Making Handmade Furled Fly Fishing Leaders - Quick & Easy 

As another commentor said, these should not be confused with true furled leaders. Furled leaders are a completely different process. I feel that they work a little better than twisted leaders, but are much harder to make and often have very stiff butt loops. Twisted leaders do have their place. I once was forced to make one in my boat while tarpon fishing, having left my leader wallet behind. All I had to work with were spools of tippet that seemed too light to use as butt section. I twisted a leader from 30lb to make a 120lb butt and a 60lb mid tied to a 40lb fluoro tippet. It worked. I Landed an 80lb tarpon. The same leader then snapped at the double overhand knot on the next fish. But that was possibly user error. Still, it has kept me from purposely using twisted for bigger fish. One other point, dont put a tippet ring on a heavy leader the way that is shown. Better to use a loop to loop like process to double the line holding the ring or a high grade micro swivel. Of course the tippet ring should be bigger and stronger making the process of looping it on easier.

I’ve made a few of these. I primarily go after panfish. These leaders hold the loop even shooting under tree overhangs. I just made mine from 12# test mono I had laying around. Excellent instructions and explanation Thanks very much for the video

Tried this technique and it worked brilliantly!

Thanks for showing this technique, much appreciated!

Perfect instruction and great tip! Greetings from ole Sweden!

Thank you for that example with Tippett ring.

Amazing video. 👍👍

Awesome tutorial! I recently started fly fishing for bass and I'm fresh out of bass leaders so I'm going to give these a go. Thanks so much!

In relation to my previous comment on using a hand drill to create the twist, one could count the number of turns of the drill and simply add more for a stiffer line or less turns for a more limp line. For a given length of line, a hand drill and the same number of turns would always produce leaders with the same stiffness.

I've been using this method for awhile now, I use 25-30lb Berkley BG for bass in 5'-5.5' and I tried storing them like you and they were impossible to get the memory out so now I just store them hanging up straight, however when transporting them I do use large loops about like you'd use for a bull whip. I imagine they have less memory in smaller diameters.

It would be a fairly big connection to your fly line would it not catch in the top guide I've never used a furled leader but I'm thínkn of trying them

Very good video. What prevents the butt end and the tippet-ring end from simply unwinding ? Is it because during the spinning process you allowed the tag ends to rotate in your hand rather keeping them fixed ? I tried to make a furled leader a few years ago using a hand drill to create the twist. I must have fixed the tag ends because having finished twisting the whole length, the line untwisted itself !

So for the 8 lb ultra green at furled leader how long do you recommend and also what length and size of tippet should I use ?

A very interesting video thank you. Presumably the doubling of the nylon and twisting strengthens the leader? For example, does 8lb nylon give the leader greater (perhaps 16lb) strength? Cheers

Could you use this for standard fishing with standard fishing line?

How do you measure how long? Line counter?

If you tie this without a tippet ring, can you just add the tippet directly to the loop with a clinch knot?

Suberb fella 👍👍👍👍

Can you not just use regular fly line backing without any modifications as a furled leader?

I the furled leader suitable for fine dry fly fishing?

Easy

Use SOS. 2lb mono.

Thanks great tutorial - guess what i am doing tomorrow...

Wonder if anyone has ever tried this in a tarpon leader.

Those might be great (I don't know), but they are NOT FURLED LEADERS, THEY ARE TWISTED. Anyone who has ever used a furled leader knows the difference. Please educate yourselves on this. Your videos are usually spot on, this is a huge miss.