What’s the point?...

I only use a mono leader on topwater walking baits.

 

I throw mono or copoly with a 12-18”, 50-65 lb braid leader connected with an 80 lb swivel because I got tired of losing baits when stripers gator roll. Their operculum has a razor sharp edge that slices through anything other than braid. I’ve even landed fish that became lassoed when the hooks pulled and sinched up around their head somehow. They don’t seem to care. I catch greenies too.

 

On my spinning rod for bass I have 15lb braid to a 8lb Floro leader. Braid helps with sensitivity too. Leader helps with visibility also.

 

Braid is for vegetation and fish that have hard mouths and don't fight hard (bass), or for fishing a long distance from you. Fluoro is for scenarios you need a rapid sink rate. Mono is an all around line or for areas with heavy abrasion potential. I use mono unless I am fishing bass (rare), light flyline setups (rare), or far from me (rare).

 

Braid is less resistant to line twist, but more prone to tip wrap. I use braid for float fishing rivers because it’s more buoyant. I always use a shot of fluorocarbon (2 ft at least) for less visibility.

 

The Alberto knot (or it's synonyms/variants) is what the tuna guys use. I have never found bass to be line shy, just darken a foot or two of any bright color braid, you should be fine throwing swimbaits

 

Most of the fishing i do is shorefishing Mission Bay and i go straight mono(Izorline XXX Co-polymer). I can cast it plenty far, don't have any problem feeling the bites etc. I guess I should partner up with some folks that fish braid and flourocarbon leaders and see how often they get bit more and land more fish than I do. Maybe i'm missing out....maybe not

 

I have good luck using a blood knot with the last 2' of braid colored black.

 

I use braid backing on my conventionals with 100-150 yards mono Topshop, for added capacity and cheapness of respooling just the top shot of mono very often. Only setups that I fish braid with short leader are for bottomfishing rockfish (for sensitivity), bonito splasher ( casting distance), and sandy beaches with no hard structure I've been trying it out on (for casting distance and ease of switching between 8# leaders for perch and 15# for luckycrafts). I run a pretty short leader for the LCs like 2 feet so the knot doesn't go through the guides . I Tie swivels for rockfish and bonito splasher, Alberto knot for direct line splice.I do most of my fishing with straight mono though, bay and rocky beaches or cliffs mono exclusively.

 

I use mono as a mainstay in the surf . My smaller reels IE 200 / 250 size do have braid backing for capacity . I tried to use straight braid but found that the weave of the line allowed sand to infiltrate the fibers and wear the line out very quickly . Maybe a line with 8 carriers or more would help but I didn't ago that far in testing . Another anomally is that if you do get into the backing line which has only happened a few times for me , the lines is compressed into itself so much the it will hang up Etc when coming off the spool under drag almost like having a backlash . Just my experience with the braids I have tried . I like the sensitivity and the capacity but have started to use it only in open water or bottom fishing situations. WR

 

FG is not worth the trouble IMO.

 

Where is Linebig , he’s an expert on this

 

Braid, or braid and a leader or straight floro or mono...... well.... It comes down to what you have confidence in. If you feel adding a leader is needed then do it. However, yes it can be a weak spot after a while if its going in and out of eyelets. No matter what knot you tie its getting worn even if slightly. Re-tying like any lure is key. Add a new leader a couple times through out the day.

in my view the leader should be no longer than 6ft. There is no need for a longer leader than that. I never want it wound on my spool or going through my micro guides. I stick with 2.5-3ft leaders. Knots and micro guides are not friendly.

Most people add leaders to allow different techniques with the same rod. 20 pound braid and 8 pound leader to drop shot. Or 50 pound braid and 20 pound leader for top water and so on.

For me, the only time I add a leader is for San V while fishing close to shore and I add a much heavier leader than my main line braid on my spinning rods only. 5 to 8 pound braid and 12-15 pound leader. Its for abrasion control of quagga in the shallows for V and for teeth. Its totally different than what most do. I learned in Austrailia while fishing down there. Its something they do all the time for bay fishing and inshore fishing. I use the RP knot. Super easy to tie and holds well.

There is a time for 15-20 pound floro only. Jigs, spinner baits and other metal baits like spoons and under-spins.



If reaction bait fishing, flipping, frogging, punching I feel zero need for a leader. My view only.

Open water reaction, zero need. Once again just my view on it.

yet I’ll defer back to what you have confidence in. That matters most.

 

I used to use braid to leader a lot. I was running 8# braid then down to 5# braid for casting distance using really light lures. I felt I needed a leader and would use a 2-4# leader no longer than the length of the rod, more likely 4-6ft. For salt water I ran 20# leader with whatever leader I needed.

NOW, I pretty much switched back to mono except for reaction bites. Messing with leaders was really starting to get annoying. And tying knots when you want to fish sucks. I dont know how many fish I lost after checking my hook knot only to set the hook on a fish and it breaks at the leader knot. Having to retie two knots was enough for me to stop.

For heavy fishing though, I do run 65# braid to get lots of capacity on a lighter reel.

 

What Linebig said
Green bass fishing im assuming, ill never fish mono again, that stuff has sooooo much stretch & way less sensativity compared to any braid.
All my bass reels are crammed full of braid & I use a small swivel to attach my leader just cuz over time if you keep retying your leader ultimately / eventually your reel will no-longer be full of braid.....
I still catch fish with a dumb swivel....
When I throw swimbaits, no swivel!
5-50lb braid to 8-25lb leader a uni to uni knot is all you really need & super simple to tie.
All my salt gear I tie a tony pena knot where its a uni on the mono side & 10 wraps up / 10 down on the braid side.
When fishing braid if a bass just sneezes on your bait, you will know....

theres 2 basic braid make-ups "spectra" which is power pro brand, very popular but not as smooth as "dyneema" which is Diawa J Braid & amogst a few others..
Dyneema is way smoother to fish over power pro.
Not very important as all my salt gear is full of pp but when it comes to my fw gear smoothness / pleasure of fishing is part of the enjoyment....

 

Lol... I am staying quiet for the most part in this thread, saw something hilarious on YT the other day about this.. don't mind me...

 

Spectra and Dyneema are the same thing. DSM High Performance Fibers, a Dutch company developed the first Gel Spun or GsP fibers. “Dyneema” is their protected trade name. DSM entered into an agreement with a Japanese company, Toyobo Textile Company to create a joint enterprise called Nippon Dyneema to produce lines. They also entered into a similar agreement with The American company Allied Signal (later acquired by Honeywell) to produce the material in the US. Allied Signal adopted the trade name “Spectra” for the same material. Spectra fell behind Dyneema a bit in development but with the acquisition of Allied Signal by Honeywell this seems to have changed. There is a bit more to the story but the the way the line behaves depends more on how it is woven/fused together than whether it is Dyneema or Spectra. Source: “Braids and Gelspun Superlines: The evolution of a fishing breakthrough” by Rod Harrison. Rod is one of the most famous Australian anglers of the last 50 years and knows his stuff and has been involved in the development and testing of superlines including Platypus Bionic Braid, which I think is only available in Australia now. The book goes into a lot of detail on the finer details of dyneema/spectra and how it is formed into lines in the first 20 or so pages. The rest of the book has some stuff on knots and rigging (as of 2011 publishing date), Australian fishing techniques, and other stuff, not all of which is specific to braids. Aside from the first 20 pages, most of the info is easily found in many other sources. By the way Dyneema/Spectra fibers are also used to create body armor.

I usually use a short mono leader of 3-6 feet on my braid, except for tuna, dorado and such where I use a much longer topshot of nylon or flouro. . Most of the fish I use braid for are not leader shy, but like playing tug-o-war with a rock or snag and would rather just break off. I’m not using expensive swim baits and stuff.