Best leader material

[erjb]

Going to Lybacks 1/11/12, what is the best leader material for tip ups ? Would appreciate any feed back.

[wahoo]

you should get a lot of opinions. My son, an excellent fisherman likes fluorocarbon straight tied to the hook. I believe he uses 20 lb fluoro. about 18 inches.

I still like light stranded (uncoated) cable. My rig is about 18 inches of 17 or 20 mono with a 6-8 inch steel leader in 8 pound, or 27 pound for large minnows.

I just fished 2 weeks straight, every day from first light to dark--northerns was/were the target. So, I unscientifically used a fluoro rig my son had tied (he wasn't with me), 8 lb wire, and 27 lb wire--only 2 at a time of course. Caught an average of 12 or so northerns per day with the largest, released, about 34". Most were in the 16-24 inch range. I caught most on the 8 lb wire including the larger one. The fish were noticeably shy with the 27 lb unless I had a huge sucker which they just wanted to bash. Fluoro was fine, but less than the 8 lb wire.

This was all done from our fish house and the lines were no ore than 8 feet apart--so didn't use tip ups, but would use the same set up if I were.

Good luck!

[dougger222]

I have found the best leader material to be mono.

Used to run steel and fireline but fireline is worthless and with steel you WILL catch less fish.

For pike 50 pound mono.

For walleye and bass 6-17 pound mono.

[CrewJones]

i use green in color braided line 20-50 lbs test. diameter is obviously smaller. the white line is way more visible

[Slabasaurus]

25lb mono right now, going to up that when I make new tipup rigs though.

It works well enough on low 30's and 10ish pounders, but I'd like something heavier for the really big ones, so I'll probably up that when I make some more up this week.

Once I catch a fish on my mono tipup rigs, I'll check the line for frays. Most of my rigs have a spoon and 6-12" dropper to a large circle hook, so usually I'll just replace the line between the spoon and the hook.

[Whateverzbitin]

I am a big fan of flouro myself. Every material is going to have its strengths and weaknesses. I just really like working with flouro and have high confidence in it.

[20lbSloughShark]

I love Cortland's Toothy Critter. I use it with Cabela's leader ties (size A3). 35 pound is my favorite, it is thin and mostly invisible in dark waters. I used the 50 pound for a while, but it is hard to fit in the leader ties, and the next size up of ties are huge. In Clear water I use 30 pound mono. This is simply because I have 500 yards of it, other wise 50 pound flouro would be my favorite. I have had bite off problems with non-wire leaders. Its not so much the fight of the fish, as the length of tooth. When I use mono, I use a circle hook and try to get to the fish right away. This way the hook is in the side of the mouth and out of the way of teeth. I know plenty of people who dislike steel leaders, and those who caught a big northern on light line (mostly walleye fisherman). Sometimes luck goes a long way, but I would rather be prepared.