Leaders for walleye crankbaits to prevent pike/muskie bite offs

I make mine out of AFW 7x7 micro supreme 13 pound test, cut my pike bite offs way down, it doesn't seem to effect the action of the lure to much.

[octanehi5]

titanium is the way to go, Walleyes are not line shy

[Juls]

Originally Posted by Agronomist_at_ia

Dirty/low vis water? Just that many more walleye up there?

Heck in the clear water lakes by us the simple difference in colored vs clear line is a huge difference in catch/bite rates. I've heard from a local guide not to use colored line because it scared the fish. I never really believed it until I tested it on open water then later ice fishing. I've since only put clear line on my reels........maybe it is in my head, but why chance it.

Clear, but stained a copper color.

[Custom Eyes]

Originally Posted by Agronomist_at_ia

Dirty/low vis water? Just that many more walleye up there?

Heck in the clear water lakes by us the simple difference in colored vs clear line is a huge difference in catch/bite rates. I've heard from a local guide not to use colored line because it scared the fish. I never really believed it until I tested it on open water then later ice fishing. I've since only put clear line on my reels........maybe it is in my head, but why chance it.

Same experience here. Now that I'm fishing Huron and allot of gin clear inlands with 40' of visibility on some days, line choice makes a HUGE difference. Most people use clear mono. I did a test here this year with my trolling rods. Put 12" of fluoro on 2 rods and 6' of fluoro on 2 others, both with 30# green braid. Hands down, the 6' fluoro leads outcaught the shorter leads by many times with lakers and walleye. Rods with straight braid didn't do well at all on most waters. I guess it really depends on where you're fishing though. With the exception of wire, I never noticed any difference in catch rates on Erie that could be attributed to line. Then again, there's charters out there running harnesses made of stranded wire and knocking them dead.

[Bill Krejca]

So much seems to depend on water clarity, walleye population and the local population of pike species. When using crank baits, I always use some type of wire leader. I make my own usually, very thin single or multistrand wire, small swivel at the line end, and a suitable snap at the bait end.

I feel a small amount of "action" is lost due to the leader, i.e., wiggle motion energy transferred to moving the leader. If you think about it, I believe action lost is a factor of the weight of the leader materials - inertia lost, if you will, and the water resistance of the leader. It would seem that very thin wire would have less water resistance - the back and forth motion created by the "wiggle", than a thicker diameter mono/fluoro leader. I've always felt that tendency to bite is increased where there are many fish competing for the dinner - boarder table reach, as I call it- they only have a limited amount of time to grab the bait before another mouths it, so little time may be normally spent in determining whether a leader is a turn of - semi-wilderness uneducated walleye, for example. Extremely clear water may give a slight edge to a clear material ahead of the bait; however, I feel if we should be very concerned about visibility of a leader, we should demand the 3 sets of trebles on many baits be made of a transparent material.

A least, that's the way I see it.

Bill

[pjshorthorn]

Originally Posted by Bill Krejca

Extremely clear water may give a slight edge to a clear material ahead of the bait; however, I feel if we should be very concerned about visibility of a leader, we should demand the 3 sets of trebles on many baits be made of a transparent material.

A least, that's the way I see it.

Bill

Good point.!!!! I bet we could all jig a minnow with a wire leader and catch walleye and northern just fine as well.

Does this mean you might be buying some of that opaque / transparent nail polish for your hooks at Dollar General this winter ( wink, wink )


PjShorthorn

[gofishjim]

Using wire leader on the estern end of lake erie where visibility is 20 feet is a sure way to cut down on strikes for both walleye as well as musky. I get 2x the number of strikes that the boats around me are getting when they are pulling harnesses made from wire...and the same with fall musky fishing by using 80 to 100 lb fluorcarbon

[DeBo]

Where I cast for walleyes (NE SD and West Metro TC area) I have had success with 20 and 25lb seguar leader material. When I changed to that system I went from a very large % of bite-offs to 1-3 bite offs per year. That was a huge improvement for me. The waters I fish you better have a jaw spreader because the pike are ravenous and will completely engulf stickbaits, traps, jigs, swimbaits, or deep divers. I experimented with 15lb as well but had much better results with the 20 and even better with the 25lb. Though I do feel that is thicker than I prefer but I don't straight crank at all really so I am imparting extra action to get bites. To me that is better than losing 6 baits a trip and more importantly not leaving a fish with a mouth full of hooks or a jig.

I have had some success with the tieable materials like knot2kinky and tyger leader. But at low/thin tests they aren't good with the shock on the hookset. I brokeoff about every cortland toothy critter leader I experimented with. Maybe the stretch of a mono main and the tieable wire would be a good combo. For my musky live bait rigs at very high test (90lb tyger leader) I have had zero failures. That is strong stuff and can handle the shock but would kill any walleye crank.

All bets are off with my system in crystal clear water. The clearest waters I fish you can see bottom in about 10FOW under perfect sky conditions.

One of my favorite parts of the 25lb system is how handy it is for landing fish. If you tie it long enough you can easily hand grab the flouro and it makes landing a fish by hand a breeze.

[fishpoop]

Thanks for all the replies.

Some of you guys mention fluorocarbon and that leads to another question. What brand or type of fluorocarbon? I have some Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon that seems mighty thin and fine diameter and easily bit through by teeth. Is there another type of fluorocarbon?

[DeBo]

The actual flourocarbon leader material is far more abrasion resistant. I really like Seaguar. Had poor luck with P-Line. Haven't tried the vanish.

The seaguar comes in 25yard spools I think. Not real cheap but not bad either.