Tenkara: DIY furled leader
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbcVaEe3RIs
Ello' people. Do you despise spending an extra 10 or so dollars on your furled leaders for your Tenkara applications? Well look no further! This video is sure to help you kill off hours of your time. I made two leaders yesterday after watching this video. I probably should've resisted the urge to do so though. Now I'm behind on my studies! Later...
-IF2L
IF2l, it is an interesting video. So, when you said furled leader, I'm a little confused. When I fish with Tenkara, I use a 15'-18' hi viz. level line and a 4' tippet to attach the fly. A hi viz line is easy for me to see the fish take a strike under stained water. So do you use a furled leader between your level line and your tippet? Or do you use a furled leader instead of level line? If so, have you tried it out yet? How do you like it?
I've yet to apply it to my fishing purposes, but I did a little test in my pond. What I noticed with the furled line made from mono is that it doesn't land too softly nor is it very subtle when I draw it back. But! It's stiffness provides me with some solid control in the wind. The only major problem is that it the mono furled line tends to develop memory, but some stretching and uncurling of the line resolved that issue.Originally Posted by The Fishing Queen
I'm planning to just fish the furled line in place of the level line and add my tippet or light mono.
I'm also going to try to make a furled leader from braid soon. I'll keep you posted on that.
Thanks for the response to my questions! I think there are pros and cons with anything. Besides being easier to cast in the wind with a braided mono line, I think it might also help to cast a larger fly (like a size 10 wooly bugger) if we use it as a stiffer leader...... I had caught some good sized bass in past and I struggled with casting a lager and heavy fly with Tenkara. Since the level line is not a weight forward fly line (like the line with weight built in that we used in western fly fishing), it doesn't help with longer distance casting. When using a 6x tippet to cast a wooly bugger a good distance, I have to swing my arm like a cowboy doing a lasso....lol... Even so, the soft tippet still reduces the distance of my cast.... Well, I have to be more careful with doing that because of my last shoulder injury. After fishing so often, my right shoulder gave up on me once and it took me a few months to recover.... But I think the idea that you shared here could really help to improve that.
If you use it instead of a tippet, I would suggest to use a 1 or 2 pound, and 4 pound line as a braided furled leader for Tenkara (depends on what kind and size fish you are targeting). Think about it, we're braiding it into a furled mono line, so it's adding twice the strength and thickness than a single line (for example, a 4 pound line braided into a 8 pound leader). I don't know if the Tenkara rod can handle a heavy line very well because of its soft tip. You have to be willing to take a chance of breaking the tip if hooking up a much larger fish than the rod really can handle..... I had a few experiences catching a larger fish with 6x tippet. One was a 7 or 8 pound carp that I caught, I was fishing between thick bushes and the carp ran further to my right. I had no choice but to move along with it to tire it down. All I could do was to hold the rod still at first, then slowly pull it in. But the tippet broke and I lost it in the end...... Twice, I hooked a 3-4 pound brown trout, they were solid on the hook, but my size 16 fly hook (cheap hook?) somehow bent open up in the shape of a 7. The fish escaped.... At least my rod tip handled it very well without breaking. Using a lighter line does protect your rod.
It might not be a bad idea to use a braided furled line instead of the level line. I would go with the hi viz mono line as a start. Most times I can feel the fish bite without having to watch the line. But for those wild trout, they are light weight and bite skittish, plus with the sunlight reflections, I would miss more strikes by using clear mono furled line if I can't see it as well. These just my personal options and opinions. I am also very interested to give it a try and pass on your idea to my Tenkara fishing friends. As you know, less than 1% of us are doing Tenkara fishing here and most of the Tenkara anglers (except me, lol...) I know are very low key. They will read reports here, but have never joined the site.
So, please keep me posted here with updates and thanks again for posting it and sharing it with us!
*
Thank you for taking interest in my post! My master plan is to actually make a sold 20-30yds of the braided furled line to target them wildies on a super light fly set-up that I am trying to assemble. I'm thinking to coat the braided furled line with some oil to make it float while still retaining its stealth.
I agree with you on using lighter mono for the furled leader. It should add some more stealth to the line without sacrificing performance.
I've made one mono furled leader so far from 10lb izorline and it seems to handle well. I just need to get out to try it now!
Actually this is called TWISTED LEADERS. I have made many and used them with my fly rod set up and on my TENKARA.
I even went as far as using a drill motor to pretwist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tnhdLh3Df4
the lines before letting them go together. I used 6lb,4lb, and even 2lb with the drill motor technique.
True furled leaders need a JIG BOARD ... there are websites that show the technique (quite involved) . HERE IS THE UK PDF using fly thread
http://www.furledleaders.co.uk/pdf/h...led-leader.pdf
Alice there is another VIDEO on youtube about twisting leaders and building up BUTT sections.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-l4zhDTdVw
I used Amnesia 10lb and made 2 5' sections and loop to loop to make my final 10' section. Too short for my TENKARA but it did cast quite well.
Glad to see the interest.
chuck
Last edited by VIVID_FLY; 04-20-2013 at 07:18 PM.
Very interesting videos, Chuck! I didn't know you had tried the twisted leader before. I wonder if I can use this technique to make a real horse hair leader for my new 12' bamboo Tenkara rod. Now, all I need is a horse and to steal the hair fom its tail... Lol...
Thanks IF2L, Vivid for sharing!
Last edited by The Fishing Queen; 04-20-2013 at 10:56 PM.
Thanks for the correction Chuck. I used this method in this video and came up with a 7 foot twisted leader.
check this out ... you will see a comment from Daniel (TENKARA USA) way back in 2009
http://www.eclecticguy.com/2009/05/0...hair-fly-line/
i think you can buy a kit to make your own horse hair furled lines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ereGGMEAsa8
Here's the faster way to make the twisted leader and you've already pointed out VIVID FLY. But, it's in English. So... yeah, awesome. Gonna make this tomorrow!
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