Not often am I struck with a bolt of inspiration when it comes to leaders (or anything else for that matter). I've been furling leaders for a long time, and aside from adding a few strands, and using a different type of material, it's pretty routine stuff. A few months back, I happened across a reference to an article written by an American engineer named Bernard Beegle.

In the article, Mr. Beegle discussed the idea of using what he called a convex leader. He tied up single strands of mono to create in effect, a weight forward leader. To be honest, the idea did not seem very intuitively obvious to me. As I thought about it more and more, it seemed like weight forward fly lines preformed very well in a number of situations, would the same concept apply to leaders?

I got busy furling and after a bit of fine tuning, came up with what appeared to be a good design. I like to test my leaders by first casting them by hand, mainly to see how well they turn over. Not only did the weight forward leader turn over well, I could actually very easily throw a nice tight loop.

Next step, field testing. Took the leader out to do some lawn testing. Attached a quarter sized chunk of fluffed out yarn to see how well the leader would fling it. It did great, I think that extra mass up front helps power out the cast and turn over the large, wind resistant fly. I think it's the same principle as to why bass bug fly line tapers are in a weight forward configuration.

Next I tried to cast a very short line, well actually no line, just the leader. It cast in a nice tight loop, this configuration works very well for tight, close quarter fishing situations.

Next step, field testing. It's not a pretty job, but someone has to do it. I was able to spend alot of time fishing the leader on my local pond. It fished bulky pan fish and small bass bugs very nicely, great turnover of the wind resistant bugs. I think this is one application that something other than a traditionally tapered leader might excel.

After playing with leaders for a while, I expanded the concept to furling Tenkara Lines. Again, I was very happy with the way they performed, especially casting larger flies/bugs. All testing was again done fishing warm water environs with larger flies and bugs.

Unfortunately, when it gets cold here in Michigan, the water gets a bit thick. I've yet to fish the leaders/lines in any moving water situation. Don't know how they will perform there. Fortunately, there are other warmer places during the winter, I've had about 3 dozen folks give the leaders and Tenkara lines a test drive, and the feedback to date has been universally positive.

So. .. are you going to tell us how you furled them?

I've got the mono. .. I've got the skills to furl the leaders. .. just need a bit of know how to do a weight forward one!

Spencer,

I'm in Farmington Hills, just outside Detroit, but I spend alot of time on the Muskegon river outside of Newaygo. Where you at?

Em,

I could tell ya, but I'd feel bad cause I'd have to kill you Not really, actually, I use a very atypical furling process. From past experience, my nomenclature does match up with any other furlers I know. In the past, when I tried to exchange formulas, both of us would end up knowing less that when we started.

Here is the reference that got me started

Convex Leaders

pszy22, I am originally from Rochester Hills but I now live in Holland. I hope to figure out the Muskegon river soon, I usually fish the PM, Upper Manistee, Ausable ... I have never even wet a line on the Muskegon but plan to change that this summer.

One could go blind reading through that thing. How about just turning a tapered leader around attaching the small end to the fly line? Glenn

pszy,
Just ordered a couple of the Weight Forwards to see how they work. Hopefully it wont be long before I report back!

Glenn,

I can relate, I was wondering why everything suddenly went blurry!

You could try to flip over a regular tapered leader. I don't think it would work exactly the same, but you could give it a try. One thing you'd have to play with is trimming back the thin end of the leader. If it's too thin, it won't be able to adequately transfer the energy from the fly line to the rest of the leader (it will just hinge and collapse the cast). One the other hand, if you cut the leader too far up, you loose the effect as well.

There is alot of room for optimization when it comes to leaders. It's like fishing with a level fly line. It will work. It just works better using a tapered fly line (like a DT or WF) based on the application.

It's fun to play.

It is a compelling concept! I am puzzling a bit over how the taper down on the fly line and then tapering back up and down yet again on the leader works out. Guess I'll need to try one out.