Steel Leaders! Help!

[B-o-b]

Alright. I go bass fishing at my cabin in northern Minnesota a few times per year. I never use a steel leader but everytime i go i get one or two (expensive to me) spinnerbaits bit off by a northern. Now my question is that if i do use a steel leader, will it turn off potential hits from largemouth?

[MNGeorge]

My son uses a steel leader on all his hard baits, cranks, topwaters and spinnerbaits.  I rarely use one.  He gets just as many hits as I do, so I would say use the leader if you don't want to risk losing a spinnerbait or two.

[Max-in-Mn]

Heh, I have the exact same problem! If I use braid I am all good, but I wanted to try mono on my spinnerbait/crankbait rod so I put on some 14lb XL. Bad idea. Lost 2 lures to those little snakes right away and that was enough. I'm not sure I want to resort to a steel leader, so for now I'm going to try some tougher mono like Big Game or XT. What lake is the cabin on?

[-ebby-]

i don't think it would be a problem but you might wanna try fireline instead because the leaders kink which can hurt the action

[basser89]

A few years back, I was getting a good bit of action on the muskies on Ledgebuster spinnerbaits. I started using leaders with them to keep them from cutting me off. Since the Ledgebusters are the R bend style, I put a split ring over the R bend and then added the steel leader. The split ring kept the leader in postion. To help keep the visibilty down, you may want to give a hard mono or fluro leader a shot. Just my $.02.

[B-o-b]

To Max-In-MN

the lake is called Lake Washburn in Outing

its about 30 minutes south of Leech Lake

[Marty]

I've used leaders frequently and haven't been able to detect any deterrent effect for bass.

I wouldn't trust a non-metal leader. Maybe ultra-heavy line is harder to bite off, I don't know, but I've had 14# superlines bit off by dink pike where they went through the line like a hot knife through butter.

[basser89]

I've used leaders frequently and haven't been able to detect any deterrent effect for bass.

I wouldn't trust a non-metal leader. Maybe ultra-heavy line is harder to bite off, I don't know, but I've had 14# superlines bit off by dink pike where they went through the line like a hot knife through butter.

Hey Marty,

The leaders I use when I'm musky fishing are 45lb steel leaders (bucktails only), 65lb fluro leaders, 80lb hard mono leaders and a braid leader (can't remember what pound test they are). I've actually lost more muskies on steel leaders than I have fluro or mono leaders. The 45" musky in my signature was caught using an 80lb hard mono leader. One of my friends I fish with ties them for me and I have a ton of confidence in them. Everyone is different though, what works for one person may not work for another.