help

[leamos]

I'm having trouble settling on the right line strength for luring bream. Most of my lure stop working properly on 20lb vanish. But even with that I still end up with a scuffed leader after each fish, especially when fishing in shallow, rocky country, often breaking as I land an average fish. What line strength and brand do you generally use when fishing small lures?

[dan_WA]

my lure stop working properly on 20lb vanish

Isn't that stuff that size only meant for use on your wipper snipper ??

I'd say most people on the site use 4-8lb leaders - which gives the lure a more natural swimming action, and doesn't spook the fish as much.

[torvic]

Yeah 20lb is waaaay too big...I'm suprised if you actually catch a bream with that on lures

personally I use 6lb, its a good compromise between visibility and strength and your leader will always be scuffed and nicked after some time in teh water, so just change it or loosen the drag

[jimi]

There's a couple of things you can do here to fix your problem. Firstly, as the guys have said, 20lb is on the heavy side.

Maybe around racks you will need to go that heavy (so I've heard?), but most of the time 4-8lb is the go. If you do need to go heavy, make sure you use a loop knot to tie on the lure. That will ensure that it has the freedom it needs to retain most of its action, even on the heavy leader.

Secondly, you should probably try another brand of leader. Vanish doesn't have a good reputation in the durability stakes. You would be better off with a proper fluro like Yamatoyo or Stren. Even some of the tougher mono's would probably be better from an abraision resistance point of view.

Cheers
James.

[torvic]

I personally use Vanish and know of quite a few who do also and have no problems with it. Its cheap and effective and in the end of the day it is still a flourocarbon. Sure head to head it may not compare with the higher end brands but when it comes down to $$$ then...

Yeah in the past there were alot of problems with Vanish which could have been due to a bad batches or whatnot, but IMO theres nothing wrong with Vanish now, its fine...

Just my opinion, didnt want people jumping into expensive leader material without experience as it can be very pricey!

[jimi]

Ok, so it may have improved since I used it last (over winter), but if he is shredding 20lb vanish to the point where it is snapping when pulling fish out of the water, there is something wrong.

It could be that the fish are burying him and he has to reef them out, in which case not much is going to save you. Or perhaps the rocks are covered in sharp oysters? Maybe we need some more info?

If dollars are an issue, and you want to try something else, try a hard wearing mono like penn 10x in 6-10lb strengths to at least see if that helps.

Another thing to try is to perhaps hold the rod high during the fight to keep the line as far away from the sharp rocks as possible. I've seen people doing this when fighting bonefish in shallow water over reefs. They hold their flyrods right above their heads to keep the line out of the water............Might help.

James

[leamos]

I do all my bream spinning around oyster leases or from the shore around oyster encrustered rocks. And thats why the leader gets so badly worked. I think a 10lb leader of a tougher flurocar. is the go. I use stren on my fly leaders so I'll try some of that. Thanks for all your help