I,ve made a furled leader from a link that ballthebuilder posted. I,m wondering if you,re limited for when you can use them i.e dry fly. would the fact that they have a large diameter have any problems with fish seeing it. I know i add 2-3 ft of fine tippet but i,m thinking of people that use 15 ft leaders, i,ve always thought that the idea of that was to keep there line out of sight from fish. if that is the case then does a fuled leader have any detromental efects namely with spooky fish ? Also which do you think is best a taperd or a furled leader. And does anyone have a formula they work to with dia or lbs and length for furled leaders Any advice apreciated Alan

The thing I always consider first on whether to use a furled leader on a river with a dry fly is turnover. If I am on a relatively open river where I don't necessarily need to cast under low branches I use a parallel leader of 5lb mono onto which I add my tippet. The reason is that I am not interested in quality of turn over, as I want the leader and tippet to collapse. This helps prevent the flyline inducing too much drag. For example if I had a total 12' leader, 6' of it may collapse in a bit of a heap, of which much of it has to unravel before drag sets in.
Conversely I may use a short furled leader (4' ish) when on small tree lined rivers where it is more important to get the fly into small pockets under branches with a lighter casting loop.
For upstream nymphing rivers I generally always use a furled leader, and grease this up. This ensures I am 'in touch' with the nymphs and makes a great indicator.

In essence, firstly think of the reasons for using a furled leader. Normally good turnover if you need it.
If you think lining the fish will be a problem, I was taught to move my feet...

This is only my spin on furled leaders. As usual lots of people will have lots of different answers. If you have made your own, then you can experiment away with different lengths etc.

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Where are you going to be fishing or more precisely, what type of environemnet will you be in when using the fulred leader Scooby?

A good intelligent post, thanks Pedros.

For the really wary fish: using a tapered leader then a long level section of leader/tippet causes collapse and the fly line is well out of the way too.

Turn over is for vanity, presentation is for sanity.

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"The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too, that Pooh had almost decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning."

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I was hoping i could just leave in on constantly ? But i fish rivers and still water and usualy wet fly but i,m going to give dry a try this season ?

---------- Post added at 06:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------

Does a good turn over not equall a good presentation ?

---------- Post added at 06:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 PM ----------

That was well explained thanks a lot Pedros regards Alan

Scoob be very careful with this expression.
What it means (i hope) is you dont want your leader poker straight , you want slack in it BUT you dont want your fly landing in the middle of a heap of collapsed leader, i guess thats the presentation bit.

A slight exageration, re the heap of leader but there are times when that is necssary too - it all depnds on the length of the required drift, the fineness and how well degreased your leader and tippet are!

__________________
"The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too, that Pooh had almost decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning."

www.monnow.org

I dream of the day when a wise fish takes a fly from the middle of a pile of collapsed leader. Maybe i just dont have the skill some have.
I guess we all do things differently.

Ah thanks for that Buzz it shows i,m not a dry fisher

for me they were quite useful to use as they tend to make less wind knots on your leader/tippet, less tippet changing more fishing ;>