On Nov 15, 11:17 am, "PRM" wrote:
"rw" wrote in message

m...



My philosophy is empiricism and utilitarianism. IOW, check it out and
whatever works.

To that end, I searched out the gnarliest old Rio leader I could find,
took it from the package, and immersed it in hot (not boiling) water. It
straightened out just fine, tippet and all. It didn't seem to be weakened
in any obvious way, although I didn't actually test the breaking point.

I'm not likely to do this as a matter of habit because I can straighten
them streamside with my fingers or with a piece of leather. But it worked.
It worked just fine.

I know that Connor can be irritating with his didactic, know-it-all
attitude, but this **** is ridiculous.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

rw:

long time lurker who avoids most of the bs around here, but I also tried
this technique so here's a few points.

1. I have straightened leaders for years with a leather/rubber gadget on my
vest. Never used it on anything finer that 2X or 3X. Straighten those
sections with my fingers. Always worked well
2. The day I put my leader in hot water, I was in a cabin streamside and
was waiting for it to warm up before going fishing, so I was killing time
3. Dropped the leader in non boiling water (approx 1 1/2 minutes in a
microwave) and hung it up between 2 nails on the porch. Used a Rio 7 1/2
foot down to 3X leader. Did not heat the tippet.

The leader (IMO) performed better that day. I caught several fish over 20"
and did not break anyone off, although again, I did not heat the tippets.
The leader is limper and has less memory when straightened in this manner.
I hazard to say it "fished straighter" than when hand straightened.

So, if you've got time and don't mind trying something different, you may
find this is a worthwhile exercise. YMMV

Patrick

Hey, it worked fine for me. Went fishing yesterday and the leaders
performed fine. One thing I really like about this forum is that
there are a ton of ideas, and I can try them out myself. It isn't a
situation (with me anyway) where I like or dislike anyone. I just
figure why not try the ideas myself and see if they work. I'll
DEFINITELY use the fingers/friction thing most of the time (I've
already used that before with excellent results). But in this
particular case, something was seriously wrong with these leaders
(they were probably mummified from sitting on a shelf so long before I
bought them). But hey, they worked fine after being in hot water (I
didn't boil them. Just dropped them into hot water for a couple of
minutes and they worked great after that).

Now, I just need to try that hot-underwear trick that Tom talked
about....but maybe the leaders would be straight - but smell funny
after the "treatment" :-)