Blue Label Leader

[papajoe222]

Looking for a fluorocarbon line to use solely as leader. I've reconsidered my stance on using leaders with braid as I feel I may be missing out on bites in the clear waters up here and even if it only results in one or two more bites a day, those may be the only bites I get.

I've been a loyal user of Seaguar lines for quite a while now and recently converted to fluorocarbon for most of my presentations. I'd rather use a line designed for use as a leader than one made for use as a main line. As I only use braid to leader on my baitcasters, I'm not concerned with line diameter vs. lb. test, more with abrasion and knot strength. 

Is Blue Label a good choice and if there are others you feel may be better, pleas chime in?

[Jar11591]

I use Yo-Zuri HD Carbon 100% fluorocarbon leader material. Not meant to be used as a mainline, strictly leader material. It’s sold in spools of 20 or 30 yards. Never had a leader knot fail with it, and esox bite-offs are rare. It’s thick, abrasion-resistant and just what I want in a fluoro leader that never touches the spool. 
 

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/yo-zuri-hd-carbon-100-fluorocarbon-leader?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions&ds_e=GOOGLE&ds_c=BPS|Shopping|PMax|Fishing|HighMargin|NAud|Google|NMT&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD1TgteYf1PXHZC6nhTrqIlDdeLJn&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInu-eq7ytiwMVzkpHAR38mjKIEAQYASABEgLfx_D_BwE

[gim]

I use Blue Label as leader material on some of my setups.  Primarily because of its ability to mitigate pike and muskie cut offs.  I primarily use it when I am tossing presentations that pike notoriously love like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and crankbaits.

 

I use both 20 and 30 pound test.  Anything above that is too stiff to tie knots with.  Make sure you check the line frequently for damage, just like you would with any other type of fluorocarbon.  Its good until there's a weak spot.  I'll fully admit I sometimes get lazy doing this and then a pike takes advantage of that, and I get cut off.  Then profanity follows.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

The problem with purpose-built FC leader material is that it has significantly less memory, and manageability.     

 

Braid already has almost zero stretch, then when you add a leader material that also has very little stretch you end up with a pretty unforgiving combo imho.

 

FC Sniper or Invizx has excellent knot strength, good abrasion resistance, but most importantly has significantly more stretch in it than those leader lines.   Not to mention the cost of a whole spool of those lines vs. 25yds of leader material.   

 

Just something to think about.    

[johnmyers]

I used to use blue label and it’s pretty good but not near as good as gold label. Both are better than regular floro

[webertime]

Blue Label is fine.  Price per yard/ft isn't terribly different than a 200yd spool of Tatsu.  Grab a spool of that and you won't regret it.

[padlin]

I use Blue, no complaints, it does what I bought it for. I use it in spring when the water is crystal clear, and the rest of the year in pickerel waters. 8, 15, and 20, mostly the 15 and 20.

 

 

 

 

[papajoe222]

5 hours ago, webertime said:

Blue Label is fine.  Price per yard/ft isn't terribly different than a 200yd spool of Tatsu.  Grab a spool of that and you won't regret it.

For a main line, I'm on board the Tatsu train. I'm not concerned with line stretch as using a leader vs. straight braid, it really doesn't factor in. I did notice that Blue Label has a larger diameter than most fluoro main lines, but it's thinner than the YoZuri Jar11501 mentioned.

[newapti5]

7 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I'm not concerned with line diameter vs. lb. test, more with abrasion and knot strength. 

 

If you don't care much about line diameter, Seaguar STS leader may be a better choice than Blue Label. It's thicker but more abrasion resistant, and the price is a lot lower. Especially if you're using 15lb+ leader material, I believe STS and Blue Label have the same diameter for 15lb and up. 

[FishTank]

I use to use Blue Label.  It's not bad but I like Gold Label better. Blue Label was a little stiffer and didn't seem to last as long.  My favorite though from Seaguar is Grand Max and Grand Max FX. Grand Max checks all the boxes for me. I use it on spinning gear.  FX is sort of the same but it has a little more stretch.  I like it for casting gear, especially jigs. Knot strength on both is great. 

 

Another to try is Daiwa Saltiga Xlink.  Great leader even though it's meant for saltwater.  

[Brian11719]

Funny I found myself in a similar boat today (I fish a lot around grass and have been noticing more line breaks recently) and looking at leader alternatives. I did see a lot of people have suggested Seaguar Gold on this site and I realize you probably get you pay for (at least to some extent) when it comes to this stuff...but that said getting 1.5yards of leader per dollar I spend seems a bit pricey to me.

 

FWIW I had been using InvizX 10lb and while it's a decent line and seems to hold up ok in open water I'm realizing it's just not enough for a couple of the spots I fish the most.

 

Seaguar blue label seems a little less expensive but even that is still about 2.5 yards per dollar which still seems high to me.

 

Other alternatives I'm looking into are Daiwa J-Fluoro (based on some comments I found in a post from a couple of years ago), Spro Gouken and Strike King Tour Grade.

 

The last 2 aren't leader lines but the price on them is much better (6-8 yards of line per dollar) and I am considering those based on a video I remembered that Tyler Berger posted in his channel a while back here. I actually thought this was a pretty cool video in terms of the tests he came up with and the thoroughness of them.

 

That said I don't have any experience with using either Strike King Tour Grade or Spro Gouken as a leader (yet) but this video did get me to try 15lb YGK G-Soul (as well as a couple of other lines) and I ended up really liking that one as a main line on my casting setups. Also considered that one for a leader candidate but the Strike King, Spro and Daiwa lines look like they might be a bit better in terms of abrasion resistance and line strength in general which is what I'm after at the moment.

 

Think I might end up trying Strike King to start out with...might try to remember this post and come back to it  when I've had some time with it but that could be a while...

 

[johnmyers]

The thing I saw going from blue label to gold label other than being better line is knot strength being much better especially in braid to floro with Alberto knot. If you do Alberto right they don’t break as they do occasionally with blue, tatsu and abrazx

[txchaser]

Seaguar weighed in a while back and said Tatsu is the same tech and forming process as their leaders, and it seemed like they were in support of using it as a leader too. But blue or gold label is probably better in really rough environments as the outer shell seems tougher. Maybe pickier on knots with the stiffness though.