Serious question, braid and FC

[Skeeterbait]

Do you really think that under any water condition, a bass can spot and shy away from 20lb green braid and won't see 20 pound clear FC when the FC is about twice the diameter? Trying to decide if I think leaders are worth the hassle.

[MikeFromMaryland]

I Don’t Use A Leader , I Throw Straight Braid , I Know Many Guys That Do The Same With No Issues.

There Are Many That Use FC Leaders and Won’t Go Without One.

Mike

[SWbass]

I've tried both straight braid, nanofil and both with fluoro and mono leaders, I prefer with a leader just because I like to use my extensive knowledge of knots by the way I've caught fish either way

[SoonerFan]

Depends on the water. Clear water I pick up a rod with fluorocarbon. If I’m fishing brush or grass the bass don’t know the difference between your 65# braid and a stick on a branch or strand of weed.

I hate knots rattling through my guides so the only braid to FC leaders I have are on spinning rigs.

[WisconsinF]

Stopped using leaders last year. Catching just as many if knot more. In fact I put a buddy that swears you gotta have a leader to shame a few weeks back during a little contest. heck...I even started using braid to a snap then the lure.

[jasonG]

If there’s rock you want a leader. If there’s wood a leader will make life easier

[SoonerFan]

I generally find leaders, both in life as well as fishing, as source of failure and disappointment.

[John Jackson]

I believe they see it all. Floro almost glows under water to me. Mono seems less visible.
I do believe a natural color like green is less likely to alert bass,especially where grass or moss is present.
For me, floro excels in small diameters when you want a line that sinks quickly. I do use a leader on one rod only, but knots are another point that can fail, and are harder to cast through the smaller guides on most rods today.

[481VSangler]

I don't mess with fluoro anymore, but I do still use a P-Line leader. Main reason is that I'm walking the banks 95% of the time now and if I have to break off a bad snag I don't want to cut and lose line on the spool and leave a mess behind in the water. I don't think it makes much of a difference in terms of visibility unless it's gin clear water, which isn't really a thing around here.

[Les Young]

I'm using a p line cxx xtra strong leader on chartreuse diawa j braid & i really don't see a difference because i pretty much suck just the same nowadays no matter what i'm doing.

[DaveBrabec]

Did a test one morning.
Had a jig on a floro rod and a jig on braid. I pretty much only use 65 lb.
Water was about 2-3 foot visibility
At low light they ate the braid rod just fine. Bites diminished after sun up but they ate the floro rod still.

[plbass]

Tried flouro for lipless baits and was good. Tried braid with mono 12# leader and leader broke at the half way point. Now i'm using straight braid.

[BoatBuggy]

I only mess with leaders on my dropshot rod and the rods I use to drag tubes and football jigs in the rocks and zebra mussels in the St Lawrence river. I carry spare reels and spools so I can swap between straight braid and straight fluoro as required in about the same amount of time as it takes to tie on a leader.

[Quillback]

I know an excellent jig fisherman that also sells his jig commercially that fishes jigs using only braid and does very well on the relatively clear water of Table Rock. I have tried it, but always have breakoff issues with the braid getting nicked and dinged in the rocks, so I have gone back to a floro leader.

[DrewFlu33]

I agree with what several have said above: I think the fluoro is helpful for more than just the fish seeing it. Not digging into wood and holding up better to dock posts, rocks, zebra mussels, toothy critters, etc. is a big deal for me. I also like to throw the brightest braid I can find on anything where line watching might be helpful. Right now I've got some blaze orange on several of my reels, both casting and spinning. Whether the fish really see it or not or care or not, the leader helps me feel like the color isn't costing me bites and we all know how important confidence is in fishing.

To a lesser extent I think it helps act as a shock absorber--yes for not breaking the knot, but also for not breaking/bending out hooks, keeping tension while fighting a fish, and more subtly, for not overworking a bait. It's not much, but it's absolutely a noticeable difference vs. straight braid.

The last reason I'll use a "leader" (probably can't rightfully call this a leader) is situations where I'd really rather use straight fluoro but I'm being cheap. Whether that's wanting to be able to change out line size on a setup without throwing away a whole spool, or feeling freer to skip docks or cast into the wind without the worry of blowing it up and ruining a whole spool or fish around the gnarly stuff knowing full well my line will be trashed by the end of the day. I'm talking like 30+ yard leaders in these cases. Though I'm a fan of Shin's Knot/the Lazy Alberto for a lot of light line applications, stuff like that is where I think the FG knot really shines as it goes onto a spool without issue and, more importantly, doesn't catch (and can be properly tied/cinched down without worry of fracturing the leader). I don't start having issues getting the knot onto my spool until I'm at 25 lb leaders; that's 25 lb Sniper for diameter's sake, and I use Daiwa reels with T-wings that supposedly don't play nice with leader knots.

[dragon1]

If there’s rock you want a leader. If there’s wood a leader will make life easier

This...and a stiffer leader material helps keep trebles from fouling up the line on lures that are fished with erratic actions.

[bbcman]

I generally find leaders, both in life as well as fishing, as source of failure and disappointment.

[dragon1]

Did a test one morning.
Had a jig on a floro rod and a jig on braid. I pretty much only use 65 lb.
Water was about 2-3 foot visibility
At low light they ate the braid rod just fine. Bites diminished after sun up but they ate the floro rod still.

Nice.

[SPOONMINNOW]

Kastking braid for spinning and baitcast mainly because of the way the lure's action is unaffected by stiffer lines. The lighter and smaller the lure, the more line diameter matters whereas larger lures used for bass and other large fish don't have a problem focusing on the lure and not the heavier line. There are other advantages to going straight braid such as long distance strike detection and fast hook sets due to zero stretch - but you get the picture.

[Milehibird]

I've tested this many times, and here's my results. Now, for the record, here's what you're comparing to. Our lakes are small. The big lake we fish often is about 4000 acres, but the ones I fish most are between 160 acres and 1400. Most lakes are pretty featureless. The 1400 has a long dam, a weed flat, and that's about it. The 160 acre is probably the most varied. It has deep rock, a dam, shallow flats, a creek channel, even a bluff wall, some wood, lots of millfoil. So there's no fish that haven't seen a dozen different lures every day.

Spinning rods, leader ABSOLUTELY matters around here. I've had fish not bite a bait using 12lb fluoro leader, but would bite the same bait when I dropped down to 8lb fluoro of the same kind. No leader, no bite, plain and simple.

Casting depends.
I've thrown chatterbaits and spinnerbaits with braid, didn't get bites, but did with a fluoro leader.

I even throw braid to fluoro leader on buzzbaits and whopper ploppers. If I threw straight braid on a buzzbait, or even straight mono on either, I wouldn't get bites. Put a fluoro leader on, and it gets bit. I've even gotten more bites on walking baits with a fluoro leader (which is tough since the fluoro wants to sink).

Our fish are so pressured, you practically NEED to use fluoro in every situation.

The spinnerbait pattern held true at Table Rock for me a couple years ago too.

So yeah, I absolutely believe the fluoro leader is worth it.