Leader
 

Does anyone use steel leaders anymore for walleye or pike??

Just curious how everyone is setting up their lines.

I do for pike but don’t get out very often, nor am I that successful. They aren’t a native fish in Montana and there’s only a few body’s of water I fish for them in.

I've used wire leaders for pike. I'm thinking of just going up to a heavier abrasion resistant monofilament, something liek 30lb Maxima Ultragreen.

Fluoro leader for everything. I haven’t had issues with breaking off. I change out leaders as needed. 50lb for pike, 5-8lb for walleye.

I would suggest getting fluoro leader material over mainline fluoro if you end up going that route.

I have no idea if pike care or not, but I am in the camp of it doesn’t hurt.

For walleye? Not a chance.

For pike, I prefer to tie my own quick strike rigs with #4 Gamakatsu trebles or 5/0 circle hooks and 50lb Sufix Invisiline Fluoro. I just started fishing for pike again recently, so I can't say how much of a difference it makes. But even 50lb fluoro is definitely less visible than a steel leader, and you don't have to buy supplies to crimp if you make your own. If you want to stay steel but not have to crimp, I've read Surflon leader material works well.

I use Fluoro leaders for all walleye and most pike (different weights). When I am gunning for big pike I use titanium leaders. They are pricey but last far longer than a steel leader that is kinked after the first fish.

Also, fluoro leader material is different than fluoro mainline. Use the leader material for leaders.

SS

Walleye never! Pike just on my jigging rods so I can change baits easier. Quickstrike rigs for pike I run fluoro rigs.

I have not used steel leaders for close to 20 years. For toothy critters like Pike, using fluoro leader material (as Sam mentions it has to be leader not line material specifically) and NEVER have had a bite through. Not Once.

It doesn't cut your hand up if you grab it, doesn't cut the fish up, more supple, less visible, and you can make whatever length you want for what you are doing. 50lb for casting, 80lb for trolling heavier large (7"+) cranks.

Love it !!! I see absolutely no advantage to steel in any way shape or form. Technology is here, why not use it. Steel leaders are hundreds of years old. Specially formulated high abrasion fluoro is the future.

My wife's youngest son lives in PEI and fishes Bluefin. He runs 150#-200# fluoro leaders for them. They use a neat little gadget that is kind of like a drinking straw that slides down the leader to the hook after they are hooked up to prevent chafing and wearing through the leader on the corners of the tuna's mouth. The tuna get hooked in the corners of the mouth with a 14/0 circle hook.

I have never used a leader for walleye, I don't really fish for pike anymore but used to use Finn-tastic titanium leaders when I did. https://thefishinhole.com/index.cfm?...ADER/&se=24363

I’ve gone to flouro leaders a couple years ago. Have not had any break on me yet. Lots of pike and walleye out of newell.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh. I should also mention that I inspect them once in a while a change them up as needed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's always a good idea for sure, particularly if your leader is light (like 20#).

I rarely use a leader for walleye unless I'm in a "pikey" area - then it's a lighter fluorocarbon leader and a inexpensive jig - so no big loss if some little sharp toothed dink pike gets a little frisky.

Seems to me the smaller ones have sharper teeth and all the crazy flipping and death rolling they do causes far more abrasion compared to a bigger pike.

Yup, also use 20lbs fluorocarbon fishing line.
Last year kayak fishing with a steel leader on we caught buckets full of walleye, pike, trout, perch etc and smallmouth bass too:)

If your going to use mono, or flouro, you need to use Leader material which is totaly different than line. I've used Berkley Big Game leader material in 30-80lb test with good results.

In general if I am fishing bait I use mono or flouro, tie the leaders long and when the end gets too chewed up I trim it back and re-tie. For fishing lures, where I dont want to use a long leader I generally just use wire. In particular, if you are fishing around weeds, mono/ flouro sucks as the more bulky knots/ crimps will pick up more weeds.

If I'm half serious about catching walleye, and theres lots of pike around, I tend to favor thin single strand wire leaders. I've never been convinced that the very thin single strand wire spooks fish more than a much heavyer flouro leader.

I usually use a steel leader if I'm fishing a spoon, mostly just for the benefit of the swivel, and because that's how my Dad did it...

Do you guys making your own leaders tie on a swivel?
Do you tie on a clasp too?

If you’re using 50lb flouro what are your knots ?
To your hooks and to your main line ?
Thanks !

I use both on my homemade leaders.

Yep, swivel and clasp. If I'm not too worried about keeping things subtle I sometimes put a swivle at one end, AND a snap swivel at the other to give me two swivels.

If you tune your spoons properly they shouldnt twist your line, but with spinners some twist is inevitable.

Tuning spoons is mostly a matter of playing with the hook size. If the spoon is rolling over switching to a bigger hook, or adding a plastic trailer, will generally fix it. Other than a very few exeptions (fishing a spoon as a topwater for instance) you dont want to overload it, the closer you can keep the spoon to its rolling over point the better it seems to work.

i still use steel leaders and i havent had a problem catching pike and walleye. i have been thinking about trying out a heavier fluoro leader sometime, as the only fluoro line i have right now is on the lighter side.

I was taught by my dad to never use steel leaders while fishing for walleye and if you must make sure they are black. I always tie on directly to my jig with mono and let the walleye slaying begin. It’s kinda like when your trolling and the other boat is passing you 3 times before you complete your one pass. They can’t figure out why your catching and there not lol.

10lb Power Pro to 12lb Seaguar fluoro. We fish almost entirely for walleye (and topwater bass when we're home in MB) so invisibility is really important. This combo has never let me down.

You can tie direct to line, you can use a swivel on one end and a swivel snap on the other, you can tie it short or long or you can make up all sorts of bait bait rigs with it (like the one below).

The possibilities are endless .... bead stops, floaters, sliding sinkers, glow beads, double snell harness or just a plain and a simple leader to attach your mainline on one end and a lure to the other ..... totally customized to what you need.

https://i.imgur.com/fPlJkiS.jpg

I use improved clinch or gryp knot with the tool, only use three turns for each.

So a slightly different take, but if I'm actually targeting pike I will rig my hooks with single strand steel, usually a large single with a smaller treble on a wire stinger, then tie to the flouro. The reason being that when the buisness end of my flouro starts to get chewed up I can easily nip off a couple inches and re-tie the hook assembly back on.

I switched to fluoro leaders about 5 years ago after reading a bunch of EZM's posts in another thread. I will never go back to steel.

I like to start long and then trim them up as they get nicked up. I usually have about one breakoff a year, but almost always due to negligence/laziness on my part for not retying when the leader material starts to get frayed.

I use a swivel at the top and a mustad fastach clip at the bottom. I absolutely love the fastach clip and can't recommend it enough. Makes it easy for even smaller kids to change hooks.

Another fluorocarbon user here.

i fished ultralight with an 18lb fluro leader for years backed with spyder wire ... after a 20 min fight 1x i reeled in a about a 15lb pike that was head snagged with a small jig ...he/she/they/them just looked at me, made an evil grin then barrel rolled with big tail whip and pop goes the fluro ... jigging and trolling same set up on all rods ...as for big pike 20-30lb fluro or maxima ultra green would suffice i would think ... i catch big tootheerrrr bottom fish off the left coast with 20-30lb mono ... sooo????

Pike teeth are harder on your leader than westcoast species and it’s the little guys that have the sharpest teeth. I grew up in BC fishing the coast

40lb fluorocarbon leader material works majority of the time but have had them fail. This was after very high numbers of pike were caught to be fair. You need to keep an eye out for nicks. 60# I have not had fail YET

Fluorocarbon Line is NOT the same material as Fluorocarbon leader material.

The leader material comes in shorter spools by itself and the price per foot (versus regular fluorocarbon line) is huge. Like 10X.

99% of the people who have had "failures" using fluorocarbon leaders where making leaders out of line material - not the specially formulated, high abrasion resistance leader material.

Maxima is actually not real good and is a low quality knock off that touts "line" as "leader" - you get what you pay for IMO.

Look for this ........

https://www.tradeinn.com/waveinn/en/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds