RoachDad

that would drive me crazy too. Have you thrown a Senko?

Dive in, especially if you go after bigger fish. The gearing is amazing when reeling in a bad boy. Spool up, tie on a yellow casting plug, and then pull out about 50 ft. and put a piece of tape across the line on the reel. Now reel it back in. You won't be able to get much or a birdsnest and if you do and you cannot pull it out, you will only lose that much line. Your thumb is your brake. Don't trust the reel not to overrun.

That is probably very true in many cases! Like me when I am trying to find the little boogers out there in the water.

My scale is way off. It always reads light! ha Every 5 pounder I catch reads 3.5. What's up with that?

Yeah man! totally agree.

I totally agree!

Hogsticker, I feel like I have hurt your feelings and I apologize. I don't know how you rate intelligence but a bass is not even on an IQ scale. They are way dumber than a puppy. They have no intelligence. They are simply reacting on instinct. Lure companies and rod and reel companies are working hard every day to catch fishermen not fish. Being unintelligent does not make them easier to catch. They still have to be found. You still have to appeal to their animal instincts at that immediate moment. If you happen to find fish that are hungry they are easy to catch. But, if you find fish and they are not hungry you have to find a way to get them to strike.

Hogsticker, I don't believe a thing the pros do. I believe everything they do is to sell products. Sorry about that. I think they do lots of stuff on the camera that they do not do in real life. I like the pros and I watch the shows to see what they are doing, but I do what I think is best for me. I remember buying a "Dancin' Eel" about 20 years ago because I saw Bill Dance catching one bass after another. I never caught a thing with that lure. The main reason I personally do not use a leader is it makes no sense to me. An added benefit is that I have one less knot to worry about. if I had the same results as you guys i would do the same thing. I catch bass at a comfortable level without leaders. If I fished with someone and was convinced they caught more fish because they had a leader, trust me, I'd be tying those knots like crazy.

I hear you brother! Nothing wrong with a leader, but its too much work for me. If I had the same results you had I might change my mind.

Man PABass, I have to admit that you stumped the ol RoachDad with that one! Let me cipher a little. Off the top of my head, I'd have to say that conditioning is possible but with a feeder we are talking about something happening every day without fail. to say that a bass gets conditioned to a lure seems far fetched. they would have to get caught everytime they saw a certain lure and even then it woudl have to be day after day. I've seen studies where bass are caught repeatedly with the same lure after 15 minutes or so. the memory of a bass is 15 minutes according to biologists.

Ain't that fun?

BTW, I am not saying that fish don't get spooked. I think they spook quite easily and I think that often a TM will indeed stop a fish from hitting a lure. And on busy weekends with lots of boats and strange noises I beleive they do get turned off because they are scared or upset. But if they could be conditioned, they woudl realize that they hear that all summer long and they don't get caught. Big fish are really just fraidy cats who spook at everthing. (including my braid )

I am not trying to be argumentative, but i just don't think there is any data to support this. The fact that it is hard to catch fish could be for any number of reasons. The fish are not smart enough to be conditioned to avoid a lure. How many times would a fish have to be caught to be conditioned? 10, 20, 100? That fish would starve. Being spooked at a trolling motor is not a conditioned response. That is an instinct like flinching at a gun shot. If conditioning were in place, the opposite would happen. Every time a bass heard/felt/sensed a TM and did not get caught would condition it that nothing is wrong with Trolling Motors. Unless every time it heard a TM it got caught! No offense but it is a common mistake to give fish credit for intelligence. They don't have any. They don't remember for more than 15 minutes. There are studies and proofs. They have tiny little brains. Not enough for reasoning powers. Fish are either hungry, irritated or reactionary when they hit a lure. They do not think about it. They have no idea they are in water. If they don't hit a lure it is because of something like they are not hungry or they don't feel like it or they don't see it or if doesn't appeal to them. Its not because last time the got hooked by that lure.

See? Now this makes sense to me. My braided spool last so long that I don't care about the cost but if you are trying to save money and you prefer the braid on the spool, that makes sense. I couldn't begin to calculate the cost difference but in my mind it would be hard to imagine that retying cost you very much. But I don't fish as much as alot of you guys.

I guess my main question for leader people, is why do you have braid? I use braid because it is stronger at a smaller size. It costs more than mono. Since your effective line strength is the mono, why do you have braid?

I know you feel this in your gut, but its just not true. Fish are dumb as bricks. THey have very small brains. They do not figure things out. Watch the video by the Pond Boss. He discusses this at length. A bass has a 15 minute memory at best. He discusses what makes a bass big and it has nothing to do with intelligence. A big bass is blessed with female organs, correct genes, a steady supply of food, the correct amount of good water, and some natural tendencies like being a loner and thus not hanging out in schools. And #1 being very lucky that they are not killed or eaten by other fish.

Hey guys, I am having fun with this subject! the only way to prove the statements that a leader works is to have a control group of fish in a confined space and offer them matching baits with a leader or braid and see which one is taken most often over a period of time. I know all of us have been fishing a lure and for some reason it suddenly begins working. There is no way to prove this just because you are sure the leader helps you catch fish. I did some knot research and it was enlightening (link below). Knots don't cause as much trouble as i thought. when you tie a leader knot, your line is the strength of the weakest line at that knot. 1) an Albright knot is 94%. I thought it would be lower than that. So if you tie 12 lb mono leader on 20 lb braid, you are effectively fishing with 11 lb mono. Not bad! 2) However, all lines are actually stronger than their label. 12 lb mono is actually about 15 lb 3) However #2, any wrapping knot is totally dependent on how perfectly you tie it. If you overlap the lines you have a less than perfect knot For me, i am lazy. 1) I don't like tying "line to line" knots. They are hard for me to tie 2) I don't like tying more knots than I have to tie 3) I don't believe a fish that thinks a jig is a crawfish cares about the line 4) I don't like how line knots go through rod eyes (unless you have a very short leader) 5) if my effective line strength and line size is 12 lb mono, I'd rather just spool up 12 lb mono. The only reason I would use a leader is to have effetively 2 lines with out a second rod. If I wanted braid for an application, that woudl be spooled. If I wanted to use mono for something else, rather than have another rod with mono, just tie on a leader. http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/fishing/bass/where-fish/2009/02/strongest-fishing-knots?photo=1#node-1001319720

Interesting topic (to me anyway). I have several BCs that need lubing. One in particular. I need to find a decent oil to use. thanks for bringing it up.

I'm not trying to stir anything up, but I just don't see how you could prove this. I really think it is alot more of a feeling and conventional wisdom. If you are going to use a leader, then your fishing with whatever the leader is. Not braid. If you have 50 lb braid and 12 lb mono, then your fishing line is 12 lb mono, period. The old line is "a chain is only as strong as your weakest link". The knot between the leader and main line is your weakest link. If I thought a mono leader made the difference, I woudl just spool up that size line. But that is just me. To me leaders had 2 purposes. In deep sea fishing the leader is stronger so the fish cannot bite through it, and in fly fishing because the main line actually casts the lure more than the rod does. So your main line is serving a greater purpose. Like I said, its a personal preference and if it gives you confidence, that is huge.

I seriously doubt you need more than 30 lb. That is probably more than you need. I did buy some 50 for an A-rig because that thing cost alot of money and it has 5 open hooks so it will get hung up.

In my humble opinion, there is no way to prove this. I am sure that people think it matters but I don't know how you could prove it. Maybe in Hook 'n Look We do know that to have a leader: - you have to have a knot. That is one more opportunity for a failure - Knots are weaker than the line - the leader is almost always smaller than the main line. Thus: Your true line strength is the strength at the knot of the least line, which you now have two of. So, why not just spool up whatever your leader is? Fish hit Buzz baits. That does not resemble anything in a fish's diet. a Jig doesn't really look like a crawfish. Come on. Worms do look like worms, I will grant you that. But in general, we give fish too much credit for intelligence and stuff like that. And , this is all just my dummy opinion, so by all means, use the leader. ALot of people do. Even Glenn May!

ha, love it. #1 Let me say that if you want to get drunk, fish with me because I get skunked alot so I will need plenty of beer #2 I would remove touch. If you get touch it you caught it. (Hank Parker will back me up on that one) #3 needs an clause to allow tiny fish meant to show the fisherman's humility (see pink popper above) Along with Silas' mention above, non-boaters should also never ask to go and get the truck. If the boat owner wants you to help with the boat or the truck , he will ask. You should not put him in the position of saying that he does not trust you. Boat owners should make every effort to offer fellow fisherman a chance to help. (I always ask if they are comfortable taking the boat at launch or driving the tow vehicle.)

Finally, some people who agree with me. I cannot figure out why people use leaders. Its another knot. The leader is typically smaller than the main line so your really only fishing at the knot strength of the least line. and if a fish can't tell the difference in a plastic worm or a Jig and a real worm or crawfish, seeing a line in the water is not going to bother them in the least. Put on a mask and swim in your lake. There is all kinds of moss, grass, whatever, floating in the water.

Awesome. I love the Rooster Tail and have used it for years. I have actually caught catfish on them in farm ponds. But mostly bass and panfish.

Joe, here is the best advice you can get: whatever line you put on, tie one of those yellow plugs and play out about 100 ft. of Line. then take a piece of scotch tape and put it across line on the reel. All the way across. Then reel in your line and practice in the yard. In fact, I still put tape on. you will never get a really bad backlash because you can only overrun down to the tape. Even if you end up cutting the line to clear the backlash, you will only lose line down to the tape. trust me, you will save yourself alot of headaches and time. Now that you have protected yourself, DON'T try to cast real far. nice little medium casts. DO use your thumb like crazy. Start out by thumbing or stopping the line from feeding out BEFORE your lure hits the ground/water. As you get mor comfortable you will get to where you can slowly thumb the reel so that you stop the reel right when the lure touches the water for a nice, soft, fairly quiet landing.