Twined or furled leaders

Step two - procedure

By Henk Verhaar

Procedure
The basic idea is to make two leader halves, twist these separately, then tie them together and let them untwist -- if done properly, the untwisting of the separate strands wil twist the entire leader in the opposite direction. This is not unlike what happens when making rope in a rope-making factory (there should be a specific English name for such a place, but I'm not familiar with it -- in Dutch it would be a 'Lijnbaan' or 'Touwslagerij').

Making loops
The two halves are similar. You should be studying figure 3 for a schematic representation of the procedure

• Take the roll of monofilament and make a simple overhand loop in the free end of the mono.
• Attach the loop to one of the outer hooks on the overhang.
• Bring the mono around the uppermost plug and then back around the hook, all the while keeping a certain amount of tension on the mono.
• Bring it around 5 1/2 times, thus creating 5 1/2 loops between the hook and the plug (or 11 strands of mono).
• The last strand (the last 'half loop') doesn't go around the uppermost plug but continues down to the second plug, goes around, and then back up to the upper plug.
• Bring it BEHIND the 5 strands of mono forming one side of the first set of loops, then bring forward through the loop, and down, so that it now is linked to the upper set of loops, on the UNDERSIDE of the plug.
• Make 2 1/2 loops (or 5 strands) this way, then continue to the lower plug.
• Make 1 1/2 loop here, in the same way described for the second set of loops, then make an overhand loop in the mono, so that we can attach the last 1/2 loop to the plug. You now have a set of interconnected loops, sitting on the plugs.
• Cut the mono, just after the knot. All this should have been done under a slight but constant tension.
• Check all the loops for evenness and even tension. Then make the second half in the same way.

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