IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => General Tips => Topic started by: TheLionsFan on Dec 28, 2021, 01:19 PM
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Hey guys.
I’ve always used braided line (fire line) or mono and tied to a snap swivel or directly on for walleye. But I keep reading of guys using fluorocarbon as a leader.
Dumb question here, but what is the reason for this method? I’ve never used fluorocarbon a day in my life. How come you can just use fluorocarbon as your main line instead of just a leader? And how abouts do you tie the leader on to main line and then jig?
Really appreciate it. Thanks
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Because its coily,likes to unravel off the spool,stiff with no stretch.im not a fan of it for mainline.
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That’s some good info, thank u. The kind my wife got me for Xmas is chartreuse in color and I believe 8# test. Should this work well for a leader? Also, do you tie main line to swivel then to leader or tie directly?
Thanks
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Im not sure id use hi viz for leader.i mainly use clear because its supposed to be invisible.anyways i use a barrel swivel to attach.
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Fluorocarbon as a leader only because it sinks faster and gets your bait down quicker and it's virtually invisible in water. Very high abrasion resistance as well.
You don't use it as a main line because it is too dense and uncoils much too rapidly.
Exactly. I like it because it sinks and fluoro holds up better on the edges of the hole where the ice forms and could break on a big one. And I either use a swivel or will tie the lines together like you would for fly-fishing leader, just depends on what I'm fishing.
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Because its coily,likes to unravel off the spool,stiff with no stretch.im not a fan of it for mainline.
I learned the hard way Doc. Fluoro for main line is a disaster! :woot: Getting ready to respool everything with good 'ol Trilene Micro Ice. Don't know why I even switched...easier to handle and tie knots for sure. Actually done some research today and found there isn't that much difference between the two as far as invisibility, stretch, and abrasion properties. At least not enough to matter for pannies.
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Anyone try this yet? It’s a mono/flouro mix. Has low stretch, very sensitive, better abrasion resistant than mono but not as stiff as flouro. I spooled up two rods with it for jigging outside. Wanted something with less freeze up than braid with low stretch.
(https://i.postimg.cc/McXRs1Gt/B17-ED1-F0-BCD5-4899-AB50-F24-FF7-F4-FC6-E.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/McXRs1Gt)
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I use fluorocarbon for panfish on my inline reels in the 3# and 4#. Catch more and bigger panfish because they can't see it. I am only spooling on maybe 8 yards at most and have some mono or old fluor for backing. I use mono for my ice fishing spinning reels. I use braid for spinning rods in summer, but only use braid with a fluorocarbon leader for that application. I use mono, fluor or the fluor coated hybrids for my baitcasting reels in summer. Haven't used baitcasters in winter but I am sure fluor would work in higher pound test of 8 or 10 pound for walleye. Always, always had a mess putting fluor on spinning reels.
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Always, always had a mess putting fluor on spinning reels.
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X2! Thought I’d give this a try for jigging eyes outside and using a fluorocarbon leader.
Less freeze ups …..hopefully
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Unruly fluorocarbon does have it's advantages and comes with a lot of disadvantages too. For a main line, there is the slack line vibration sensitivity. The harder material does a better job at vibration transmission. So at times that very light tick from a fish bite is felt more. The other thing is that is has a better flow on contact surface. It is more slippery and knot tying has to be more carefully cinched to hold. Then there's a trick to it because friction heat will weaken the knot easily with fluorocarbon, hence it's weaker knot strength in most cases with small diameter lines.
Sink value is wonderful when using very light lures. Lures that weigh in like 1/64th oz. or lighter will benefit.
Typically fluorocarbon lines is more stiff. That in itself might be good in preventing a line self knot. Or however does a fish ever able to tie a knot onto your line. No clue how that happened but I've had bluegills at times able to put a knot onto my line.
Fluorocarbon as a material is waterproof. Hence it's a good material for resisting ice beads. Well if you add in a treatment of silicone and/or teflon that helps it even more. Hence pay attention to an actual ice line. Same material as open water lines, but sometimes the ice line gets and additional chemical treatment for you.
One more thing about fluorocarbon as a main line is the equipment has to be up to snuff to take advantage of it's benefits. As in the precision of the equipment that does come with a cost. It's just a spinning reel but comparing $$$ value of a $20-30 reel up against $200-300 or even $400 spinning reel is a lot of money just for a little advantage. Then again it goes some people have expesive$$$$$ permy's while other have low$$$ portables. Whatever one enjoys, it's up to one's personal preference.
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I use a flouro leader only, main lines are all superlines when ice fishing, and only use on stationary or slow presentations in the summer (slip bobber, drop shot and lindy rig. I don't bother to much with flouro for trolling presentations in the summer cranks, spinner rigs, spoons.
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I have been a fan of braid for many years, winter or summer. For some reason this season I decided to try fluorocarbon for my main line on my panfish rods. So far so good. There is a bit of memory at first but tends to go away after a few times down the hole. Not saying that I am catching more fish or am sold on it, but it works just fine.
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...Fluorocarbon as a material is waterproof. Hence it's a good material for resisting ice beads. Well if you add in a treatment of silicone and/or teflon that helps it even more. Hence pay attention to an actual ice line. Same material as open water lines, but sometimes the ice line gets and additional chemical treatment for you.
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Thanks Bob, Can you elaborate a bit more on the treatment of Silicone/Teflon on the line to keep ice from forming? I usually fish in an icehouse but would love to hear what others do to prevent this also.
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Fluorocarbon as a leader only because it sinks faster and gets your bait down quicker and it's virtually invisible in water. Very high abrasion resistance as well.
You don't use it as a main line because it is too dense and uncoils much too rapidly.
This pretty much. Most of my setups are Sufix 832 braid and Seaguar Flouro leader.
You can use a uni to uni for tying leader to main line braid.
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I use Seaguar Invisx on every spinning reel that I own that doesn't have braid on it. The only exception to this is my ultra light ice spinning rig is spooled with a 50m spool of Blackbird Phantom 3.3# flourocarbon leader material. Those lines behave as well as any lines I've ever fished. I agree about the jumpy misbehaving tendencies of lines like Berkley Vanish, Suffix flouro, and other lower end flouro. main lines.
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Thanks Bob, Can you elaborate a bit more on the treatment of Silicone/Teflon on the line to keep ice from forming? I usually fish in an icehouse but would love to hear what others do to prevent this also.
When water beads off the material, it's much smaller water droplets. It's easier to freeze quickly as well as thaw out quickly. When it freezes quickly, it's less likely to stick, so it will snow flake off. Very easy to just finger flick the ice off the tip guide. This is more preferable over that of an ice jam on your tip guide.
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I use 4 feet of Fluorocarbon on all of my jigging rods & Tip-ups.
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Fluorocarbon as a leader only because it sinks faster and gets your bait down quicker and it's virtually invisible in water. Very high abrasion resistance as well.
You don't use it as a main line because it is too dense and uncoils much too rapidly.
THIS ^^^^^
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Thanks guys, I appreciate all the help!
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I spool all my ice reels with flouro as mainline. Braid freezes up to quick in the winter., and fish seem to be less finicky with fluoro, especially in clear water.
I don't run into any issues with twist and tangles myself, but often get that when I'm fishing with newbies that aren't used to thumbing the spool to let out bits at a time when dropping the line down.
Only major disadvantage I've run into was trying to list fish out of the hole that were to big, and ended off snapping the line. Dumb rookie mistake every now and then.