Why leader with braid?

[Talio]

For me, it's just a confidence thing and the way I fish.  I prefer to have as few rods as I can get away with and I jump around to a lot of different water, whenever I can get out, which is normally weekends.  I live in a highly populated area so the pressure is immense.  I don't know who was on the water the day before throwing what and I'm never sure what the visibility is going to be like when I show up.  I just don't have time, money or space to have a rig for every condition.  So I choose fluoro for both my spin and caster.  I get plenty of feel and the whole idea of line visibility just gets thrown out of the window.  Also, fluoro sinks and I just personally like to fish a bottom presentation.  I know a lot of folks like to let their baits fall slowly, but I want mine right on the bottom so I can feel for things.  I don't have electronics on my skiff yet, so this is more or less how I'm feeling around in deep water for structure.  Plus, my finesse rigs are very light (think 1/16th oz Texas Rig more or less) and I've had situations where it struggles to sink the braid.  It's just not the presentation I want.

 

I would also bet that the folks who like throwing fluoro probably do a lot of trout fishing where line visibility is a key component to success.  I personally just can't shake that concept.  I get to fish so infrequently that I need to know my line isn't a factor.  With fluoro, I know that my line is going to be a minimal factor.

 

It does twist though.  I've started spooling Rio 2x fluoroflex onto my spin rods because you get 12lbs breaking strength with 6lbs diameter.  Fly fishing tippet is made to higher quality standards, so I've been able to horse fish out of some pretty thick cover limited really only by me reel speed and it doesn't twist.  Haven't found a solution yet to the baitcaster, but I get way less twist on that setup for whatever reason just using regular Pline.  When I used 8lbs Pline on my spinning reel though, it's Twist City.

[moguy1973]

Braid also lasts a lot longer than mono or fluorocarbon lines, even so once the butt end has reached its usable life, you can unspool it and re-spool it in reverse and use the spool end of the line for the butt end for another few years.  It's wise to respool mono and fluorocarbon every year due to degradation from heat and sunlight.  Using a leader, as said above, lets you maintain the low visibility of mono and fluoro while still getting the sensitivity and castiblity of braid.

 

That said, I have converted to straight braid on most of my rigs as I don't like having to mess with tying on a leader and have to worry about another knot to fail.  I haven't seen a loss of bites using straight braid.  My belief is if bass will bite an Alabama Rig with those big thick wires, they won't care if the bait is tied on with braid.

[Steveo-1969]

I don't think anyone has mentioned "ease of breaking off" as a reason to use a leader on your braid.

 

I used braided line on my spinning rods because of line manageability. Line twist doesn't affect it like mono or fluoro, it casts well and it lasts for years. But I fish a shallow rocky river and get snagged frequently. Having a mono or fluoro leader makes it easier to break off than trying to break braided line.

 

If I'm fishing somewhere that I'm not as worried about getting snagged I will fish with straight braid.

[JustJames]

As a lot of mentioned here,

Braid help in line management, cast further and smaller reel can be use effectively. Also you can get away with higher line rate compare to mono/FC (10lb braid is normal on spinning but you gonna have a hard time with 10lb FC).

Leader is help with abrasions where thin braid wouldn’t withstand a chance around rock. I don’t care much about visibility of braid vs mono, because you are gonna be using 10-15braid with diameter of 2-4lb mono line.

[shimanoangler]

On 9/2/2020 at 8:46 AM, Hook2Jaw said:

It's a sword every which way one could imagine, and it will cut you on occasion until it becomes second nature.  Research techniques, ask questions here, and practice what you learn.

 

I suggested braid to leader to you because you have a limited amount of rods and reels and if you're like many anglers, you're going to want to use multiple presentations if you're not at the point already.

 

My fine-tuned advice is to disregard every connection knot except the FG, or Fine Grip knot.  It is stronger than most, if not all other knots, and the slim nature of the connection will help prevent damage to the guides on your rod as well as aid in cast distance because of the way it will pass through your guides.

 

Use the appropriate line size for the cover and technique you're employing.  My first recommendation for your setup is removing the 20# braid.  It will probably be more headache than it's worth, because it will fray or plainly break much sooner than a heavier braid and the increased casting distance you'll occasionally enjoy will be negligible.

 

My favorite braid has become Berkley X9, and if I were setting up a MH casting combo with braid to leader in mind I would opt for 40 pound.  This line stacks on the FG wraps incredibly well, has no break in period for me, and is just good, affordable braid, period.

 

With the mainline out of the way, you'll need to know what line for which techniques.  Here are my other recommendations.

 

Frogs : this setup can handle a top water frog and will get a fish out of most slop and cover.  Tie your frog directly to the braid.

 

Topwater : heavier poppers, whopper poppers, walking baits.  Tie a 15# monofilament leader onto the end of the braid with the FG knot.  The stiffer leader will keep the limber braid from tangling on the hooks and fouling your cast.  Why monofilament?  It floats and won't drag the nose of your bait under the water.

 

Single Hook Moving Baits : these are spinnerbaits, paddle tail swimbaits, chatterbaits, swimjigs, etc.  Tie on a fluorocarbon leader between 10-17# depending on cover.  With swimjigs and paddletails rigged with a weighted swimbait hook in and around vegetation, straight braid is probably the preferable option.  Monofilament is also viable for the aforementioned moving baits in the same line sizes.

 

Treble Hook Moving Baits : crankbaits, jerkbaits, wakebaits and more fall into this category.  10-17# monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders, with mono leaders being my personal preference for trembles because of the additional stretch to prevent trebles from tearing free from the fish.

 

Single Hook Bottom Contact Baits : 10-17 fluorocarbon leaders depending on the cover you'll be fishing in.  These are jigs, worms, etc.

 

One last thing, I don't often see it mentioned here often, but scale up your line or scale down your line depending on the size of your hook.

 

As @A-Jay says, your mileage may vary.  I'm sure my post will be disagreed as well as agreed with, but this is the best advice I can give for a person with one rig to enable them to fish multiple presentations with a level of fine tuning that doesn't involve buying a new rod for every single application.

 

Go put some hooks to jaws!

Exactly what he said!!  

[Fin S]

I use 20# braid on my baitcasters and only occasionally have issues with line bite, etc. Since you've already got the 20# on your reel, you might want to give it a try before scrapping it.

[DaubsNU1]

For what it's worth:  I started fishing braid back in the early to mid 90's...still have some bait-casters spooled with Fenwick Iron Thread from that time frame...can't wear it out. Really like the sensitivity and durability of braid. Only problem I have run in to is the color fading and becoming more "white." To combat this i picked up some color markers in dark green.  Seems to work...I'm still catching fish. 

 

I'm running Iron Thread 40lb, Power Pro 20lb, Spider wire braid 30lb...all seem to do okay. The 20lb does backlash a little more...a few adjustments to the reel and my technique have greatly reduced the problem. 

 

I even have one medium-heavy spinning rod spooled with braid...it's my Slug-Go rod. Casts great, no line twist, super sensitive...rock-solid hook-sets : ) 

 

Spooled my newest spinning rod with 10lb floro...does seem more sensitive than mono, but the line twist is driving me nuts. It's coming off soon...going back to Trilene XL. 

[gim]

I use straight braid directly to the lure on some of my presentations and I use a fluro leader of various length on some of my other (finesse) presentations.  I usually have 30 pound braid on my bait casters.  Lately, pike have been snipping it right off, which I didn't think was likely to happen using braided line but evidently can.  I don't want to use a wire leader because it affects the action on some lures.  So I've been trying a 12 inch section of 20 pound seaguar flurocarbon which someone said is the thickest fluro I could tie good knots with and still won't affect the action of the lure.

 

I tried it this past weekend and caught bass.  It also got tested against the teeth of the ravenous pike as I piled into two of them over 30 inches and everything held up.