Went to furled leaders after reading about them in a different thread.

My question is regarding tippet length off the furled leader when fishing dries? What length do the more experienced members here recommend?

When fishing nymphs, I have been using around 24" and that seems to work well. But, I had my share of problems when I switched to dries.

Should I have tapered the tippet, i.e. 5x to 3x or just shortened the tippet? Or spend more time practicing my casting?

Dave

Dave - I think you have about the right idea. I use furled leaders almost exclusively. It depends on the situation (as most things in FF do!), but two feet of tippet off the end of a furled leader is probably about right as a starting point for most situations. Most furled leaders are tapered in such a way as to match up with a certain range of tippets...the ones I use are 3x-5x for example. You could probably get away with +/- a size on either end of that too. Just make sure you're within reasonable range of what the leader was designed for and you should be fine.

For small Brookie streams and dries, I may go with less than two feet of tippet, and I shorten it up with streamers too. You may need even longer tippets nymphing deeper water or fishing dries to selective, drag sensitive trout in limestoners though.

Tapering your tippet isn't a bad idea either, and will probably help a little bit with the dries. I'll often put 8-10" or so of 3x and then attach another 12-16" of 4x or 5x. For streamers it tends not to matter as much...just 18" of straight 3x is what I go with.

Quote:

Yes, and yes.

I routinely use 4' of 5X on the end of one of those Streamside leaders, but you've gotta put a bit of ooomph into the forward cast.

Remember part 4 of the four part cast - presentation. Don't drop the rod tip until the leader is almost straightened out, then follow it down with the rod tip. Aim high - don't rely on the leader to turn over the tippet if you drive the leader down into the water.

Having a pile of tippet on the water is not always a bad thing - it's called a puddle cast, and the coils can help delay drag.

Remember - the reach mend is your friend. We'll work on this next weekend. I'll also bring you a hand tied leader to compare with your furled one. I'll take a well designed hand tied leader over a furled one every time.