While lots of the US is getting snowed in, it was another beautiful day here on the South Concho. It started off a bit chilly at 30, but warmed up to 60 by noon. I was going out today to try out some new furled leaders. I was not impressed and quite a bit frustrated, but was able to get on the water and catch some fish.

It was smooth paddling at the put in after I dropped the kids off at school, got on the water by 8:15.



The weather was great, albeit a bit chilly first off, but after about an hour I had to start shedding some layers. Fortunately I brought some gloves or things might have been a little rough. And the wind was also being a pal today.



On this stretch of the South Concho, there is a spot that gets real shallow, 1-2 inches of swift water over smooth rock. I had a weird idea to try and not leave another layer of yak there today so I decided to give the cart a try at that spot. It should work just fine. This is at the edge of the real shallow stretch.



Well, that didn't work as good as it did in my mind last night. I gave a shot and got about a foot before I needed to tighten it up, so I did....and the (choice word) strap snapped off at the buckle, right in half. So I got to lug that dumb thing and all it's weight over the rocks.

But after that, things got better. I had a cookie and a diet coke and gathered my fishing thoughts. I had about a dozen perch and a bass in about fifteen minutes. As I moved on and battled my fly rod, I caught a few more bass. At least the fish didn't care too much of the rough casts. All the bass were small, with the biggest being 1.5 pounds.



Overall a great day on the water with some nice scenery.





I will try the furled leaders again, maybe with some more guidance, but I think I will have a better backup just in case I start getting that frustrated feeling again. I still can't complain. Beautiful day, beautiful fish, and I wasn't sitting behind my desk daydreaming of the river....that will be there for me tomorrow.

Thanks for coming along,
Scott

Thanks for the story ...

Great pictures. What kind of furled leaders were they and what specific problems were they giving you?

My favorite size bass. Big enough to be fun, young enough to be dumb.
Thanks for taking us along.

Kirk

Thanks guys!

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

nice photos, sounds like a day well spent. J.

I have no problem with the hand furled leaders. The others recoil and bunch up on me if I get hooked up on a snag and try to break off the hook.

Thanks guys.

Txredraider, I was having trouble turning the fly over. I don't think the leaders are the problem, it's the setup. I'm using an 8wt rod. I had an 8wt 6 foot furled leader with about 4 foot of 10wt vanish flouro as my "tippet" since I didn't have any regular tippet material come in yet. I adjusted the size of the tippet but nothing seemed to help. I was using #4,#6,#8 flies. The only time I was able to get a decent cast is when I went all the way down to a #14 to try that out. And my roll cast was worse. I know the leaders are good quality, but i'm doing something that's messing it up. I got new tippet material today in the mail and I will try that out when the weather clears up. Any advise would be appreciated.

Scott

There are a lot of factors that could cause what you're describing. What really sticks out to me is the 4 feet of tippet you tied on to the furled leader. It's pretty rare for me to put a tippet section on that is longer than 18-24 inches. All that extra length may be "absorbing" the energy of your cast and hurting your fly turnover. That might be indicative of an issue with your casting. Maybe Rex will happen by and take pity on us both and do a little online diagnosing of what you're describing.

Furled leaders are actually pretty amazing when it comes to energy transfer. The next time you have the furled leader off of your fly line, try casting just the leader with your hand. You might be surprised to see that you can toss some pretty nice loops by hand with just the furled leader.

I'll chime in here. The fact that the #14 flies cast well but the heavier ones did not makes sense. my nutshell description of fly casting is that of energy dissipation in a smooth flow. When there's too big an object at the end it's no longer dissipation but rather chunking a weight.

Txredraider has it pretty well nailed down. I would suggest significantly shortening the tippet section foro heavier flies. That and moving up to a heavy duty furled leader for that eight weight.

And finally, are you really married to fishing an eight weight in that water? There are some awesome five and six weight combos at Bass Pro and Cabelas that won't cost an arm and a leg.

Best

I love your pictures. You sure do find the pretty spots out there.

An 8 wt should not have any problems turning over a #4 fly, you should be be able to go up to a 2/0 or 3/0 size in the environment you've been fishing.

When you say the fly is not turning over, what isn't turning over? Is the fly line itself laying out straight and leader is landing in pile? Or is the fly line not straightening out?

If the fly line is landing straight, then I'd try adjusting the leader length as a first step. Try shortening the tippet material down to the 18 to 24 in. range (I think you mentioned you are using 4' of tippet). This will give you a 7.5' to 8' total leader length compared to the 10' length you mentioned. Long leaders are more difficult to cast than shorter leaders. Once you get comfortable casting an ~8' leader, then you can start slowly increasing the length to get to longer leaders if needed for the location you are fishing.

If dropping down to a 7.5' leader still doesn't allow the leader to straighten, then I'd try a new leader to see if there is something wrong with the one you are using. I have had a tapered mono leader that would not lay straight no matter what I did. So, it is possible to have a defective leader.

However, if the fly line itself is not laying out straight, then it is not leader or the fly size causing the problem. The best way to get the fly line to turn over is to remove the hook and spend some time practicing casting.

Good luck!

Thanks so much guys for all the advice. I didn't shorten the tippet that far, and that may be where the problem is at. I have always used regular tapered leaders in the past, but wanted to try these out since I read a lot of good things on them. The thing i'm starting to realize, from what y'all have said, the tippet may be the problem. I will try this out this weekend with a shorter tippet. I feel like a noob asking all these questions knowing how long i've doing this, but these leaders threw me for a loop (no pun intended). And the more I think about it and reread my post I didn't really explain things very good. After reading your posts, I know where the problem is. Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it guys.

And, RRhyne56, the reason I wanted to use the 8wt was just to throw bigger flies. I have a 6wt I always bring, but use the 8 for the deeper pools. This river is so full of sunfish, that every time the fly lands on the water, i've got a hookup. So I throw bigger, and that eliminates a lot of that, and the ones going after it are bigger. But even then, I'll cast a 1/0 clouser to a stump, and get a hit, and haul in a 3 inch bluegill.

Scott

I can appreciate the dink issue

Nice pics