salmobytes wrote:
On Aug 30, 9:05 am, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

so when I rigged up my 6wt for smallie fishing....
Furled leaders still suck.......
Back to good old Orvis SuperStrong tapered leaders

I never tried a furled leader. But your post does come wrapped
in a big bugs for samllie context. And then ends up liking
tapered leaders.

So it occurred to me: tapered leaders are great, but they
seldom (never yet, that I've ever seen) have enough backbone
to toss bass bugs of any kind. So I either make my own
leaders from scratch (most of the time) or I add a thicker,
stouter leader butt to the rear end of the tapered section.

The butt end of an Orvis SuperStrong 0X 6ft. tapered leader
is .023". That's enough backbone for most of the flies I
toss with my 6wt. When I need to toss something huge with
an 8 or 9wt rod I'll start the leader with 4 to 6 feet of
50 lb test Climax hard mono that measures .0295". If I can't
cast it with that butt section it ain't gonna get cast.

Then you can cast big bugs in the wind. And the fat butt
tends to sink quickly, which helps drag the whole leader
under with it, so you don't get that long squiggly, fish-scaring
dimple on the surface, between fly line and floating bug.

I've never known smallies to be leader shy.

--
Ken Fortenberry