To Leader or Not To Leader

[RMax]

I tie a mono leader onto my braid for texas and other non moving rigs.  I like it because I can snap the knot if its a real bad snag, instead of cutting the braid.  If you cut off 10 feet of braid everytime you get snagged, eventually you'll start casting to your backing and have to remove all that braid and put on a whole new spool, which is a waste.  Its also just a confidence thing for me.

[Yudo1]

I also use leaders so I can break off snags. 

[.ghoti.]

I'll use a leader occasionally, when trout fishing. I fish Taneycomo every summer while the wife is doing whatever she does with the grandkids. Summer on Taneycomo can be tough fishing. I use 4lb test Invizx, and that is too visible at times, and out comes the little spool of 7X tippet. 2lb test fluorocarbon leader. Some times that's the only way to get bit. 

 

Other than that, I don't need a leader. My main line is good enough. I do not use braid. I despise that crap. Other than the two reels I use only for trout, all my reels are spooled with mono; from 4 - 8 for spinning reels, 8 - 14 for casting reels.

[Sam]

"To leader or not to leader, that is the question." (Herman Shakespeare in his novel, Omelets.

 

Here is what Herman wrote:

To braid, or not to braid, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of losing bass,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
the heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
that bass are heir to? 'Tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause. There's the respect
that makes catching bass of so long life:
For who would bear the bugs and bad weather of time,
the bass’ wrong, the proud man's Contumely (breaking off)
the pangs of despised Love for that little green monster, the technique delay,
the insolence of the bass, and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy hook sets,
when he himself might his fishing rod make
with a bare strike of the rod? Who would Fardels the Big Bass bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country, from whose bourn
no fisherman returns, puzzles the will,
and makes us rather bear those ills we have,
than fly to others that we know not of, be it a Palmore or an Uni.
Thus the use of a leader does make cowards of us all,
and thus the native hue of Resolution to nail that fat bass.
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
with this regard their bass turn awry,
And lose in the name of Glenn and Road Warrior. Soft you now,
The fair personal best? Big Mother, in thy dreams
Be all my sins remembered how to tie the leader to the braid.

It really boils down to what you have confidence.

[MickD]

I have experienced refusals in clear water with white nanofil, refusals stopped when I put a leader on.  

 

Re casting problems, don't run the knot through the guides, if it bothers you. With lines of about 10-15 pound test (both braid and leader) double unis will pass freely though almost any guide.

 

If one is getting numerous failures of double unis they are not tying it right.

 

The lighter the braid, the murkier the water, the less reason to use a leader for stealth.

 

I'll bet there is not a single participant in this line of posts who will change his mind from what he is now doing.  Rightfully so.  If it works, keep it.