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After losing a beauty on 50 pound Fluro it’s always steel for me. I mix it up with single strand and haywire twist as well as braided with crimps.
To actually "break off" a fish on 17# you'd have to be a pretty inept fisherman. Don't feel bad or thinking I'm making fun of you. There's a big difference between "breaking off" and being "cut off". Pike teeth are even sharper on their sides than on the points so they're like little razor blades as opposed to little ice picks. Fluoro leader and hard mono are tough but still no real insurance against getting cut off. A billion minus one out of a billion times if you lose a pike while fishing a plastic leader you've been cut off, not broken. Very, very different and not hard to do even if "you know what you're doing".This makes me a wire guy. Not heavy or clunky, 13# - 30# depending on location and bait. I know, Doc is already thinking about blaming slow fishing on wire. I confess, I walked him into trying wire. Thing is I've never been significantly nor consistently outfished by fluoro guys for pike. There have been days where it's seemed like it but it's more about location than terminal tackle. Last year had a guy thumping all of us with a couple of hot holes. Couldn't keep his flags down while the rest of us had virtually zero action regardless of wire or fluoro. Of course we had to listen about how smart and good he was and how fluoro was so magical compared to my brutish, old school wire. He left early. I immediately jumped in his holes with my wire rigs. Guess what? Yep. Now I'm the big shot fish hero. But that's it most of the time. It's not me, not fluoro, not wire it's location.Now wire's not magic either. In the pound tests I fish I have actually broken a couple. Both were right at the hole as the fish is coming out and gets to head thrashing. No stretch in wire and the right (or wrong) yank can snap it. It happens. Better have a buddy there with a quick pair of hands You're going to hear a bunch of how wire is evil, fluoro is not only fine but magic, about how it's better to get more flags and lose some fish, that any kind of superline (braid or fused) is unbreakable over 100's of fish. OK. Believe it if you wanna. I've been all of those places, playing, not wanting to miss out on any advantage technology will afford me. Thing is I always wind up with a coil of steel in my tackle box. Now... on the flip side I've been reading some from a source I've come to trust over the years that 20# fluoro is plenty for pike, even very big pike. I'm still not done playing. When I first tried fluoro I lost three fish on 25# before I could even get to the flag. We were fishing open spots in otherwise heavy weeds and when the fish took off the pressure of dragging the line a through the weeds applied enough tension to get cut off. The recommendation to use a lighter fluoro comes in open water locations where they can't really get around anything and you can just let 'em run when they want to. Gonna be on a great pike location in a couple of weeks with (hopefully) lots of mid 20 to mid 30" fish available and a daily shot at a 40" Really looking forward to this. I'm stocking with both wire and fluoro in multiple pound tests so if it gets really crazy I can test one against the other. Tell ya what else. If I ever find that I've been completely wrong and there's a better way you won't have to tell me. You'll hear it here first.
“Hit a new lake in mass last weekend and was humbled.”Keep those videos coming. I really enjoy the great job you do with them. I know it is a lot of work.
I've been cut off on 40# flouro and 50# flouro so now I use 60#. I tried single strand titanium, but I feel like I get less bites with wire. it's so hard to tell cause the bites are few and far between anyways, but nothing under 60# for me.
Doesnt matter what you use...I know many guys stuck on this topic and have never iced a pike bigger than 30"Do what you feel works best. I like steel and the big tiger musky and pike ive landed didn't mind it one bit. You dont get many flags on 14" baits anyways...
Anyways I was running 17lb flourocarbon line. What size leader do you guys run for gators?
IN LOVE WITH THAT TIGER JON. NEED ONE OF MY OWN
I use 50lb-80lb fluoro, just my preference. Never had one bite through