Braid with leader no more

[Ravox]

So im from Florida and and met a lot of fisherman at lakes and ponds that i go that don't use leader at all and catch fish one after another, which makes me believe that a use of the leader is the typical case that we are overthinking too much and giving too much credit to the fish (specially vision) how can they never cared with heavy wire 4/0 and 5/0 hooks and the will care about a line?

 

2 of them said they fished in clearwater and got fish without any issue at all and one was a very experienced old fisherman that said the leader necessity is only for some saltwater techniques bass just don't care.

 

So what exactly is true about that, i never liked a leader and never changed to braid because a hated the knots and the feeling on the guide, if that is the case maybe i should change to straight braid for once since i'm having sensitivity issues with Yo Zuri hybrid (can't feel any bite and i'm gut hooking some fish)

 

Anybody here that don't use leaders on braid and have success too?  and what color is the best? 

 

I know that is a common question around , but i really want to know more opinions about that specially the idea that sometimes we give the fish too much credit.

 

 

[The Maestro]

I run straight braid on everything but my drop shot setup. I use yellow and green Power Pro. Lately I haven't even bothered to color the last few feet of the yellow. 

[Hammer 4]

Ravox, why not give braid a try, if you catch fish, stick with it, if not, then go to whatever works for you.

[Choporoz]

I use braid to leader quite a bit, not always...but often....however,  I am not at all concerned that bass are line-shy.

 

-My leaders are more abrasion resistant than my braid

-When I have to break off....I can.....and I don't lose any braid

-When I change baits, I still have a full spool of braid

[roadwarrior]

[Bass Junke]

Sometime last year Glenn replied to a post similar to this one. He replied "I never use braid on spinning gear and don't use leaders." Right around the same time I had tried a new connection knot that failed. I was left with a piggy tail so I tied it wrong. Glenn's comment was all the inspiration I needed to move away from braid on spinning gear and leaders. I have not looked back. 

[Scott F]

I started fishing with braid many years ago and didn’t know you were “supposed” to use a leader until a few years ago when I signed up here. I’ve never been out fished by guys by because they were using a leader and I wasn’t.

[Dens228]

I use braid for everything.  I use a mono leader for dropshotting, and I use a mono leader on treble baits, not for line shyness, but because the mono is a little less limp than braid and I get less hook fouling. 

Nothing else gets a leader and the majority of my fishing is in clear water quarries. 

[Kev-mo]

I use braid for everything also, just adjust the drag for trebles vs. single hook etc. 

The times I do think a leader can be beneficial is for a drop shot/finesse or when fishing toothy critters.

For the drop shot I think it's more about fall rate and bait positioning when using fluoro as opposed to fish not seeing the line. Seems like heavy fluoro has been shown to be a good leader as we all know teeth can slice braid.

 

[waymont]

I use both leader and without leader on my setups. There are benefits to using leaders.

Abrasion resistance

Rate of fall

less hook fouling

 

 

[moguy1973]

I'm slowly transitioning to everything straight braid.  Once my P-Line Premium CX is done on my rods it is on I'm putting Power Pro Super Slick on everything.  It's such a good braided line that is easy to manage.  I haven't seen a decrease in the number of fish I catch since I started using straight braid, even in the clearest of lakes and rivers.  The way I look at it, if a bass is going to eat an Alabama rig with all those thick wires on it, they won't care about a visible line attached to a bait.

[Ravox]

1 hour ago, Bass Junke said:

Sometime last year Glenn replied to a post similar to this one. He replied "I never use braid on spinning gear and don't use leaders." Right around the same time I had tried a new connection knot that failed. I was left with a piggy tail so I tied it wrong. Glenn's comment was all the inspiration I needed to move away from braid on spinning gear and leaders. I have not looked back. 

And what exactly do you use them? fluro?

And what do you guys think of braid for Texas Rig is a good option?

[Ravox]

My main concert here is sensibility i need to feel those bites specially on a texas rig, since i mostly use spinning gear im between 15lb Braid or 7lb fluro 

 

Not sure yet what is the best options for me 

[Tizi]

I use braid for heavy applications only:  frogging and flipping (pitching too if heavy cover), no leader. Mono or flouro for everything else including spinning gear.

[the reel ess]

If you don't know whether you want to use braid or not, try putting on a braid leader. If it doesn't affect your bites, just spool up with braid. But I still use cheap mono for backing when I use braid. I have gone back and forth on this issue. I use straight braid on frogs. I use braid on my spinning rods, usually with a leader. I use 50# braid with a 20# mono leader on jigs. I don't know if it makes any difference at all as far as number of bites. I imagine a bass can see heavy mono almost as well as braid. But I cast the jig into some gnarly cover and on the rare occasions that I have to break one off, I'd rather not break 50# braid. That's hard to do from a kayak and usually I end up trying to cut braid with a pair of pliers. I've had to wrap it around my flip flop to hold it to break it off. Not ideal.

47 minutes ago, Ravox said:

And what exactly do you use them? fluro?

And what do you guys think of braid for Texas Rig is a good option?

Another reason to use a leader is ease of retying. Braid is not easy to thread through small bullet weights. I don't think you could get it through a Carolina Keeper. I had to break off a jig recently and it broke at the leader knot. I lost all the mono and didn't have any in the kayak. I had to retie straight braid on a new jig. I had a hard time just getting the braid in the eye of my brush jig. I made up a knot because I couldn't get the line through the eye twice for a palomar knot. 

[Ravox]

17 minutes ago, Tizi said:

I use braid for heavy applications only:  frogging and flipping (pitching too if heavy cover), no leader. Mono or flouro for everything else including spinning gear.

the fluro you use on spinning how many lbs?

[basser27]

34 minutes ago, Ravox said:

the fluro you use on spinning how many lbs?

No more than 8, preferably 6. I personally would be fishing 6-8lb mono if I wasn’t fishing braid 

[Ravox]

6 minutes ago, basser27 said:

No more than 8, preferably 6. I personally would be fishing 6-8lb mono if I wasn’t fishing braid 

do you think for texas rig fluro makes more sense than braid? higher sensibility? 

[basser27]

3 minutes ago, Ravox said:

do you thing for texas rig fluro makes more sense than braid? higher sensibility? 

I don’t use fluoro, it has poor knot strength and poor manageability on spinning reels. Some guys like it I don’t. But yes I would prefer a single filament line (mono or fluoro) over braid for Texas rigging aslong as I’m not fishing in heavy grass. i fish 15lb berkley big game for Texas rigs and 50lb braid in heavy grass

[king fisher]

Fish have no problem biting a lure tied to straight braid.  The fish don't care what kind of line you use.  Each line has advantages depending on technique and angler preference.  If you don't like the way braid tangles on treble hooks , then add a leader, switch to mono, change the way you cast, or decide you can live with the tangles.  Each anger has to decide how they want to balance the advantages and disadvantages of each line.

     I use all three types of line solo, as well as braid to leader, depending on the technique, and water conditions.  I have many reasons for using each, and change my opinion on what line is best as often as a politician changes promises.   I am the one that prefers one line over another.  The fish will bite the lure if presented in the right manner.  They don't care what line I use. 

[Bird]

Only time I use leaders is for finesse fishing in gin clear water, straight braid " Power pro "for everything else, spinning and casting gear. 

 

My preferred method of catching bass during hot summer months is weightless Senko on straight 20lb braid.

The braid floats and is very sensitive and you can actually see the line burst forward as the fish inhales the bait.

Using straight braid does however require a fine tune of the drag system. 

 

Braid complaints:

 

Guide wrapping  - line screech during retrieve  - attraction to front treble  - avoid getting hung or have scissors ready. 

 

Find your preferred line and have fun. 

 

 

[FryDog62]

I don’t think moving lures for largemouth need a leader, braid is fine in most cases.  
 

However I have been out-fished in scenarios with live bait or slower moving finesse lures especially for smallmouth or walleyes.  They are more visual feeders and I use leaders or fish straight co-poly/fluoro then.  

[Dminor9]

I have used nothing but straight braid for over ten years now. I have never used a leader of any type. I use a braid ready spinning reel loaded with 10# Power Pro in green. I have never had a problem tying a Palomar knot on any lure, jig, or hook, and never had a knot failure. IMHO, it just seems with a leader, there is just more knots to fail and more gear to buy. Line is just like rods, reels, fish finders, lures, etc, it is just a matter of personal preference. 

[Tatsu Dave]

8 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

I don’t think moving lures for largemouth need a leader, braid is fine in most cases.  
 

However I have been out-fished in scenarios with live bait or slower moving finesse lures especially for smallmouth or walleyes.  They are more visual feeders and I use leaders or fish straight co-poly/fluoro then.  

OK that post above I quoted I agree with 100% When my son was using braid line on everything and I was clear flouro on everything we both noticed the fluro caught more and especially bigger fish with same lures and techniques on same boat. Enough that he changed to same dia. fluro and now its a coin toss who will do better each trip. I agree with anglers thru the years that used light small diameter line with no hardware that the fish could see.....them ol' brown fish are pretty good at spotting line

[Bass Junke]

5 hours ago, Ravox said:

And what exactly do you use them? fluro?

And what do you guys think of braid for Texas Rig is a good option?

I have 2 spinning set ups. After I took the braid off I put 8lb co-polymer (P-line Foroclear) and just to see if it was as bad as stated, 8lb Sunline Sniper FC florocarbon. I don't buy into the whole floro invisibility thing, just don't think it is that important. 

So both the floro and co-poly I had almost no issues with (the floro was a little springy for the first trip. After that it settled down). Now because I do not use leaders I have since re-spooled these reels. On them now is 6lb P-line CXX co-poly and P-line 8lb CX co-poly. No issues. 

Now I do lots of line management. After 1 or 2 trips I peel off 150 feet of line and stretch it and run it through my fingers looking for kinks, nicks, ect. I believe I would have many more issues if I did not do this.