Clear Blue Fluorescent Mono Line

[Steveo-1969]

The spinning rod I use for smallmouth fishing has 10# braid mainline and some kind of leader tied onto it. The past couple years has been 10# fluorocarbon. Works great.

[Joshua Vandamm]

1 hour ago, Steveo-1969 said:

The spinning rod I use for smallmouth fishing has 10# braid mainline and some kind of leader tied onto it. The past couple years has been 10# fluorocarbon. Works great.

Well hell, thats what I already had on. ?‍♂️

[Steveo-1969]

Ha-ha. You'll get LOTS of OPINIONS on what works best.  Braid mainline, fluoro mainline, copoly, mono, what pound test works best, you should use a leader with braid, you don't need a leader, and on and on and on ad nauseum.

 

The beautiful thing is there are no wrong answers so everyone's opinion is worth considering.  The right answer is whatever works for YOU.  To your specific question about smallie fishing... I'm assuming you are fishing in the Potomac River? And you aren't pulling them out of heavy cover? Then you are like me.  I use a ML powered spinning rod with 10# braid and a 10# fluorocarbon leader. With a correctly set drag there isn't a smallmouth in the river you won't be able to land.

 

Now, some people also say the longer you fight them the more harm you are doing to the fish and the more likely the fish won't survive after release. But that's for a different thread! 

[Spankey]

I use a few different types of lines on my set ups. Mono's, Fluro's and some braid. My biggest smallies have come on Trilene XL clear blue fluorescent 6#. I buy it buy the bulk spool. I change my line out a lot due to rocks. Can't say that I've lost a nice fish due to nicks or abrasions but want to keep it that way. Don't over think it. 

[Joshua Vandamm]

On 11/1/2017 at 3:57 PM, Steveo-1969 said:

Ha-ha. You'll get LOTS of OPINIONS on what works best.  Braid mainline, fluoro mainline, copoly, mono, what pound test works best, you should use a leader with braid, you don't need a leader, and on and on and on ad nauseum.

 

The beautiful thing is there are no wrong answers so everyone's opinion is worth considering.  The right answer is whatever works for YOU.  To your specific question about smallie fishing... I'm assuming you are fishing in the Potomac River? And you aren't pulling them out of heavy cover? Then you are like me.  I use a ML powered spinning rod with 10# braid and a 10# fluorocarbon leader. With a correctly set drag there isn't a smallmouth in the river you won't be able to land.

 

Now, some people also say the longer you fight them the more harm you are doing to the fish and the more likely the fish won't survive after release. But that's for a different thread! 

I’ve noticed?

Yup! Potomac or the Monocacy. 

That one of my setups for LM as well. 7’1” MLxfast (by ## Fishing) w light braid-leader. I’ve has trouble with leaders snapping if less than 12lb, but that’s probably because I use seaguar Red mainline instead of “real” leader line. 

[Steveo-1969]

12 hours ago, Jvanda1 said:

I’ve has trouble with leaders snapping if less than 12lb, but that’s probably because I use seaguar Red mainline instead of “real” leader line. 

I've used lots of different lines as leaders, but for the past year I've been using 10# Seaguar Red Label because that's what I was using on my baitcaster as mainline and I always had some left over. It's definitely not as abrasion resistant as actual leader material and I've found I have to check it frequently for nicks, cuts, etc. and retie if necessary.