leader strength

[torvic]

Is 10lb too thick for a breamming leader? Or does it really depend on where you are and how fussy the fish are?

[Daniel_Folley]

hi
i think it depends on were your fishing.if iam fishing around stucture that is not very dangerous i would use probably 4 or 6lb but if iam fishing around oyster racks i like to fish with atleast 10lb for a bit of security.

[LakeConjolaFish]

It is an interesting question as you have to feel confident with what you are using, its a balancing act because you can't get past the fact that 6lb is more visible than 2lb and 10lb is more visible than 6lb etc.

If your fishing seagrass beds away from oysters give a light leader ago, borrow a few metres from someone so you won't have to fork out for a spool.

Fish do fight better on lighter line, one reason is that as its swimming there is less drag produced with the finer diameter line.

Also I think the fish thinks it has some chance and just tries harder.

Imagine if you were at the end of 100m of 2" rope and someone was reeling YOU in, I would be saying my prayers, on the other hand if I was on the end of 100m of 1/4 inch rope I wouldn't chuck the towel in until they had me.

Jim

I use a range of leaders. I use 6lb the most, even around bridges and pylons, as i love the feeling of landing the fish against the odds. TRy doubling your main line, so 4lb main to an 8lb leader.
I wouldn't go over 12lb though!:D

Dave

[cody]

I think 8-10 pound leaders are fine almost anywhere. I use 9 pound in every situation now and havent had many bustoffs.

[torvic]

Thanks for the replies.

I was more concerned about the fishy end of things, whether 10lb would spook the fish off but I guess the only proper way to do it is to go down and try different lines.

But then again where I fish there are lots of oyster racks and pylons and 10lb has saved a few fish

[Duncan M]

It depends alot on where you are fishing, most of my breaming is around heavy, nasty structure, and I never go under 15lbs. Sure, you might hook more fish using 6lb or something ridiculous, but I'm not really interested in losing all my lures one by one. Also, stronger leader is good for pulling lures off snags (or out of trees, hehe)
Even using 15lb leader and fishing 6lb fireline with the drag locked, I still get done in the snags every now and then, heck I fish 20lb leaders with my fly gear and have been done over a number of times. My PB bream (47cm and a little under 1.8kg) ate a fly off of 20lb leader, and I've had a heap of other big bream eat flies off the same.
If your fishing the flats and chasing little ones, then you could go as light as you want, thats not really my thing though.

Cheers
Duncan

[Bear]

Just to look at it in a different way, I have been using 10lb Fenwick fly tippet. Ask the guys, it works really well in a good variety of situations.

[chris_lemess]

I use 10lb Toray fluorocarbon and it holds up very well in snags - being a FC it seems to come out still slippery and not cut to shreds like a lot of monos. I fish a lighter FC than a mono, but if the country's real heavy then I go to a mono because FC are a bit thick in the larger breaking strains.

Chris

[Duncan M]

Hey guys,
I guess it depends on what kind of snags your chucking into, if they are just a few sticks then even 4kg is ok, once I see barnacles though I start upping the strength. I've had big bream (like, REALLY REALLY REALLY big, I've seen the bastards!) smash me up around barnacle encrusted pylons, and 20lb wasn't enough, I lost a few inches of flyline on one fish as well. There isn't a 10lb flurocarbon in the world that will handle that kind of thing.
I remember reading something Ira wrote for DohDohDoh a couple of years ago about chasing big blackies, he was talking about 40lb Jinkai leaders and blowing up the drags on Shimano baitrunners hehe, it was a good read.

Cheers guys
Duncan

[chris_lemess]

Duncs you fishing the next BREAM rounds?

Chris

[Duncan M]

Hey Chris,
I'm not fishing Walpole but I am planning on fishing the Perth round. Why do you ask, you out to get me already? :D
I really wouldn't be surprised if the national record gets knocked off in the perth round, I'm personally planning on weighing in 5 2kg fish LOL.

Duncan:)

[chris_lemess]

Nah it's just you mentioned ages ago you were gonna enter but i guess you didn't! Oh well Swan will be a good round.

Chris

[Duncan M]

Chris,
I would have liked to fish the Walpole round but with work and other commitments it's too hard at the moment.
Anyway I'm outta here, going breamin... :)

Duncan

Hey duncan.
You say you lost some fireline which suggests that the leader was more than enough, but the fish rubbed the fireline on the structure which means disaster. So either your leader was too short or the fish pulled too much line and managed to get the fireline on the structure!

Dave

[mike_mad_fisho]

gday
u dont really need flurocarbon do u cause i use platypus platnium in the 8 lb and becasue it is ultra thin it is good for even the most finiky of fish.
thanks michael

[Duncan M]

Hey Kingpin,
I said I lost a bit of flyline (as in what you cast on your flyrod) not fireline. The fish I've lost on fly gear I've given up on, they aren't meant to be caught (not by me anyway) As far as spinning goes, the last fish I lost severed the leader about 1.5 m up from the lure (I use about 3 metres for leader), what was left was hacked up pretty bad as well.
As for the fish pulling too much line, mate, NO bream pulls too much line against my drag settings haha!
Hope your leg is getting better

Cheers mate
Duncan