I recently started building my own I use 80-120lb Fluorocarbon. For casting you don’t want anything longer the 12" because it can cause problems fowling your lures in the air. Trolling is a different story I've seen guys run 4-6' leaders trolling. The single strand leaders are ideal for the glider style baits like the phantoms because it helps with the side to side motion. These leaders are normally like 200lb because they are just a solid piece of wire.
Nick, here is a little more info.
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You'll get different info from different guys for a variety of applications. It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to leaders and you can never go too big.
Also a search of "leaders" in the search tool brings up a lot of threads on this topic with a lot of great info.
I use a both flouro and wire leaders. The wire is 124# and the flouro is 150#. I go through at least 50 of each during the season. I tend to use wire more often than flouro but prefer flouro on some lures (double tens and spinnerbaits). In casting situations I would steer clear of flouro under 130# but flouro in the 80-100 is fine for trolling when there will not be any contact with hard cover (rocks or timber). The other area where I don't trust flouro is with rubber baits as fish can inhale these, even pounders, and can cut the heaviest flouro with their teeth. The fish in my avatar had a pounder completely inhaled including about 4" of the leader, I don't believe I would have landed that fish if I was using a flouro leader.
"Will Schultz" said:
The fish in my avatar had a pounder completely inhaled including about 4" of the leader, I don't believe I would have landed that fish if I was using a flouro leader.
I am not convinced…I definitely need more details about your avatar fish before I believe you lol [smilie=applause.gif]
I watched a very interesting Larry Dalhberg show the other day where he tied his superline to a nylon-coated wire leader. He was twitching a big minnow-shaped rubber bait back to the boat. He said that the elimination of the weight of swivels and snaps made a big difference in his success with that bait.
I couldn't find the video but here's Mr. D with a tied-on leader using a glide bait.
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Myself I use homemade leaders: 9" 240# straight wire for gliders, various weights of braided wire for jig/creatures and quick-sets, and 12" 80# flouro for everything else. Some folks would argue that I should kick my 80# up to or over 100# and they might be right.
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