If I've read other articles/posts on websites correctly, people have said that they use 80# fluoro for trolling leaders and 130# for casting. Why is this? I would think that a strike from a muskie on a lure cruising at speeds up to 6 mph would cause a pretty heavy jolt and that you'd want a heavier leader to compensate. I suppose it doesn't really matter that much because I intend on using 130# for both, I was just curious. Also, why do you make trolling leaders so much longer than casting leaders?
Well, there's already been a few views, but no replies, so I think I can help out with part of it. The longer leaders have a 2-fold advantage. When trolling, your lure is usually banging into a whole lot more things like weeds, rocks, stumps, and if you're at Murray, bouys. The line will get frayed way to fast, and you'll find yourself constantly retying. Also, with the swivel up a few feet, it gives the weedsleaves a chance to catch up there and still let your lure swim the way it should.
I am by no means a troller… I think less than 10% of my muskies are caught trolling.
However, when trolling you usually want the drag really low… therefore a muskie crushing a bait trolling at 6mph should be peeling drag the minute it eats… otherwise you'll be ripping the bait out of it's mouth. This allows lighter flouro to still be plenty strong for the impact of a strike. However, don't use the flouro if you are fishing lakes with good amount of rock… you'd be better with wire in those cases.
Not too sure why the longer leaders for trolling. Probably a combination of catching less junk weeds, and less fish rolling up on the bait causing the line to get cut. I'm sure somebody else will chime in here.
Scott
The lighter trolling leader is primarily to keep the action and depth of the lure. There is also less worry about a fish getting their teeth on the leader when trolling vs casting. As mentioned above if rocks or wood are going to be contacted then wire is the way to go on a trolling leader.
Why longer? That all depends on what you're doing. When using weight or a weed catcher at the leader connection I like to have it 5-6' in front of the bait so I'm going to have a 5-6' leader. For most situations this is overkill and I also have three foot leaders that I use for general applications.
As far as casting I'm using a 20" leader that is 130# and I replace them often. I would estimate that I went through at least 20 flouro leaders this past season and I don't even use them with the baits I catch the most fish on. Even a slight abrasion on flouro and it needs to be replaced immediately.
I still use a lot of wire leaders and if I didn't have rods dedicated to specific lures I would be using wire 100% of the time.
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