in your leader. The stiffness imparted by the ice in the furls of the leader is enough, for me, to eliminate their primary advantage. I tried it once, in January. It froze up within the hour, and I didn't use one again until March.

steely34, have you used the ringed ones? The way they have it attached it looks like you'd lose much of your turnover power, and get a terrible hinge effect, with the way they've attached that ring. What has your experience been with them?

I've started to nail knot a tiny length (under 3") of 10# PowerPro to the tippet end, with a perfection loop, to preserve the end of the leader. It's also nice that PowerPro is inclined to float, but just barely. This means that it'll float when fishing dries, especially dressed with a bit of floatant, and that it'll sink with no problems when fishing nymphs & streamers.

 
Cold, The ringed ones are the only furled leaders I have tried out yet. And I agree with you on the freezing up issues. They are worth less when that happens. Like I said before I tried to rub them between my hands when this occured to no avail. As far as the hinge effect - I use them for trout on my 4 weight from time to time and I never really noticed a problem with the turnover. My main thing with them is that they do spray water on the first false cast which can spook trout in clear water. Overall though for steel I find the ringed ones from Fly Fisher's are handy to use in that when changing tippets all I use is an improved clinch knot on the ring. Quick and easy. Just my opinion though.

Cold, That's what I've learned to do to get rid of the spray. Cast over water your not fishing first or "popping"  the backcast. I never tried treating the leader though. Great idea. Have you found that by doing this it helps with the freezing issue? I would think it would since less water is likely to absorb into the leader. - Cold - check out the deals I just posted here on this forum after this post. I feel like I just won the lottery the past few weeks.

Do you tie in a loop on each end of your furled leader for your line to leader and leader to tippet connections?
 
Any recommendations to who makes the best ones and what sizes you would use.

I agree with you Cold - greasing up the furled leader won't really offer any advantages as it would float. Might as well go with a mono instead when it's cold out. As far as the Hardy - sorry but if I ever (which I strongly doubt) come across a deal like that again - I'm keeping it. Nice try though.
Pxatim - The ones I use have a loop on the line end. Just make a loop to loop connection. The other end has a small metal ring on it. I use a improved clinch knot to tie the tippet to it. The entire furled leader is tapered. Not sure which ones Cold uses or how his connections are made but with what I do, I've never had one fail.

ORIGINAL: HCsteel

The way to tie your own leaders is to get 3 or 4 different types of mono usually. You start with a butt end, say 20# for steel, then go 3 ft and choose a smaller one. You connect then with a uni knot or a bloodknot. You should end at a 6# or 8#.

it seems that you are talking about a tapered leader with differnt sections i would stay away from that anywhere u put a knot it weekens the line. i use orvis barided leaders and other companys make ferrled leaders. u will find that making one knot tipit to you braided  ferreled leader will be much easyer to do save time and be less of a hassle IMO
 
and bye the way im sorry that i was wrong COLD   what is the differnts

ORIGINAL: Cold

I plan to try em too.

They'll work great till the water starts to freeze up, then I imagine it'll be similar to casting a copper wire. I think their "spring" will be a good shock absorber as well.

 
 
just so you know the furled have little to no  strech that is why i use braided

ORIGINAL: HCsteel

Yeah I knew that the post I wrote wasnt about furled leaders. I thought he was asking about home made mono leaders. I misread his post. There is alot of good information in this thread. I found some furled flouro leaders made specifically for steelhead. Would these last longer than the mono furled leaders?

 
HC - The company - Fly Fisher's (beginning to sound like I'm a rep from this company) does sell the flourocarbon made furled leaders and they do have one for steelhead. It's got a bit of a different taper to it and it is the one I use when up in the fall and the spring. As far as durability - I'm on my third year on the same leader but I only get up to Erie in the fall and the spring. I'm not on the stream every day but it does seem to hold up well.

Don't forget to buy good flouro tippet material though

Cold,
 
Yes, we use a 10 % reduction. We use a variable speed battery drill with with a "cup holder" hook (one of the gold colored ones) to wind the furls. We found that after you take the leader off the jig, keep a lot of tension on it. Hang it on a door, attach a 2-3 oz. lead sinker to the bottom, release the tension, and let it unwind. The heavier weight tends to keep twists and knots out. The finished product is pretty sweet. I dug up some 6/0 Kevlar thread to tie up some leaders for steelhead. I hope that the results are what I am expecting. We used nylon thread in clear and olive that I got from Jo-Ann's Fabric for the ones that we used all spring, summer. We got turned on to these when I ran into a friend on Elk during last steehead season. There was snow on the ground, but it was a sunny day, so icing apparently wasn't a problem. I do believe that using a furled leader this fall will save a lot on leader. I'll put on good flourocarbon tippet, (still experimenting, after all these years), and should be able to keep my presentation in the water more.