Just as a followup, I've been mulling this over and had a thought about a knot.
With a turned-down eye, I passed the leader through the eye, took it up and over the wrapped head, then back through the eye. Then tied a uni knot and snugged the knot back up until it jammed in the eye. The result is a nice straight line to fly alignment, an almost invisible knot that doesn't chafe on itself. Kind of a modern Turle knot, if you will.
