What's The Lightest Lb Test Flouro Leader You'll Use?

[TMF89]

Just wondering how light you guys have gone and found success with?

[20lbSloughShark]

It depends a lot on what your fishing with. Generally live bait leaders get the most abuse. For that, some have success with 20#. I personally won't go under 40#. I've had decent success with 50# and circle hooks. With quick strikes, I'm going to 80#. I've been using fluoro, but I'm going to try mono. Its important to get leader material, as the casting version is much softer. That goes for mono or fluoro. There are guys that claim to use really light leaders like 8#, but I feel that is just unethical. Fine if you accidentally get one, but just wrong if you do it on purpose. You can get away with less when casting bigger lures. Still, I would not go under 20#. If I'm worried it might affect the action of the lure, a 20# steel leader is very thin.

[delcecchi]

Just wondering how light you guys have gone and found success with?

I use steel or TI exclusively when fishing pike. I do not believe that pike are so selective as to reject a lure or bait because it has a thin wire connected to it in lieu of a thick chunk of fluorocarbon.

[mainbutter]

20lb triple fish brand is my go-to for protecting against bite-offs while chucking bass lures or pulling cranks for lake trout in Ontario, but I want something for the oddball esox that might strike.

I don't go any lower for bite protection purposes.

This is all with lures of course, I don't ever fish live bait in MN except drowning crawlers for rough fish.

[solbes]

15# for me. When I specifically target pike, I switch to a wire leader. But I would have to disagree on strike rates of light fluro vs wire leader. I get way more hits with the relatively light fluoro line and very few in general with the wire. Maybe its more loss of action than visibility.

14 foot clarity on the lake I fish most of the time.

[20lbSloughShark]

If you truly do have less strikes on steel, its more than likely the visibility. 15# fluoro and 15# steel will have almost the same action. In less than 10 feet of visibility, I doubt you will notice much of a difference on most days. I plan on actually finding out some things for myself this year. For one, I will fish half the time with steel, half with mono or fluoro. I will then log every fish. Hopefully this will give me a better idea of which actually catches fish. The other is I actually want to figure out how much each line protects against teeth. I'm not sure yet, but I imagine some rig with a weight, and a knife to cut the line with. I'll be trying steel, fluoro, mono, and a braid. I heard many use braid for a leader, but I know it will be the weakest of the bunch. Braid offers next to no protection against sharp surfaces.

[mainbutter]

If you truly do have less strikes on steel, its more than likely the visibility. 15# fluoro and 15# steel will have almost the same action.

I attribute it more to the density of the steel, and having a ball bearing and a swivel. I'm pretty sure my eyes tell me a steel leader gives me a different action from shad raps, floating raps, x-raps, and tail dancers than a direct tie from 20lb fluoro leader material. Inline spinners, not so much.

[solbes]

For one, I'm sure my steel (or titanium?) leader is rated for more than 15#. Maybe its 25 or 30#, but I specifically bought one of the thinner ones with a smaller bearing and snap. Its coated in black and is pretty thin. Kinks fairly easily, but I've never had a fish cut through one.

But I use just a size 0 or 1 Duolock snap (no swivel) on my fluoro setups. Most of the split rings have been removed from my lures, except those with recessed tie points, like a Deep Husky 12.

I would add that when I go specifically big gal pike huntin' just one lake down the chain where they have a 40" min regulation, I always use the wire leader. The clarity is under 10' there and the big gals have no issues hitting my lures with wire leaders. So maybe it really is a visibility thing. Or maybe they are hungrier there

[randy t]

For non trophy waters try useing 15 lb big game trilene direct. That what I use and have hade no problems. Braid cuts easy.

[solbes]

As to resistance to line cutting (most to least), I would say:

-Wire

-Fused (Fireline is pretty tough stuff, IMO)

-Fluoro

-Mono

Now I haven't tried the Big Game or some of the advanced Mono lines out there. And while I have a rod with 50 lb Powerpro on it and never had a bite-off, I'd hardly say that is a normal line strength to include in my comparison. I don't own any other braided lines.

That list pretty much goes from most visible to least visible as well, so that works against you, and you have to balance the two factors. I read an article that said fluoro was actually pretty visible in water since it acts like a lens. I would guess this applies more to drift jigging or bobber fishing, as moving fluoro has to be pretty much invisible.