It's really all relative to the waters your fishing for Muskie. Some think 80#-100# braid is too much along with 174# wire and 150# Flourocarbon leaders but generally speaking dedicated Muskie anglers usually "beef" up the terminal tackle to not exhaust the fish. Plus, your rest assured the fish won't tear through line or leader and swim off with your bait. I chase trophy Muskie on LSC and confident if I lose a fish it's not because my tackle failed. It's either human error fighting the fish or the fish got the best of me, not my leader snapped. I'm sure on some waters you could get away with 50#-65# braid but most in the Muskie community will use a minimum of 80#. I just had a friend fishing with me last year and a 50" fish completely inhaled a 10" bait cutting a 130# leader in half in one strike. It sucked as my buddy lost a great fish and seeing it swim off with a 10" bait in it's mouth hoping it finds a way to shake it free or could hurt when trying to feed. By using bigger gear and terminal tackle in the summer I can get that fish fairly quickly to the net without building up all the lactic acid. It really is the way to go when specifically chasing Muskie. Sure you'll spend a bit more money but it's well worth it and rest assured when you hook a 30#, 40# or even 50# fish your odds of landing that fish increase! Most importantly is to have solid hook cutters, a big fish friendly net and extra pliers. Keep fish in net in water over side of boat and cut hooks if they are hooked badly. You won't disfigure the fish and if hooked in gills theres a good chance the fish could still survive by cutting the hooks out rather than tearing them out. Keeping that fish in the water increases survival and only pick her up for a quick picture and hold her upright in water by tail till she's strong enough to swim off on her own. No need to move them back and forth in water. This actually hurts the fish. Just let her sit there till she's ready to go. It's all worth it!!
|