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« Last post by mr.clean on Apr 18, 2024, 09:02 PM »
Good evening, yesterday's rain went into the overnight hours before ending. Cloudy skies today and a temperature drop with the day's high only around 50 degrees. I talked briefly with my sister looking like my BIL is improving resting less often so hopefully he will be over the pneumonia soon and keep his hydration under control. During all of this in communicating with other relatives learned my great aunt will be having two cardiac procedures done later this month a stent/stents installed in one or more arteries. She is upbeat about all of this and looking forward to after recovering from the surgery attending one of her granddaughter's wedding this June and dancing at the reception. Hopefully all goes well for her and she will get to attend the wedding and make it to her hundredth birthday this November .
Ice Wander sorry to hear you are still not seeing improvement in your arm's range of motion. may you be able to lower your diabetic numbers.
Zcm-82 glad you are not dealing with a high mortgage in addition to the cost of living these days.
Hunts2long congratulations to your wife on her new CRV. I would read up on how to switch for gas to electric may save you some money to use electric power for part of NYC trips. Happy that you received a good trade-in price and the new vehicle was not to higher priced compared to the cost of last CRV.
Wallyworld the news of police officer shootings in your area made my local newspaper's website. Sad to hear another police officer was shot recently in Albany. Looking like you will have to use your mower's highest blade setting whenever things dry out enough for you to cut your grass.
Eddie glad it was not one of your friend's on the Albany police force who was shot and wounded. may the shot officer make a full recovery. Thank you for the well wishes for Cornwall Lacrosse team. I need to look up Our Lady of Lourdes record for this year. It was good to see a close game Cornwall lost half of the team to graduation in 2023. So I'm not expecting a great season. I see the high level minor league baseball season has started the team by me part of Yankees organization one it's first game of the season on April 16 Th. Depending on the level of the team close to you their season may also have started.
Keep safe,stay healthy. Best to all fishing.
Steve
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I should have said that I'm using coated steel. Specifically I currently use Surflon 7x7 camo color right now. In the past I've used Cortland Toothy Critter in green color, and it's very similar to Surflon. I don't know if Cortland got sold or what, but they no longer sell it in stores like they used to. Surflon 1x7 uncoated steel can work too, it's just as thin as 7x7, just a little stiffer, and with no coating it doesn't take normal knots. There's a member here that uses it with a special knot and does well. 1x7 is cheaper too, about half the price. I still like my 7x7 as it is super limp, kind of between braid and monofilament.
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great conversation, thanks all for sharing the tips!
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@Papa Sly, there is a learning curve to tying steel. Some knots just don't work well, they cause the ends to become curly. The best I have found is a basic Uni knot. The only real trick is after you tighten up the tag end, push the knot down with your fingers, don't just pull the line to slide it down. Sometimes it's a little back and forth, gently tighten the tag, then slide the knot down, then tighten tag more, and push knot some more. Once you figure it out, it's easy and you can knot leaders right on the spot anywhere. Crimps work fine, they just add bulk, but it's not horrible. If you ever want the most discrete, knot for lack of a better word, on a coated steel leader, the best I have found is a fusing technique from the book Pro Tactics: Northern Pike by Jack Penny. Basically you twist up the ends and use a candle to fuse the coating. It produces a fantastic leader, but it's kind of a PITA. It's definitely something you can only do at home, not in a boat or on ice. It wasn't worth it to me, I knot all my leaders now.
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For sure, I think a lot of people get carried away with the whole clear thing when you get to those really thick lines you need for pike. I'm not going to say steel is the only answer. I've used both, I'm probably going back to 100% steel, but not everyone has to. There is a time and place for everything. I've said it before, when you get to those 50#, 60#, 80# leaders of mono of fluoro, they are super obvious. There's no hiding something that thick. Visibility wise it's not that horrible, but I'm sure fish can sense that it's there more than the thin steel with their lateral line. That's besides the fact those super thick lines dampen any lure or bait you are using. It's probably not as much of an issue with dead bait.
I'm not going to say someone shouldn't use fluorocarbon or nylon monofilament, or even the newer copolymer lines as leaders. I'm just trying to steer people to the best possible outcome with that. My experience has been pretty much the exact same as anyone who has tried them seriously, and that is 20-30 lb lines aren't enough for pike. 40-50 is marginal, I too got bite offs, but it's mostly acceptable. I've never been bitten off on 80# yet, but the stuff is super thick. I also have found no advantage to use fluorocarbon over nylon for leaders. People are free to disagree, but with my eyes, I can not find any appreciable difference in visibility. In every test I can find online, nylon has equaled, or bested fluorocarbon in abrasion testing. About the only thing fluorocarbon has going for it to me is that it is slightly thinner for the same strength rating than nylon line, but that is no concern to me using it as a pike leader. Also, I've yet to see any proof "leader material" is anything better than standard line. Those are just my experiences, and what I have found through research and testing. I would have taken a picture of thicker lines if I had comparable ones. I only have 30# mono, and 80# fluoro, nothing between. I'm not going to go out and buy 80# mono just to take a picture, you guys are perfectly capable of sticking a couple lines in a glass and looking at it yourself.
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« Last post by Papa Sly on Apr 18, 2024, 11:23 AM »
You guys are comparing apples to oranges. We're not talking about flouro vs mono in 15lb test range. - we're talking fouro vs steel for pike LEADER material (not mainline). Use that same test with 60 lb seagar blue label flouro leader material vs 20lb AFW seven strand steel leader material. On my underwater camera I can easily see the flouro as a thick gray line. While it is solid, the steel is so thin it is like thread in comparison.
If you are comparing 20lb flouro to thick, store bought, pre-made, steel (shiny or coated black) with big snaps and swivels......that is a different story. The flouro will get you more bites. But if you want to use 20lb flouro for pike fishing you will get your heart broke. It may hold up ok to smaller hammer handles, but I've been bitten off all the way up to 50lb test flouro. I would not recommend either of these options.
Tie your own leaders with seven strand steel and be done. I don't know who said it first but "Steel is real!" Just remember that not all steel is created equal.
It took me over 10 years to realize exactly what Pike King is saying. I used to ONLY use Flouro and was up to 60# and any time I put the old school steel leaders Flouro out produced steel. This year in Tupper NY I went to 7 strand camo wire and will never go back. More flags with it and didnt lose 1 fish. I had a real hard time tying so I went back to crimping but by far the best alternative. I am even thinking to try for bass but need to figure out how to tie better first.
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« Last post by iceman260 on Apr 18, 2024, 08:05 AM »
45* and raining.
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« Last post by masoneddie on Apr 18, 2024, 07:29 AM »
Good Morning Everyone, Another wet dreary day here, rain and 40*, high of 43. Bud….so sorry to read that about your brother Carl, thoughts and prayers with him and the family. 🙏 Wally…yes, an Albany Police officer was shot and wounded, suspect ambushed him and was fatally shot. First thing I did was to find out if our family friends on the force were ok…thankfully they were.  Lots of clay in the soil here as well. What’s not clay is mostly rocks, lol. Can’t wait to see those new arrival’s soon! H2…Congrats on the new glad you got a fair price on the trade in, hope it serves your wife well. What a great surprise that must have been for your nephew, awesome!  Jeff…hope today’s therapy session goes well for you! Seeing a few fishermen out and about on the streams here locally, but it seems like the numbers are down, similar to hunting season. Steve…glad you were able to catch most of the game, better luck to the Cornwall squad next game. FH4…hope you made it through the class ok, getting closer to the weekend! Not a heck of a lot going on here again today. It’s days like this I wish I had a good indoor hobby…might look into rod building again. Cawfee’s still hot…. Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!
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