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Furled fly fishing leaders are a compilation of fibers, woven and looped together, and twisted or twined into elements which are then furled together to create a long smoothe tapered fly fishing leader.
Sometimes confused with braided leaders they resemble a very fine tapered rope. Furled leaders can be constructed from a variety of materials, the most common of which are monofilament or stranded thread in either nylon or polyester. Leaders can also be furled out of heavier monofilaments such as nylon or fluorocarbon fishing lines. For the dedicated purist some leaders are still being constructed of silk thread, fine linen threads such as Egyptian cotton, and, although rare, horse hair.
Furled leaders differ from braided leaders in on key area. Braided leaders are hollow. When a braided leader is either submerged or lying on the water the hollow cavity fills with water. When the leader is lifted from the surface film the stretching of the leader collapses the hollow core and the water it contains is forced out of the leader. A simple demonstration of this is to soak a sponge with water and then squeeze it. The water is forced out of the cavities and is expelled in a spray of water droplets. This spray then splashes onto the water's surface, sometimes putting down wary fish. Furled leaders, on the other hand, have a solid core and only retain a fraction of the water that a braided leader does.
Furled leaders and braided leaders do, however, have some similarities. As with braided leaders, furled leaders are soft and pliable, have very little memory, have enough stretch to absorb shock when setting hooks or fighting fish with a small tippet, are resistant to wind knots, and last for a long time. The loop to loop connection system allows you to change leaders and tippet sections without cutting the leader or tying any knots. When your tippet gets too short, you simply remove it, loop on a new tippet section, and go back to fishing. The suppleness and lack of memory means that the power and energy you apply to the fly line is transferred through the leader to the tippet section, allowing you to turn over very long tippets and big flies. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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