Do we go a little overboard with the fluoro leaders?

[Team9nine]

On 8/27/2018 at 12:03 AM, everythingthatswims said:

What I forgot to mention in my post is that I am talking about spinning tackle in terms of braid and a leader, since the OP was talking spinning gear. All of my spinning rods have 10lb braid, and I will fish 6-12lb fluoro leaders depending on the application. The only time I could see myself using straight FC on a spinning reel would be very deep drop shot fishing, the big boys in Waddington were in a situation where that could make a difference over braid to leader, fishing in 20-50+' in strong current. FC has much less resistance on the water since it sinks and is dense, so you have better contact with the bait. Problem is, FC has a bad attitude when you put it on a spinning reel!

 

I use straight fluoro and straight braid on all but one of my baitcasters. I would say 80-90% of my baitcaster fishing is with FC. Rarely do I fish with braid, when I do I am probably frog fishing, or dropping a texas rig in heavy vegetation. I will put on a mono leader for topwaters with treble hooks, but that is just to keep the line out of the hooks. I never use braid with a leader for things such as a t-rig/jig, always straight fluoro somewhere in the 12-20lb ballpark.

^^This exactly^^

 

Braid is of very limited practical use on my baitcasters

?

[Glenn]

Two things:

1. I don't use leaders.  Ever.
2. Braid is for specific purposes, and is not for everything.  I use it for flipping/pitching/frogging and sometimes big baits like swimbaits.

[soflabasser]

16 hours ago, Todd2 said:

I never use leaders. I do darken about a rod's length of hi viz braid with a marker but even that is probably more for me than the fish.

 

Your post reminds me of one my fishing mentors. He would use a permanent marker to darken the first couple feet of braid and told me he has caught more big bass doing this than letting the braid fade. His PB bass is almost 15 pounds (much bigger than most tournament angler's pb bass) and he has albums full of big bass that he caught from clear, weedy lakes with strait braid. He did not like to use leaders. I don't darken my braid anymore but I do follow the other lessons he taught me.

[GateToWire]

I have 10-15 lbs Daiwa J Braid on my spinning rods and use 6-10 lbs fluro leaders on all of them.

I only use the Braid because of castability and line management on my spinning rods

 

On casting it's Sufix 832 with a Sufix Mono leader. Same reason....I can cast braid further and it is easier to manage. Mono leaders for some stretch and ability to land fish

Cranking is all straight fluro...12 lbs Sniper Assassin for both Shallow and deep cranking