Do we go a little overboard with the fluoro leaders?

[everythingthatswims]

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.

 

When I have tried jig fishing with 50lb braid to 20lb fluoro, I break off too many fish on the hookset. That being said, the best jig fisherman I have ever fished with (he kicks my butt OFTEN) fishes exclusively that setup. He and I have very different hooksets, and that is why the braid works for him and not for me.

[ww2farmer]

I am firmly in the braid to FC leader camp, and none of these stories of "leader knots create a weak point" or "fluorocarbon is weak and fragile" hold water with me.  I have YEARS of exp. using it,  untold number of hours on the water actually catching big fish, and cashing in or winning tournaments with my sets ups to tell me other wise.

 

If you have problems with the braid to leader knot, or with the leader breaking your either:

 

#1 tying bad leader knots 

 

or

 

#2 using garbage fluoro as leader material

 

or both....period.

 

That being said, I do not use fluoro as main line on ANY of my reels....100% braid, 100% of the time. 10lb on spinning reels, and 20,30, and 50 on casting reels depending on application. The only time I use straight braid is frogging, top water, or punching very thick very shallow grass.....in deeper grass I use a heavy leader.

[TOXIC]

I'm in the no leader camp and have tried both.  As for the fish seeing the line then how do you explain spinnerbaits with thick metal arms and A-Rigs with more wire than a telephone closet?    I am a firm believer in confidence though and you should throw what you have confidence in.  

[soflabasser]

Flourocarbon line is not 100% invisible under water and anyone with decent vision can see flourocarbon line in a cup of clear water. Bass often bite out of instinct (reaction bite) and that helps explain how there are lots of people fishing with strait 50-80 pound braid and they catch +8 pounders with plenty of 4-7 pounders in the mix in waters many would consider clear. As I stated earlier I have lost count of the +24 inch bass I have caught on strait braid in clear bodies of water, so I got real life experience on this subject, not something I read online, in a book, or regurgitating something a tournament fisherman told me to do. I use the uni to uni knot for my leaders and a uni knot or Rapala knot when tying the lure. As for the quality of my knots, I have caught +150 pound sharks on 30 pound test braid mainline (with a mono top shot and wire leader to prevent line being cut from teeth) so I think its safe to say my knots are done quite well.

[Jason Penn]

I have tried the braid/leader thing now multiple times, and just doesnt work for me. Straight fc is just more sensitive to me the way I fish. I do believe braid is more sensitive on tight line, but I dont seem to fish that fast with bottom bouncing lures.

 

I had a few years where I was unable to fish due to financial reasons. Prior to that, I used 8# fc on a 2000-sized Daiwa without much problems at all. Now I cant seem to get a high priced fc to work well on a 3000-sized reel!!! Not sure what Im doing different now.

[MickD]

8 hours ago, soflabasser said:

I have also noticed that flourocarbon is much more fragile fishing line than monofilament and that flourocarbon tends to break at the knot much more often than mono does. Have been using Big Game mono for leader material and have been very happy with the knot strength, shock resistance, and abrasion resistance it provides over fluorocarbon lines.

I'll try Big Game mono-easier to find than hard mono leader material.

[mattkenzer]

Spinning Reels

• Main Line - 10lb and 15lb braid
• Leader - Fluoro or Maxima Mono 100% of time - which one depends on the situation.

Casting Reels

• Main Line - 30lb, 40lb and 50lb Braid
• Main Line - 15lb Big Game Mono
• Leader - Maxima Mono 100% of time on 30lb and 40lb Braid.

 

Pickerel carry Boomerang Snips .....

[webertime]

For me and I would assume many northern guys...  The wind...  wind knots and the wind catching the braid is a huge pain when fishing a drop shot or shaky head.  The wind simply does not catch and drag Flouro or Mono like it does braid.  I do the Aaron Martins type leader, 30ft of 7 or 8lb Flouro then braid, I'll replace once the leader gets to about 12ft.  I agree that the line visibility issue is more often than not overblown.    

 

The guy that just won the BASS Open on Champlain is a good buddy of mine, his drop shot set up is a Shakespheare rod with straight braid...

 

It's all about confidence.

[FryDog62]

The great compromise line that I have used is.... drum roll...

 

Sunline FC Flippin Fluorocarbon:  

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Sunline_Flippin_FC_Fluorocarbon_Line_200_yd/descpage-FC.html

 

Here’s why - -

You have 30 inches of clear line followed by 12 inches of bright yellow.  Tie the 30 inches at the hook for invisibility, and the high viz is above for you to see.  You get a line that sinks uniformly and no leader knots to fail. 

 

The only downside side is that the smallest lb test it comes in is 16.  If it came in 8-12 I would also use for a variety of applications besides flipping including wacky rigs, dock skipping, etc.  

[Yumeya]

Braid to fluorocarbon for me.

 

I fish deep rock structure most the time and if I get a snag I would rather lose my leader then have to cut a ton of braid off, also most of the time my knot will brake at the bait, my leader knots are simply amazing (fg knot) 

 

There is no weak link with my FG knot, its amazing.

 

But I see no problem fishing mono as a leader or strait braid, I have done both and have not had any problems 

catching fish.

[Caliyak]

On 8/24/2018 at 7:47 PM, Glaucus said:

I've been a big believer in fluoro leaders, especially braid to fluoro, due to everything we're told about the near invisibility factor. It's always worked for me, so no questions asked. However, for the better part of the summer I've been pretty much exclusively fishing rivers for smallies with the Ned Rig using braid to fluoro. If I'm not in the yak or in a position to wade, I lose a lot of rigs because of rocks and debris, especially at the dams. It's been a giant pain in the butt having to retie leaders on top of having to retie the rigs. Eventually I said screw it and put straight 8lb straight mono on (pops the bait free easier than braid) and noticed zero difference in numbers and size, from the dark muddy water of the dams to the clear green tea water down stream where you can see every rock, fish, and stick on the bottom. So I ordered my Ned Rig specific setup (Fenwick Eagle ML/F with a President 25) and decided to go with 6lb Yozuri. It's been beautiful. So do we put too much stock and focus on the supposed necessity of fluoro leaders? I'm thinking so. I can see it making a difference in some places under some conditions, I guess. I went to a crystal clear pond with a couple of friends yesterday and fished Senkos on straight braid with no leader and didn't notice a darn bit of difference either. I don't want to cut fluoro out of my equation necessarily, but it is nice seeing no difference and being able to skip that step of tying the leader.

Fluoro sucks, plain and simple LOL

[NYWayfarer]

No leaders for me.

 

This season I have been fishing Suffix Elite 8lb mono on my spinning reels and Kastking Fluorokote 12lb or Berkley Big Game 10 and 12lb on my baitcasters.

[evilcatfish]

Personally, I've gotten away from leaders and pretty much run straight mono, floro, or braid.  I'm really OCD when it comes to knots, and having both connecting and line to lure knots is too much for me to handle. I definitely recognize the advantage leaders can offer, but when I use them I spend more time fiddling with line than fishing haha

[MickD]

My double uni's are tied well, and I've spent a fortune on FC trying to make it work.  Maybe junk FC costs a fortune. 

 

To be a little clearer about the failures I've had in the FC side of the double uni, it is after the rig has been used quite a bit.  If I retie every time I go fishing I know I will not get the failures with FC, because they don't occur right away.

 

The FC is more fragile than mono under these conditions.  Period  :-)

[everythingthatswims]

12 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

I am firmly in the braid to FC leader camp, and none of these stories of "leader knots create a weak point" or "fluorocarbon is weak and fragile" hold water with me.  I have YEARS of exp. using it,  untold number of hours on the water actually catching big fish, and cashing in or winning tournaments with my sets ups to tell me other wise.

 

If you have problems with the braid to leader knot, or with the leader breaking your either:

 

#1 tying bad leader knots 

 

or

 

#2 using garbage fluoro as leader material

 

or both....period.

 

That being said, I do not use fluoro as main line on ANY of my reels....100% braid, 100% of the time. 10lb on spinning reels, and 20,30, and 50 on casting reels depending on application. The only time I use straight braid is frogging, top water, or punching very thick very shallow grass.....in deeper grass I use a heavy leader.

[Team9nine]

Interesting and timely that Randy Blaukat just posted his thoughts on this exact subject over on his FB page, and the ensuing discussion in the comments section pretty much reads just like this thread... 

[Glaucus]

9 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Interesting and timely that Randy Blaukat just posted his thoughts on this exact subject over on his FB page, and the ensuing discussion in the comments section pretty much reads just like this thread... 

Bout time I get one step ahead of the pros 

[soflabasser]

11 hours ago, MickD said:

I'll try Big Game mono-easier to find than hard mono leader material.

I have been very happy with Big game mono for both leader material and for applications where I fish with only mono. There are other good brands of mono out there but I find no need to change when I am already having great results. If it aint broke don't fix it!

13 hours ago, TOXIC said:

I'm in the no leader camp and have tried both.  As for the fish seeing the line then how do you explain spinnerbaits with thick metal arms and A-Rigs with more wire than a telephone closet?    I am a firm believer in confidence though and you should throw what you have confidence in.  

The bass definitely see the wire arms on spinnerbaits, a-rigs,and hooks just like they see flourocarbon under water. You are right confidence is extremely important in bass fishing, and some guys get confidence fishing a ''invisible'' line like flourocarbon even if its not invisible.

[soflabasser]

10 hours ago, webertime said:

It's all about confidence.

Yup you got that right! Confidence is very important in bass fishing and I have 100% confidence in my ability to catch big bass with strait braid in clear water. I don't even bother weighing bass anymore if I feel they are under 9 pounds, that should give you a idea how good I did bass fishing this Summer with strait braid.

[Mobasser]

I have used a leader, but prefer not to.One lake I fish has very clear water, and I like mono better- I just drop down a little in lb test. I havnt seen any difference in numbers or size. Plus I like one knot only

[everythingthatswims]

6 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Interesting and timely that Randy Blaukat just posted his thoughts on this exact subject over on his FB page, and the ensuing discussion in the comments section pretty much reads just like this thread... 

Braid and leaders may be a touchier subject than c&r when it comes to bass fishermen, it gets us in the feels. Justin Lucas made a video talking about braid and a leader for flippin and people went nuts over it, he said he knew they would though!

[Todd2]

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.

[Hook2Jaw]

I am surprised at the amount of people here saying that fluoro sucks for knot strength, break strength, etc.  I use 10, 14, and 17# BERKLEY VANISH, of all things, and I hear bad stuff about that line all the time.  I've landed tons of fish that were between 7-11 pounds in the last year on the general consensus worst fluoro ever without issue.  This is crankbaits, texas/carolina, and jig fishing.

 

I'm doing it with a lazy butt improved clinch rather than the superior Palomar for fluorocarbon.

 

I haven't broken off a fish in god knows when, and the only time I do break off is when I'm snagged.  This is the absolute truth.

 

I think you guys are burning your line.  Slobber more and tighten less.

 

As far as folks mad with leader connection, learn the FG.  Tied correctly, that knot does not fail.  Your leader will break before the FG everytime, and that's catching everything in inshore saltwater around me.  Redfish, seatrout, and even a king mackerel last year in NC.

[fishwizzard]

On 8/27/2018 at 9:00 AM, FryDog62 said:

The great compromise line that I have used is.... drum roll...

 

Sunline FC Flippin Fluorocarbon:  

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Sunline_Flippin_FC_Fluorocarbon_Line_200_yd/descpage-FC.html

 

Here’s why - -

You have 30 inches of clear line followed by 12 inches of bright yellow.  Tie the 30 inches at the hook for invisibility, and the high viz is above for you to see.  You get a line that sinks uniformly and no leader knots to fail. 

 

The only downside side is that the smallest lb test it comes in is 16.  If it came in 8-12 I would also use for a variety of applications besides flipping including wacky rigs, dock skipping, etc.  

There is this line if you want the same idea in finesse sizes;

[FryDog62]

2 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

There is this line if you want the same idea in finesse sizes;

Thx fishwizzard.  Now if they could just come out with something that’s fluorocarbon (sink rate) and in the 8-12 lb range.  Seems like Sunline is above and below the sweet spot for bass fishing - but they have the right idea!