What leader do you use with your braid?
I am guessing my problems last week with Vanish 20 /25 fluro leader was line weakening from the continued stress of a fat boy on the line and occasional over runs and possible oyster nicks. Cannot find anything else.

What do you use and where do you find it?
Wally world has the vanish but....

Had several people mention Seagur 20 but who carries it?

Thanks Jim

Can get Seaguard at Academy or FTU. Personally, I tie directly to the lure or snap swivel. Prefer to use a snap swivel, reduces line twist and makes it a lot easier/quicker for changing lures.

If the water is super clear I will use leader. Most of the time I use snap swivel, like the other guy said so much easier change lures.

For those of you using swivels you should really check out this fishing clips

http://www.edgeangling.com/Tactical-Ang ... 0-lbs.html

They are really strong (rated to 50 lbs) and small enough to not really notice they are there but super easy to use


If you're looking to try something new give these a try....

no leader ... i tie directly to my braid with a palomar knot. the whole reason to use braid is for the strength & sensitivity....imo

But again, the reason behind using a swivel is to avoid line twist, or are you saying to tie directly to the swivel then use one of these clips for attaching jigs/hooks or whatever?

Nope just tie this to your leader and attach your lure

Great for switching baits out, but you still get line twist which will eventually cause you to start knotting up your braid and creating a big mess. If you want to use the clips, tie directly to a straight swivel and add the clip to the bottom loop. For now, I'll stick to using snap swivels, the braid doesn't slip thru "eye gaps" on the hooks or jig heads and doesn't twist when retrieving or trolling your bait.

ditto. no leader.

So u just put a hook or jighead on the snap swivel?

I use floro when I want the bait to sink and lay flat on the bottom. And use the poundage for the situation I am fishing. With floro I will generally use a longer lead, say, 10 feet or more.

If I want the bait to float above the bottom I will use the mono. Again I pick the poundage for the situation I am fishing. Most of the time I will use only 18 inches of mono as a leader.

You say why use braid if you have a leader? Well, I like the feel of braid and I know the knot and leader will be less strength then the braid I am using. I also like a leader fishing out of a yak if I have to break the line. 65 pound braid does not break, and I have to cut it off at water's level. If I am fishing in 30 feet of water, then I just lost 30 feet of line!!! It's a no win situation, but I like the choices I have made. The only reason I am using 65 pound braid is to fish Falcon Lake and the rock and brush I have to fish is why I have heavy braid. Then the rest of the areas I fish I only need 30 or less.

There are a lot of combination for you to choose from. BUT ONE I WOULD NEVER CHOOSE is snaps.

Good Luck with you choices.

Yep, just switch out hooks, lures, jigheads from the snap swivel.

I typically use Power Pro with a flouro leader... This works fine for my baitcast set up, but makes my soft plastics "torpedo" or twist through the water when I'm using my spinning gear. This makes a very unnatural motion.

Anyone have tips on how to reduce this effect to create a smoother/straighter swim for the plastics when using a spinning reel?

I go from my braid to a small black straight barrel swivel to 16 to 24 inch lenght of fluor leader. Works well on the baitcaster. It doesn't bother me to cut and retie of I change baits. You need to check your leader after 3 or 4 fish anyway, more so if you are fishing over heavy shell.

I don't use leaders except for BTB. On my bay/freshwater rods I tie to these snaps. With soft plastic they end up buried in the nose out of sight. With hard lures there is enough mass to hide them. I have lure ADD and tend to swap fairly regularly.

They are tiny, about 7/16" by an 1/8".

Now for BTB I tie onto a full size snap swivel and connect my mono leader there. No worries of the braid cutting the mono on a hard pull and easy leader change out if I cut one off.

Another good reason to use a leader with braid is as a shock leader.

The braid has nearly zero stretch, so when a fish hits hard the leader gives you the stretch you need to avoid putting so much stress on the braided line even though with braid, the line breaking is usually a non issue.

As far as swivels and that go I prefer to use the least amount of hardware as possible, usually none.
I'll just tie a uni to uni from the braid to the leader and tie directly to the lure of choice. If some more action is desired I will sometimes go with a loop knot above the lure instead of the usual uni.

But if you want to use hardweare to make changing lures faster and without having to waste leader every time, I have seen a couple variations of the Quick Twist by Norton Lures (http://www.nortonlures.net/shop_by_department.php?DId=6). I'm sure you could prob. find some variation of this.

Good luck, tight lines.

Same here, Palomar knot directly to the lure. I've only lost 2 lures in a couple of years of using braid. Whether or not I use a leader seems to make zero difference on how many fish I catch.