Recent comments

Furled leader tips

Kristjan,

When I make furled leaders using mono I use very thin mono and usually end it in a loop. To this loop I attach a piece of mono and I then attach the tippet to that.

It's true that the tip of the furled leader is fairly thick when using mono - when ending with four strands it's of course four times the thickness of the line you furl. So the trick is to keep it thin, but even with a 0.10 mm line you will still end up with a 0.40 mm tips as you also mention, and will need a further "step" down.

I typically fish a 0.20 or 0.25 mm tippet in my fishing, so a piece of 0.30mm of about 30-50 cm will suffice to give a proper taper. I also use this piece as a "wear piece" that I can cut down when changing tippet, and exchange completely when it becomes too short.

For thinner tippets - like for stream fishing - I use furled leaders made from tying thread, in which case the tip is much thinner, and this problem rarely occurs.

I hope this helps

Martin

Furled leaders, tip question

Hello, First let me say I love your website! It is a constant source of information for me.

So, my question is about tapered furled leaders, more so with tip diameter. If I look at the table of butt section diameters, at the end of this article, I can get the butt sections in the appropriate diameter, for example ca. .55mm for 5 wt.
But using the same material, my tip diameter is about .40mm which seems a bit much to tie on 0.14mm tippet.

No matter what diameter mono I use the leader tip always seems too large for tippet. The only solution I found until now is to do a two part furled leader, where I first furl 4 strands and then marry the 4 strands furled mono to the actual furled leader via loop to loop. The taper comes out to 22-18-14-10-6-4, when using the formula from this site.

Is the large jump in diameter ok, am I just being overpedantic? Should I tie tapers before tippet or is there any other trick to get a good taper from the tip of the furled leader to tippet?

Thanks for Video

GDay Martin. Surprised to se my video here, very cool. Last place I would have expected to be given the participants and audience. Anyway, glad you found it interesting enough to warrant posting. Take care.

The Water’s Violin

Thank you Kate. I am not sure what part of Bartok’s violin piece inspired me. Thank you for your comments. They are helpful and encouraging. If you get a chance read Simon’s Daughter. It is the 2021 Robert Traver Fly- Fishing Writing Award Story in the Spring 2022, The American Fly Fisher, which is the Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. If you can’t find a copy of the journal I can send it as an attachment to you if you send me your e-mail. Mine is jedtfeffer@aol.com. Thanks again Kate. By the way Karl Eric Leitzel created the photos, not me. Cheers, Jed

Trevor Morgan lines

I still want the lines. I’m having trouble posting. I hope this works.

Trevor Morgan lines

Yes I am interested if you have them. Especially the 7 wt. single hand line. I’d probably be interested in others though too.

The Water’s Violin

Great job on comparing fly casting to the bowing of a violin. You are referring to a slow movement of one of the Hungarian, or Romanian folk dances??
Yes, casting horizontally might meet the bowing motion. Your poem is wonderful, it describes a day on a stream very well. Casting a fly can be poetry in motion; it is a peaceful thought provoking activity.
It is nice to have the thought interrupted by a hungry fish. Then we go back to the unfinished poem. Your photographic and poetic abilities are a special gift, please continue to pursue them. You chose wisely to select Karl Eric Leitzel’s watercolor painting to accompany your poem.
Thank you very much for sharing with us.

hi

Hi Uncle Garret

Another tier with similar flies

Nick Thomas, who has been contributing a lot to this web site recently, has several similar flies. Check out his youtube channel and we site.

Javelin lines

I do beleievec I have a couple NOS of these in 5,6 & 7 # if still looking!

thank you

thank you for your videos it is so nice to be able to learn new tricks and ways to tie flys the information you give is priceless thank you for your time and effort

Foam Cricket

How did it Fish? One of the best fishing trips I ever had took place down in the Louisiana bayou near New Iberia with my uncle. We went to a bait shop and he filled up two cricket baskets with live black and brown crickets. Needless to say, we each caught more fish than I have ever caught in a 24 hr period. I recently tied a cricket pattern, deer hair cricket, and am eager to try it out. Tight Lines!

New Maine Fly For Me.

Ted Patlen Nice to see you still tying those wonderful flies you always have!!! Ted as you know I went to school at Unity College in Maine for many years for Environmental Sciences Wildlife. I have many friends from those days in Conservation Law, Fisheries, Wildlife Biology, Outdoor Recreation, Environmental Policy, Forestry, etc. We use to get together frequently in the Catskills New York each year to fish, explore, have a few, etc. I always had a list of High school, College friends, and the crew from Ramsey Outdoors to invite on our get togethers. I always enjoyed tying flies with you and the rest from there, I learned so much as a young beginner fly tier. This fly you tied here is new to me, (I know it shouldn't be) I learned about it from an episode of Maine Cabin Masters. So I had to Look it up, nice to see you tied it for this tutorial. I will try to tie some and use it in Rangeley, Maine next time I'm up there. I go visit friends up there as often as I can. Last year my Turkey Hunting/Fishing Trip got cancelled due to the Covid Outbreak. I am hoping this year will be better. I guess we all hope for that.

From your friend Scott Perry Hope to see you soon!!! Its been too long - DECADES!!!

A classic Klinkhammer

I'm sorry ... Klinkhammer variant, with floating vest ... go to Wikipedia and see what is written about the Adams dry fly ... and the way it looks the parachute variant. Please don't touch the centenarian Adams, you're challenging me. I have nothing personal with anyone.

Betters’ Flies

Marvelous collection of flies. His flies have done quite well on another West Branch also, the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. I didn’t know about focusing on the hair between the toes. Thanks for posting this

Betters’ Flies

Marvelous collection of flies. His flies have done quite well on another West Branch also, the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. I didn’t know about focusing on the hair between the toes. Thanks for posting this

awesome

I have wanted to try these furled leaders, after 20 years of being frustrated at the store bought leaders(that always need to be stretched straight) - i used the one piece method, looping into the 2nd side, and they work great...more than great. i wish i knew how to do this from the beginning, and this article was very helpful - i could not have guessed that changing to a furled leader would help my casting accuracy this much. It makes me wonder how the factory made extruded leaders ever got popular at all?

Answer

Hi Karsten
Thanks for your nice comment.

Regarding your trip to Iceland, I know these places very well. Fished quite a lot on the lower part of Blanda where there in June and July usually is a lot of action.
Both river you are fishing are under Icelandic circumstances larger river and fished best with 12-13 feet double hand rods. They also are fishing best with tubes like the HKA sunray. On the Blanda, I have had me best fishing on large hitch tubes and that is even locals say you need big flies and to get down. - Not my experience, only of the water is colored. That can happen on both river!!! So bring a sink tip for sure.

Fly tying

Learn how to make double shrimp fly

Guniea fowl

Mark,

My guess is that Guinea Fowl dyed blue would do well. The coarser feathers would very likely be able to do what the blue jay fibers do here.

Martin

Claret Bumble

I occasionally find Blue Jay feathers but, what would be a good substitute for the Jay feathers?

Videos by Steve Collie

Hey Steve:
Your fly tying videos are works of art. Would love to see more. Thanks for sharing your skills.

Ann (Collie) McNeilly

I tye this hibrid fly for

I tye this hibrid fly for years. I use this hibrid for bass. See my Instagram page @duferraro_flyfishing

Single-handed rods for salmon fishing

Dear Nils,

thank you for your interesting and very helpful post about salmon fishing in Iceland‘s rivers with single handed rods!

I hopefully will be travelling to Iceland this June after the trip has been postponed twice due to corona reasons.

We will be fishing the Brenan(Sea)Pool of the Thvera and the lower part of the Blanda.

Do you have Andy experience with the fishing on those rivers and have you maybe and recommendations regarding the tacke?

I am looking forward to maybe hearing from you.

Kind regards from northern Germany!

Karsten