wire leaders and cranking

[HGS 24]

I just found this forum related to bass and I have really enjoyed it. I posed this ? on KFAN with T3. Last Sept I lost a shallow running crank on a shakopee lake. I replaced it with a bluegill DT-4, I rarely fished bass with cranks but after catching 2 bass and losing it to a pike, I felt I may have stumbled onto something. The very first cast out of the box I caught a 3# bass! That evening I landed 7 bass 2 crappie 1 sunfish and lost it on a you know what. In 2 hours of fishing i caught 10 fish and I still had an hour or so of fishing but no DT! By the next week a had every color 4's I could find and had lost 3 to pike. I was using 8# power pro with no leader so I switched to a southbend invisa leader. I still caught fish all the way up to a 5# bass on Nov 4th. The question is "Are bass leader shy", Tackle Terry says yes, and he said I should use heavier Power Pro or Fireline. Sorry about the long drawn out story but I was so impressed by the DT-4 I wanted others to give them a try. Anyway what do you all think about using a leader for bass and does heavier Power Pro keep bite offs from happening to a $6 bait. Thanks

[Ralph Wiggum]

Bite offs are inevitable in MN with the pike in our lakes. I don't really think you're going to run into many bass that will be shy of a leader on a crankbait, but the weight of the leader and associated hardware will negatively affect the action of the lure. I've found that Power Pro is fantastic line, but if it runs across a pike's teeth at all, you can say bye-bye. Sharp teeth cut it with ease. It's frustrating, but I just generally tie directly to my lure with PP. An option that I may play with some is tying a fluorocarbon leader onto my PP because the fluoro is much more cut resistant than the braid.

[ikeslayer]

also there is this new stuff out called "toothy critter" it is a wire leader but is very fine and is even tieable. i have very limited experience with it but it has a small diameter and is tieable and should allow you to land a toothy just for the sake of your lure. I will be giving quite a bit of my time and attention this spring to see its effects.

[carlcmc]

i'd just spool up with powerpro 50lb test. I caught several pike last year lipless crankbaits using just 20lb powerpro.

[river rat316]

I wouldnt use braid for cranking, this is one of the presentations where mono or floro and there stretch shine, if you are worried about pike try some of the already mentioned leader material, its real thin diameter wire and you can tie it any way you want, connect it to your line with a bloodknot and tie directly to your lure, I havent caught any real monsters using this stuff so I cant tell you how it holds up there, but it will hold up to the pikes teeth