Show us your silk gut leaders

or however that dang word is written! : ) Use this forum to discuss those things that are related to, directly, or indirectly, fly fishing, i.e., tackle, catalogs, single malt scotch, cigar preferences, pipes, camera gear, etc. This is sort of an off topic area but one related to bamboo and fly fishing.

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NewUtahCaneAngler
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#21

Post by NewUtahCaneAngler »

Wow, that is one big gut that you have there Roycesterns, um, I mean big pile of gut ;-)

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wiscoy
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#22

Post by wiscoy »

I've only picked up a few- the card on the right has has 12 removed, 6 leaders remain. The back of the leader pack say W&M Denver - the other boxed leaders are from Elmira Arms, I was in their store a couple times as a kid, they still exist but moved to PA after the "safe" act.


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"It is better to tie one good fly in an hour than a dozen that would only be taken by a trout with a sense of humor"
Uncle Bill

bluesjay
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#23

Post by bluesjay »

Hi Guys, I have a variety, but I still have a partial box of 9 foot, 3X Paul Young leaders, though I have given most away.

Jay Edwards

Canefotograf
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#24

Post by Canefotograf »

Late to the party, just posted this at the auction site if anyone wants a Paul h. Young silkworm gut leader. Or a Weber one.

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jim royston
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#25

Post by jim royston »

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billems
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#26

Post by billems »

Wow, lots to learn on these posts. Were the leaders knotted in one-foot increments? I heard they wouldn't stretch much further than a foot.

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Seabowisha Salmo T
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#27

Post by Seabowisha Salmo T »

roycestearns wrote:
04/16/20 21:44
Did you mean "Got gut?" / I'm not gutless.
Reproducing early American flies required gut, so I gobbled up any available for snells and twisted gut eyes.
The gut in front is what the tackle houses received when they ordered gut to make snells and leaders and flies.
I've fished it and it works good. The question I always had was, what kind of patience was required when the angler arrived at his spot, with fish rising, he had to untangle his soaking leader apply point and dropper flies, and then wait while his snells or gutted eyes soaked, before making his first cast. If he was not patient enough the first cast would snap off one or two flies.

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hello; actually, if the angler was wise the leader(s) with fly(s) attached were wrapped around his hat and only needed a short resoak to be ready for casting. i did this for years till the last one i had broke or was treed.
regards, jim w

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Seabowisha Salmo T
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#28

Post by Seabowisha Salmo T »

billems wrote:
10/23/21 20:44
Wow, lots to learn on these posts. Were the leaders knotted in one-foot increments? I heard they wouldn't stretch much further than a foot.
hello; yes, about 13 inches was about the limit i seem to recall.
regards, jim w

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Seabowisha Salmo T
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#29

Post by Seabowisha Salmo T »

dshx wrote:
03/30/20 22:07
I always loved the description of the process by which the gut leaders were made (from a quoted text in an AMFF journal - sorry, don’t recall the original source):

"Their first step is to free the gut from such portions of the ruptured envelope as may adhere to it. Formerly this was done by drawing the gut between the teeth, and thus stripping off this refuse, but chemical processes are said now largely to have superseded this. The eyewitness, to whom I am indebted for this information, describes the old method as a most disgusting spectacle. The rows of women and girls drawing the entrails of this caterpillar through their teeth, their mouths smeared with blood from the cuts inflicted by the thin gut, mingled with the offal scraped from it by their teeth — spitting and drawing, and spitting again — must indeed be far from a pleasant sight."


-Dwight
hello; i also seem to remember, too lazy to look it up, that the "spanish" gut leader material was actually cut from pig or sheep intestines and run through sizing dies similar to wire making process. ymmv.
regards, jim w

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roycestearns
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#30

Post by roycestearns »

Sheep or pig gut is what natural sausage casing is made from. Silk gut leaders are made from the silk production gut of the silk worm caterpillar, bombyx mori. Bombxy mori, produced the silk for the thread that was used to wrap the rods and tie the flies. We owe a lot to a Caterpillar!

Some gut can reach about 18 inches in length, but that's about the max. Japan introduced a knot less silk leader which is not gut but silk thread in a varnish.

NewUtahCaneAngler
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#31

Post by NewUtahCaneAngler »

I just received these Hardy silk gut leaders from across the pond as a thank you gift along with a reel purchase

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Cheers,
Joe

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Flykuni3
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#32

Post by Flykuni3 »

And cat gut was it from kitty, fyi.

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Seabowisha Salmo T
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Re: Show us your silk gut leaders

#33

Post by Seabowisha Salmo T »

Flykuni3 wrote:
02/01/22 16:55
And cat gut was it from kitty, fyi.
hello, darrell; i believe the origin of 'cat" gut was in reference to "cathay", a location in the orient, from where the silkworms originated.

regards, jim w

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