Proper Mending to get great drifts…
A few trips back, I was out fishing with some buddies. At one point we were all fishing the same
long run. This type of fishing gave me the
opportunity to really watch some great fisherman in action. We were tossing small pmd’s to rising
trout. We all got to cast three times, and
then moved to the back of the line. As mentioned, the run was a long one. Meaning you really needed to mend the line a
couple of times during the drift. One of
the guys fishing with us started the day not using our leaders. He is a great fisherman and one to be
admired. Not until he watched me and two
others using our leaders, did he understand why we all made the switch to
thread furled leaders. The reason one can
mend so well with thread furled leaders is because of the micro grooves created
by the furling process. These grooves
create impressive stick / grab of the water surface tension. This “grab” allows the leader to stay put
when a mend is put into the line. The
fly-line with its slick coating lifts easy off the water, the leader
stays. The fact that the leaders are also
memory free, they create no drag. The leader
is not stiff enough to fight against the currents so it simply succumbs to all
of the micro currents and drifts drag free.
It has been a long time sense I really paid attention to
nylon tapered leaders and how they perform.
This is one application that a thread leader really shines. While
watching the nylon leader closely, you could see the leader being pulled across
the surface of the water when a mend was made.
This means, the tippet and fly have pressure put on them, now creating
drag.
The fishing quickly turned from a few guys trying to hook a
trout, to a group of guys trying to figure out the pro’s / cons of various
leader configurations. It was great for
us “Cutthroat Leaders”, as we had a handful of very experienced fly fishers
working (doing R & D) for free….
All in all, it was a great day on the water. We end ended up with a new Convert to our
Leaders and we caught a bunch of fish.
