Fishing With Furled Leaders

I had been anticipating casting at some rising fish so I could test some Furled Leaders I had recently acquired from mrtrout who is a regular poster on the flyforums website. I was very impressed with the quality of these leaders when I received them and was just looking for the right opportunity to 'field test' them.

As instructed by Steven (mrtrout) these leaders just need treating with Mucilin floatant before fishing and they should float fine...well he wasn't wrong there, one treatment at the beginning and that was it. It lay perfect on the surface all day.

On Saturday I was armed with my 7' #4 rod with a 3' furled leader and 4' tippet attached...I was exploring a new piece of water on a Wye tributary that I have access to and early afternoon when I arrived there was a superb hatch of Large Dark Olives which were being readily taken...unfortunately as I soon found out the rising fish seemed to be all Grayling (where were you all winter when I needed you!). A few small trout were caught later but nothing that put a bend in the rod.

Sunday I was back on the Upper Wye with my 9' #5 rod with a 5' furled leader and 5' of tippet and the Grannom hatch seems to be well underway, it was an afternoon of sunshine and showers with very little of the former! When the sun did emerge briefly from the rain clouds the Grannom seemed to immediately respond and swarm to the surface triggering a few rises. Again it was to be mostly Grayling but I was rewarded when a fantastic early season brownie that sipped my CDC dry off the top and gave a great fight.

Grannom...seeking refuge from the rain

 The furled leaders performed superbly for both dry fly and duo methods and I'm sure will now play a major part of this season’s trout fishing.