Product Review: J Wood Fly Fishing Twisted Leaders

About a month ago I received a couple of leaders from J Wood Fly Fishing to test out and give him some feedback. Now just to be clear, he didn't send them to me so I would write about them here he just wanted some honest feedback about his work and since I like them so much I decided to let you know about it. 

For the last few years I've been using some hand tied leaders that I make myself. I've used a few different recipes and have been pretty happy with the results. So, I wasn't exactly in the market for a new leader. Though I can admit to having wondered about twisted and furled leaders because of the rave reviews that have been circulating through the interweb. I've even been looking into making a furling jig just to try them out (in case you haven't noticed, I like to have a hand in making every piece of gear I use) but hadn't quite gotten to it yet when this opportunity arrived.

The first thing I noticed about these leaders was the way they came out of the package. Mostly the leader straightened without any effort on my part. A small tug on the butt section, as per the directions, completely straightened the leader and it was ready to fish. 

I started out using an 8' 4x leader while suspending nymphs under a yarn indicator. I was worried with the extreme cold that the twisted section of the leader would hold water and possibly freeze, but it never was a problem. A huge plus to using a twisted leader with this style of fishing was how well it held my yarn indicator in place. I was also impressed at how much tippet, with a couple of weighted flies on the end, this leader was able to turn over. As that first day progressed the wind really started to kick up, but I had no trouble casting where I needed to.

Later in the evening we came up on a pod of fish feeding on a sparse midge hatch. Fishing tiny dries to spooky fish is a completely new game but the ability to turn over extra tippet kept me in the game and really made up for a few less-than-perfect casts.

The mark of great gear is if you can stop thinking about it while your on the water and just focus on fishing. Every trip I've taken while using these leaders this winter I haven't given these leaders more than a few thoughts, usually at the beginning and end of the day, but while I'm on the water it was just fishing. I can't think of any higher praise than that. 

That's a J Wood Fly Fishing net too, just in case you were wondering...

Hope you can get out, be safe, and enjoy the outdoors.

- Kidder