Catfish Angler Forum at USCA banner

What Leader Line Do You Use?

8K views 88 replies 32 participants last post by  rnickel17 
#1 ·
I still havent found a mono leader that i like. What are you guys using??
 
#67 ·
For my fishing, I have no need for anything over 80lb braid and a 60 lb leader. And thats for my big cat rigs. On my eating fish rigs I run 40 braid/30 leader.
I like Big game for leaders about as well as anything.
Running 200 lb braid in the swift water I fish can actually be dangerous. Especially if your fishing by yourself or didnt happen to be able to get a knife out to cut the line. I have gotten into a couple of bad situations with 80 and was glad something finally broke LOL
 
#68 ·
Thanks. I usually use 30lb and if im fishing around structure for flats i go to 50. I tried the $1.97 walmart stuff and it was real brittle, knots burned it and it broke at way under rated poundage. Then i tried some mudville, the 30lb was the dia of most 17lb and it broke at about 19-20lb. Then i tried stren catfish in 20lb and it seemed to be as advertised, just couldnt find it in the right size locally. I have some big game that i repair cast nets with, but its solar. Maybe ill pick up some big game for flats and try to order some of the stren in 30 for big river channels.
I agree, I bought green big game at walmart and it didn't perform like it should. I say go with another seller
 
#69 ·
Mark12 you might want to make rock sinkers. You can use old braid and epoxy a loop onto rocks. It would be way cheaper than buying sinkers and no big lose if you loose one or two! Just take a bucket and walk the shore and pick up just the size you want. The cost is only a small epoxy kit and old line. SORRY I am cheap! I hate loosing $5 lures too!
 
#82 ·
Smooth stones that you find in the river or creek shores and beds make the best rock sinkers.

They don't hold the bottom well, but where they really pay off is in the snags.

Make a 3 way rig with a long, and weak, dropper line to rock sinker and lob it into a nearly snag. You will loose your rock sinker, but that doesn't matter.

I actually use electric tape to attach rocks to a piece of galvanized wire as a line tie.
 
#79 ·
The weak link is not your line but your drag. If you plan on hooking a 60 lb flat and pulling it out of a 3 acre log jam you will need a reel that has more than 15 or 20 lb drag. Most of us can not pull 200 lbs ... most of us have a hard time breaking 65 lb braid. But there have been times when I wished I would have had 200 lb test to maybe break a limb or two to get that fish out.

If you look at how Big Sam had his hook snelled and paid attention to where he was fishing you would know why it works. Since you hook your bait with the point exposed you would want it to not snag on everything. Tying "backwards " would aide in pulling bait through stumps. If you missed a fish or two would be worth it to miss a few snags.
 
#80 ·
Dammitt Arky how did you know that is why i rig that way in the stump fields??? That's because he is from Arkansas and he knows we got some crazy heavy stump fields you gotta drag em out and yes you need very good reels with stout drags cant be letting them run around in Sherwood Forrest..:bruised: and i do miss one or two now and then...:pacs_foe:
 
#86 ·
well on a brighter note Johnny (777) and i fished the Get-N-Hooked tournament at Muskogee Saturday and managed 1st place....fishing in heavy stumps using our Teamcatfish double action hooks snelled backwards with 100lb leader line and Johnny used 80lb Ande for leaders....we lost 0 fish and got hung up only 1 time a piece....
Fish Fishing Recreation Fish Army
 
#89 ·
I see no reason to go any farther than Berkley Big game. It stands up to abuse as good as any other and is easy to find at a great price. I have tried some fluorocarbon line for carp fishing because it is almost invisible in water but I use some Big Game leader there also.
Totally agree with Tom. For me it Simply works, so why change it. I tried and used plenty of others, but you simply can’t beat that it is found in nearly all stores where Tackle is sold, at the price it is sold at, and that it gets the job done.

“I rarely use mono for a mainline these days, but when I do, it’s BBG.”

And No, I’m not the most interesting man in the world. [emoji23]
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top