Twined or furled leaders

Step six - Martin's variations

By Martin Joergensen

Also read the Q&A section

I tried using the weights for making the twined leaders as descibed by Henk Verhaar, but soon got tired of spinning. In stead I started using a hand held cable free drill, and that actually worked like a charm. I stuck a hook in the drill and grabbed the lower loops of the leader with this hook and drilled away. A minute for each half was suitable (it's a slow drill).
After doing this I used Henks description to finish the leader, but actually thought of using the drill to twine the strands too. The advantage of the drill is that the whole process can be done with the board lying down and that (almost) no manual work has to be done.

Number of strands
I also experimented with the number of strands and thickness of the line. I used 0.18 (4X) line for my first leaders and was quite pleased with the result.
My last variation was in not using superglue (I didn't have any and I generally don't like gluing line). I just caught the loops with a thicker strand of monofile, and attatched the leader to a loop on my fly line with the help of this strand. After attachment to the loop at the end of my fly line I just removed the strand of mono. The joint is smooth and effective. At the business end I used a Trilene knot to attatch the tippet right away. This is not as good as I'd like, but will work until something better comes up.

The leaders are indeed very good: they stretch very fine but still have a delicate movement. They come cheap -- I made three from a spool of monofile that cost DKK 40.- (US$ 8.-). That would normally buy me one braided leader here in Denmark.

Latest version
My latest variation on Henk's leaders is on length and placement of the plugs in relation to each other. I did a bit of spreadsheeting, and drew some curves. My final leaderformular is as follows:
The plugs have been moved a bit. This doesn't have the big effect, but when using my formula it produces a smoother taper. The single plugs or rows are set as follows:

1. Hooks
2. 80 cm
3. 130 cm
4. 160 cm
5. 188 cm
6. 220 cm

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