Leader choices

[tcorfey]

Thought this would be interesting as I seem to have lost my leader wallet. Dang!
Took my son out a couple of weeks ago and split my gear between two small backpacks and somehow my leader wallet never made it back. I assume it is on a rock somewhere out on the stream.

Anyway, spent last night tying up some new leaders and looking at various types of leaders. Was deciding on different leader types and thought it would be cool to do a forum poll to see what everyone else is using.

You can choose more than one type of leader.

For example, I use mostly hand tied mono leaders, but I always keep a few knotless leaders for water that has little weeds that get caught on the knots and I use straight mono or flouro for streamers, I use a furled leader mostly on small streams for better turn over with less line.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[Hirdy]

Well, there're only three on the list that I don't use at least sometimes (store bought and poly) and the three options I use most often aren't listed (twisted nylon, twisted FC and tapered hollow spectra).

Still, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of the poll.

Cheers,
Graeme

 

[kentuckysteve]

I checked hand tied mono and fluoro tapered leaders and also straight mono and fluoro leaders.I have used a few store bought tapered leaders but for my style of fishing my hand tied leaders seem to work just as good.I have never fished with a furled leader but i want to try it someday just to see how they compare.

 

[tcorfey]

Steve, you should definitely try them, they are not perfect for everything but they do work well.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[bill_s]

I have only used knotless tapered mono. I do not have the experience to make an evaluation.

This Spring I am going to make some knotted mono leaders, using exaggerated formulas ( thick butt with drastic taper, long taper, short tippet section, long tippet section, etc) just for fun. I think it will be interesting to experience the difference and just maybe, lightening will strike and I will learn something.

Should be fun!

 

[tcorfey]

Results so far are pretty interesting to me.

I had no idea so many people were hand tying their leaders. I would have thought that most people would be using store bought leaders these days.

 

[Rip Tide]

After buying a handful of rotten extruded leaders some 27-28 years ago, I've hand tied all my own leaders ever since.
I look at it as being similar to tying your own flies.
It gives you a better understanding how important leader design is and gives you control over that

A couple of my lines have store bought braided butts. But you still need to add the taper and tippet to those.
Braided butts are not the same as twisted leaders which I think might be confusing to some people.

 

[dean_mt]

Knotted tapered leaders for me. I do have a selection of Cutthroat furled leaders that I go to occasionally. Once you learn how to tie blood knots and invest $75 or so in mono spools you'll have leaders for all occasions and for many years. I'm not even sure what an extruded tapered leader costs these days, I haven't bought one in quite a few years. I would guess that I've tied and thrown away $80 bucks worth of tapered leaders just while learning to make good knotted leaders, and have more leaders in my wallet than I need, and still have enough material to build dozens more. So tying your own is very cost effective, plus as Riptide stated, they are way more effective.

 

[rangerrich99]

Well, let's see here . . . I've used store bought tapered knotless leaders, furled leaders, and tied my own over the years. At this point I mostly use furled leaders, courtesy of Cutthroat Leaders, and on occasion, when I have no other choice, I'll use a tapered knotless leader. If I have to, I'll modify a tapered leader to make it more 'situation-friendly.' But without question, I use furled leaders more than 90% of the time. They just do every thing better than mono or flouro leaders, except maybe untangle windknots.

Which is why I voted for furled leaders, though I could have voted for a couple other options as well.

Peace.