Line shy or not

[InFishingWeTrust]

Would like to hear opinions on if you believe fish are line shy or not. Heres is my view. I fished straight braid for years and for all apllications. I never had a problem catching fish. I believed if a fish is line shy they would be hook shy. This is the first year running leaders and honestly havent notice a big difference yet personally. Today I fished straight braid on jerk baits and had no problem hooking up on fish. This being the first time this year fishing straight braid . I have yanked bass out of some heavily fished ponds which would be considered "pressured". Even watch a guy cry fishing shiners on lets say standard fishing line for this case since I dont know what he exactly had spooled in the sense of flouro, mono etc. about Turners pond ( a small pond in VA) being over fished and by the time he got to his car yanked a bass out in the same area he was fishing off of straight braid fishing a weightless soft plastic.  So just want some opinions on what you all believe when it comes to line? Are they line shy or not? 

[Turtle135]

I do not believe bass are line shy. However, I can see and feel the difference on certain lures by using lighter line, so the presentation is different with different lines.

[Deleted account]

15 minutes ago, InFishingWeTrust said:

Would like to hear opinions on if you believe fish are line shy or not. Heres is my view. I fished straight braid for years and for all apllications. I never had a problem catching fish. I believed if a fish is line shy they would be hook shy. This is the first year running leaders and honestly havent notice a big difference yet personally. Today I fished straight braid on jerk baits and had no problem hooking up on fish. This being the first time this year fishing straight braid . I have yanked bass out of some heavily fished ponds which would be considered "pressured". Even watch a guy cry fishing shiners on lets say standard fishing line for this case since I dont know what he exactly had spooled in the sense of flouro, mono etc. about Turners pond ( a small pond in VA) being over fished and by the time he got to his car yanked a bass out in the same area he was fishing off of straight braid fishing a weightless soft plastic.  So just want some opinions on what you all believe when it comes to line? Are they line shy or not? 

In my experience LMB are not line shy in the least.

[Cak920]

I have no idea. I like to use a fluoro leader just to make myself feel better but I often wondered if it makes much of a difference.

[InFishingWeTrust]

15 minutes ago, Turtle135 said:

I do not believe bass are line shy. However, I can see and feel the difference on certain lures by using lighter line, so the presentation is different with different lines.

I use power pros 20 lb which is suppose to be 6 lb mono equivalent. They make a 10 and a 8 lb braid which is suppose to be 2 lb abd 1lb mono equivalent. So there's some pretty light braid.  Do you notice a difference in presentations in different types of lines?

9 minutes ago, reason said:

In my experience LMB are not line shy in the least.

Same with SMB to me. Havent noticed a difference. 

9 minutes ago, Cak920 said:

I have no idea. I like to use a fluoro leader just to make myself feel better but I often wondered if it makes much of a difference.

Yeah I can understand that. Can see it being a confidence booster. 

[Turtle135]

2 minutes ago, InFishingWeTrust said:

I use power pros 20 lb which is suppose to be 6 lb mono equivalent. They make a 10 and a 8 lb braid which is suppose to be 2 lb abd 1lb mono equivalent. So there's some pretty light braid.  Do you notice a difference in presentations in different types of lines?

In the extreme consider how a finesse jig might fall to the bottom on 25 pound test monofilament compared to 8 pound test monofilament. With the heavier line the floating characteristics of mono and the increased drag will inhibit the free fall of the jig through the water column. With the 8 pound test the jig will fall relatively uninhibited, almost as it would fall if it was not tied to line at all.

 

Thin braid will get your crankbaits diving to maximum possible depth.

 

It is all something of a trade off. Lighter line can lead to break offs and braid and treble hooks are not a match made in heaven either.

 

[DINK WHISPERER]

If they have their polarized glasses on they can definitely see the line! ?

 

I use straight braid 90% of the time and have never had a problem catching em. 

[InFishingWeTrust]

4 minutes ago, DINK WHISPERER said:

If they have their polarized glasses on they can definitely see the line! ?

 

I use straight braid 90% of the time and have never had a problem catching em. 

When do you use other lines?

[greentrout]

Some of the State lakes I fish have visibility of 48". Use 8 and sometimes 6 test line -- mono. Come from the old school and downsize when appropriate...

[DINK WHISPERER]

21 minutes ago, InFishingWeTrust said:

When do you use other lines?

Mainly just leaders, when throwing big treble swimbaits and deep diving cranks. Either Abrazx fluoro or CXX. It's more to "soften" the harshness of the braid on the treble hooks than for visibility reasons. 

[Deleted account]

34 minutes ago, Turtle135 said:

In the extreme consider how a finesse jig might fall to the bottom on 25 pound test monofilament compared to 8 pound test monofilament. With the heavier line the floating characteristics of mono and the increased drag will inhibit the free fall of the jig through the water column. With the 8 pound test the jig will fall relatively uninhibited, almost as it would fall if it was not tied to line at all.

 

Thin braid will get your crankbaits diving to maximum possible depth.

 

It is all something of a trade off. Lighter line can lead to break offs and braid and treble hooks are not a match made in heaven either.

 

No doubt, The characteristics of a line will have an effect on the lure, and it can be the difference between catching and not catching based on several factors, but that's a different (and important) discussion.

[InFishingWeTrust]

7 minutes ago, greentrout said:

Some of the State lakes I fish have visibility of 48". Use 8 and sometimes 6 test line -- mono. Come from the old school and downsize when appropriate...

Heard of people doing that before. 

[Angry John]

3 hours ago, InFishingWeTrust said:

Heard of people doing that before. 

It's a thing in super clear water.  I did it a lot in Washington state.  Not so much in Tennessee. 

[Bluebasser86]

I've only ever seen a difference in super clear water, and that was still only during certain occasions. Those same fish in those same lakes will also hit an A-rig so hard that it about takes the rod out of your hands. If they were line shy, certainly they'd shy away from something like that. I still fish mono and flourocarbon, but not so much for visibility reasons. 

[Crestliner2008]

The late, great, father of structure fishing, Buck Perry, always said that he wanted the fish to see his line; it lead them straight to his lure! I agree entirely after spending many decades on the water. I do use a leader these days with all my braid main line reels, but not for the visibility aspect (or lack thereof). Rather I use fluorocarbon as a shock absorber as well as for abrasion resistance characteristics. JMO!

[soflabasser]

I recently caught a +7 pound, 24" bass as bycatch while fishing for freshwater tarpon and snook. I was using a 100 pound test mono leader( big snook have sharp gillplates that cut the line and tarpon tend to destroy braided line with no leader) and that bass did not care one bit. Have even caught big northern strain largemouth bass with a wire leader while muskie fishing. Rainbow trout seem to be much more warry of line and I caught more rainbow trout with 6 pound test mono compared to when I was using 12 pound test mono. 

[scaleface]

I think the more invisible the line the more bites  , especially in clear water  . Doesnt mean you still cant catch them on rope .  

[12poundbass]

IMO if fish were line shy fish nets wouldn't have been effective for 100's or 1000's of years. 

[mattkenzer]

Our lakes have a solid population of pickerel.

I see many anglers with a hook attached to a wire leader to prevent the pickerel from cutting the line.

They are Smallmouth fishing with success.

[InFishingWeTrust]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've only ever seen a difference in super clear water, and that was still only during certain occasions. Those same fish in those same lakes will also hit an A-rig so hard that it about takes the rod out of your hands. If they were line shy, certainly they'd shy away from something like that. I still fish mono and flourocarbon, but not so much for visibility reasons. 

That has crossed my mind about A rigs and the thick wire thats used. 

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

I think the more invisible the line the more bites  , especially in clear water  . Doesnt mean you still cant catch them on rope .  

Lmao. 

1 hour ago, 12poundbass said:

IMO if fish were line shy fish nets wouldn't have been effective for 100's or 1000's of years. 

True. 

1 hour ago, Crestliner2008 said:

The late, great, father of structure fishing, Buck Perry, always said that he wanted the fish to see his line; it lead them straight to his lure! I agree entirely after spending many decades on the water. I do use a leader these days with all my braid main line reels, but not for the visibility aspect (or lack thereof). Rather I use fluorocarbon as a shock absorber as well as for abrasion resistance characteristics. JMO!

I can see where that comes in to play

24 minutes ago, mattkenzer said:

Our lakes have a solid population of pickerel.

I see many anglers with a hook attached to a wire leader to prevent the pickerel from cutting the line.

They are Smallmouth fishing with success.

Yeah. I would be salty losing a bunch of lures to a fish Im not targeting. 

[Brad in Texas]

And, other than true issues like floating versus sinking rates, shock absorption, etc., it hasn't been that long since most of us fished straight monofilament. Nylon lines were a huge step forward, held on and dominated for decades. Then, the "others" appeared. But, monofilament lines in "clear" spools were essentially invisible.

 

But, leaders have been around for a very long time using very tough materials, heck wire, for catching toothy critters in salt water, so it was inevitable that we'd see leader usage expand once multiple line materials appeared and became commonplace.

 

My guess is fluorocarbon lines would have disappeared from every shelf in America in, what, about 15 minutes after someone first tried to fish it with a whole spool of it on their reels. Especially the first fluorocarbon lines. Other "benefits" had to be sold and one of them is its refractive index being close to that of water, that it was even more invisible in water than clear monofilaments. It is, but to what end? And, is it sort of over-sold to us? I think so.

 

So, still to this day, a lot of us use fluorocarbon as short leaders on braid mainlines. For sure, some use it as mainlines. I use a braid to fluorocarbon leader on my spinning tackle for better performance (on my end) and a more natural looking presentation (on the fish's end). The pros will often comment, Aaron Martens comes to mind, that he used an 8 lbs. fluoro leader on day 1 of a tournament, that he dropped to 6 lbs. the next day because fishing was tough, the bite slow. He was admitting that he wanted the 8 for its strength, less chance of losing a fish, that he dropped to 6 not so much regarding line visibility, both 6 and 8 are, after all, invisible, but to further influence the natural action of his presentation. Here, it does make a difference. That little worm floating around on a hook looks more natural on really light lines.

 

Other than that, I'm like most here and I don't think most fish, certainly not bass, really much care about line visibility, it is never much for any line in typical water tints, and you could fish straight braid or mono or fluoro with similar results depending on the effects of each on presentations.

 

Brad

[Choporoz]

I don't think much about whether bass can see my line.  However, I respect the opinions of those who do.  I think the variety of opinions of experienced fisherman and even biologists leads me to believe that we can't really know how much effect there is.  So, my overriding concern regarding line visibility is whether or not I can see the line.  When using worms and jigs, and such, all other factors being equal, I'm going to catch more fish with bright yellow line than I will with invisible line.

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, Choporoz said:

I'm going to catch more fish with bright yellow line than I will with invisible line.

Thats a smart way to do it . I like to use 17 lb test clear blue fluorescent mono on my worm rod because  i'm a line watcher . Most other applications on casting equip I use 12 lb green mono to best match the local water color . 

[2tall79]

Too many times I have fished with a guy in the backseat where one is catching and one isn't and the only difference is the line being used.  So yes, I do believe fish can be line shy.

[InFishingWeTrust]

2 hours ago, Brad in Texas said:

And, other than true issues like floating versus sinking rates, shock absorption, etc., it hasn't been that long since most of us fished straight monofilament. Nylon lines were a huge step forward, held on and dominated for decades. Then, the "others" appeared. But, monofilament lines in "clear" spools were essentially invisible.

 

But, leaders have been around for a very long time using very tough materials, heck wire, for catching toothy critters in salt water, so it was inevitable that we'd see leader usage expand once multiple line materials appeared and became commonplace.

 

My guess is fluorocarbon lines would have disappeared from every shelf in America in, what, about 15 minutes after someone first tried to fish it with a whole spool of it on their reels. Especially the first fluorocarbon lines. Other "benefits" had to be sold and one of them is its refractive index being close to that of water, that it was even more invisible in water than clear monofilaments. It is, but to what end? And, is it sort of over-sold to us? I think so.

 

So, still to this day, a lot of us use fluorocarbon as short leaders on braid mainlines. For sure, some use it as mainlines. I use a braid to fluorocarbon leader on my spinning tackle for better performance (on my end) and a more natural looking presentation (on the fish's end). The pros will often comment, Aaron Martens comes to mind, that he used an 8 lbs. fluoro leader on day 1 of a tournament, that he dropped to 6 lbs. the next day because fishing was tough, the bite slow. He was admitting that he wanted the 8 for its strength, less chance of losing a fish, that he dropped to 6 not so much regarding line visibility, both 6 and 8 are, after all, invisible, but to further influence the natural action of his presentation. Here, it does make a difference. That little worm floating around on a hook looks more natural on really light lines.

 

Other than that, I'm like most here and I don't think most fish, certainly not bass, really much care about line visibility, it is never much for any line in typical water tints, and you could fish straight braid or mono or fluoro with similar results depending on the effects of each on presentations.

 

Brad

Thanks for your input.