Should I Be Always Using A Leader?

[BassMaster17]

It always seems to happen when i'm fishing for bass, i make a good cast, a perfect retrieve, and. . . SNAP! a pike grabs my lure and bites right through my line. i have lost over $100 to pike snapping my bass lures off. Of course i love fishing for pike too, but when i'm targeting specifically bass it gets annoying. It makes me wonder if i should just always be using a leader, that way i can not loose lures and catch some big pike at the same time. Any suggestions???

[LuckyGia]

Careful, I had my head ripped off for asking a similar question.

I guess you are supposed to search your questions first

Screw em, yeah, use a leader

[Darren.]

I use a leader 100% of the time.

 

Do you *have* to? No. Plenty of folks

use straight braid and have success.

 

It is a personal choice, there's no hard-fast

rule for how or when to use a leader.

 

My bottom line is that braid is expensive

while a spool of fluoro or mono or copoly

isn't when used a leader. You can retie

lures, hooks, etc., with a 6-10 foot leader 

a bunch of times w/o having to dig into

your braided mainline - until a new leader

is tied on. So for me it is a money issue

and I also have 100% confidence in using

a leader. So for me - a win/win.

[Turtle135]

I suppose it depends on the presentation. Some types of lures (weight-less soft plastics, suspending jerkbaits, some topwaters) do not play well with the added weight of a steel or wire leader. I know some musky guys that get away with a heavy 50 pound test flourocarbon or mono leader for those types of presentations.

[gardnerjigman]

I would say that you should try it with a leader and go off of your own experience from their. Obviously not using a leader isn't working out for you, so try one. If it works, great. If not, move to Kansas. We don't have that problem here. lol

[SirSnookalot]

Using a leader won't make a difference unless it's wire leader.  Pike, musky, barracuda and mackerel down here will bite thru 50# mono or f/c leader quite easily.  With the exception of mackerel I don't feel any of the other species are too line shy, including bass.  I don't think the movement of the lure suffers much if there is a loop connecting it, your lure may run a bit deeper, sometimes I use wire for that very reason.  Simply haywire twist with single strand or crimp coated wire.

[Chris S]

I would say that you should try it with a leader and go off of your own experience from their. Obviously not using a leader isn't working out for you, so try one. If it works, great. If not, move to Kansas. We don't have that problem here. lol

Ya 10 pound drum or 30 pound cats dont break our line off in Kansas  LOL I caught a pike in Wisconsin once and didnt know what the heck to do with it!!!! I use 10 to 20 pound braid and a 10 to 15 pound floro leader most of the time. 

[Bluebasser86]

Braid doesn't do any good against pike or muskies. You can get really heavy fluoro leaders that hold up pretty well, I'd probably go that route if you wanted to use a leader. Other than that you could get some thin, tieable wire and use that. Or just do what a lot of anglers that have to deal with toothy critters do, accept it as part of the game and carry extras of your favorite baits. 

[flyfisher]

Try this stuff...

 

http://www.fishusa.com/product/Cortland-Toothy-Critter-Tie-Able-Stainless-Steel-Leader-Material

[A-Jay]

I fish a few places that have a very health pike population. 

 

If I do not use a wire leader on these lakes, I will loose baits.  There's just no way around it.

 

A leader is a must for me when fishing jigs &/or soft plastic and believe it or not I've even had to drop shot with wire . . .talk about a pain to rig.  The interesting thing is - I still catch plenty of bass doing it.

 

I use a few different brands.  Cortland Toothy Critter (mentioned above),  American Fishing Wire Micro Supreme, and this year I'm trying Knot2Kinky . . these are all tie-able titanium very thin coated wire spools that you tie up yourself.

 

Good Luck

 

A-Jay

 

 

[BassMaster17]

Thanks for the suggestions, i think i will start using a leader and see how it goes, too much money goes down the drain from loosing baits, plus just the other day i had on what would've been my PB pike, but of course it had to be while i was bass fishing and bit right through my line  

[Choporoz]

Appreciate the thread, BM.  I've been thinking about this myself.  I grew fishing for walleye and pike in WI, MI and ONT.... and used a wire leader 90% of the time.  Here in VA, I've never considered it.  In a few weeks, I'm going to spend some time up in northern sconnie with the family on a lake with good variety of species and I've been wondering what I should consider using. 

[Dwight Hottle]

You don't need a leader for walleye. Just pike & musky. The thin titanium wire works really well with a small swivel & snap so the leader doesn't affect the action of your baits.

[SirSnookalot]

I take my chances without wire for most species, I do get cut off but I catch a lot too.  When I do use wire I go with 20# coated and I crimp, usually have 1 with me just in case.  Crimping may not work for everyone, still need a crimping tool as well the crimp sleeves.  There is nothing wrong with using pre made wire leaders, I've used them plenty of times, they work just fine and are inexpensive.

[dsidle61]

Last year I went no leader all season for the first time and lost 1 bait to a northern, a top water frog that the pike bit through my 50lb braid.  Caught my PB northern last year on 15lb casting floro.  Catch tons and tons of northern and bass on straight 12lb mono.  I will say this, a wire leader will 100% affect any top water baits you use as it will submarine the front of them.

[llPa1nll]

AFW Surflon Micro Supreme, what I use on Pike trips the LM and SM bass don't seem to mind either. Here is a link.

[Catch 22]

_{I always use a leader of various sizes depending, but seldom use wire. When I do they are Eagle Claw prefabed about 6" long that come with a j hook.Remove the hook and  make use of the loops on each end.}

 

_{Catch 22}  

[SirSnookalot]

_{I always use a leader of various sizes depending, but seldom use wire. When I do they are Eagle Claw prefabed about 6" long that come with a j hook.Remove the hook and  make use of the loops on each end.}

 

_{Catch 22}  

Me too, although I crimp my own I don't see any problem with prefab.  I make my cuda tubes with a wire leader, but fishing traditional lures it's quite rare for me to use wire. 

[Shockwave]

I suppose it depends on the presentation. Some types of lures (weight-less soft plastics, suspending jerkbaits, some topwaters) do not play well with the added weight of a steel or wire leader. I know some musky guys that get away with a heavy 50 pound test flourocarbon or mono leader for those types of presentations.

 

I agree with this.  I fished a suspending jerkbait on braid with a 40# test flouro leader and the pike in Sturgeon Bay annihilated it!  The heavier leader gave the jerkbait a slow fall that the pike apparently fell in love with that day!  I ended up swapping out the leader every 3rd fish but it was well worth it. 

[DubyaDee]

I'll use 30# power pro with a 20# flouro leader till I lose either a nice fish or a nice lure. Then I use tyger steel leader. If we're seeing a lot of pike/musky we'll switch to leaders earlier.