Are your leaders coiling? Do you get frustrated with tangles in your casting? Well now there's a new idea, you tape your leader to the wall. I'm trying it out, and I'm going to see if it straightens my line, crossin' my fingers. And like the title says, " How do YOU straighten YOUR leader?".
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How do YOU straighten your leader?
Teenage Entomologist
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Well it usually starts with Elizabeth doing a bit of a dance and slowly taking off her clothes...
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Another vote for furled leaders. Been so long since I've used the old mono leaders that I mistook the subject line for something else.
How do you straighten a furled leader? Cast it!
How do you straighten a furled leader? Cast it!
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7,332 Posts
The notion that you can "overheat" your leader by pulling it through a leader straightening patch seems like an old wive's tale to me. I'm not sure what speed you would have to achieve in order to create enough friction to actually harm the material. Pulling it through at about 3 feet at a time is not going to build up any serious heat. Nylon 6 has a melting point of 428 degrees and 6,6 melts at 509 degrees. The heat generated by pulling line through a straightener is far different than the heat generated in the case of UV exposure. UV is just death to nylon and ultimately almost anything exposed to long term exposure is going to deteriorate.
Flourocarbon is of course a different animal and doesn't have some of the shortcomings of monofilament. But either one will probably not be harmed by infusing a little heat to help get rid of the curl.
Ive
Flourocarbon is of course a different animal and doesn't have some of the shortcomings of monofilament. But either one will probably not be harmed by infusing a little heat to help get rid of the curl.
Ive
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1,581 Posts
I pull it through a piece of soft leather held between my thumb and index finger. Pinch it tight and pull. That is the usual method. Most of time I use bare hands but occasionally use the leather patch if I have any cuts, etc.
G
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·I'm not claiming you can melt the mono, I'm worried about causing enough fatigue in one spot that it fails at some point in the future. The dashboard reference was to illustrate my point that abusing your leader or tippet is not a good idea.
I threw away my patch years ago when my leaders starting breaking in unexpected places. I didn't know exactly what was causing the failures. After I quit using the leather patch, the problem went away. It could have been that my casting improved and I had fewer wind knots (aka bad casting knots), but by then I got used to not having that leather patch hanging off my vest.
Lastly, I'm not advocating anyone change what works for them. I was simply answering the question
How do YOU straighten your leader?
Trapper
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188 Posts
I have one of those instant hot water taps in my kitchen. After building my own leaders, or to remove really serious kinks in existing ones, I run the line through the running hot water. Works really well, and no apparent heat damage.
Cut off the old piece, and tie on a new one.
All joking aside, one more reason to switch to 100% fluorocarbon. I can't remember the last time I had those problems since I've switched, unless throwing gigantic foam bugs. Then (seriously) I tie on a new piece.
So...do you plug it in a currant bush?
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6,652 Posts
A tapered mono leader typically lasts me close to a year, six months minimum. I just keep adding fluorocarbon until I can't mate the butt ends anymore due to diameter differences. I mostly just use P-Line 100% flourocarbon, until I need the fancy stuff with even smaller diameter breaking strength.
Edit: Even when the tapered butt section gets to the point of not matching my tippet, I add about two foot of ten/eight pound P-Line and proceed to tie tippet sections from there, until it runs out. And repeat process.
Edit: Even when the tapered butt section gets to the point of not matching my tippet, I add about two foot of ten/eight pound P-Line and proceed to tie tippet sections from there, until it runs out. And repeat process.
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5,467 Posts
I got started using a piece of inner tube rubber 30 some years ago. Then I tried the Orvis and Cortland straighteners. All worked fine. Then I started stretching by hand because many folks said it was better. Well, I don't think it is. Because my old rubbers fatigued, I recently got a couple more Orvis straighteners. I like straight leaders. Rubber helps. Pull slower and softer in the tippet zone. Don't think I've ever had a failure because of it.
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4,680 Posts
Why don't you furl your own? I made a jig and have made leaders up to 10 feet in length from 4 lb. mono. You can use 6/0 tying thread as well and they work very well as trout leaders. There are several jig patterns/instructions on the web. Just Google "furled leader" and go from there. They are actually quite simple to make.
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I saw the tool in a Fly Magazine and was going to try to do it but I never got around to it. Just to lazy I guess.
They might be simple to make but not for me. I went fishing the other day and almost threw it all away. I was shaking so bad I could barely tie a double surgeon's knot. Gonna have to have the doctor give me some stronger pills I guess to control my shakes.
They might be simple to make but not for me. I went fishing the other day and almost threw it all away. I was shaking so bad I could barely tie a double surgeon's knot. Gonna have to have the doctor give me some stronger pills I guess to control my shakes.
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1,608 Posts
Ive used the leather patch on my leaders for years with no issues. Tried furled leader and really like it for most applications; however, I did find that on calm surfaces, the furled tends to spray water a bit for me thus I don't use it around spooky fish.
Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2
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330 Posts
Pinch and stretch…with the hands god gave you. I love gimmicks, but is it really necessary to need a "tool" to straighten a damn leader?
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