I have a lake that I fish that has heavy cover pads mostly but also trees logs etc are in the water as well.  The lake has some monster bass in it and I've been catching some good ones using braid with top waters(rage toad, shad, and craw).  Thing is this lake also contains some big pickerel, so I'm considering using a leader of a thick # test to minimize biteoffs.  How would a thick leader of mono or fluoro perform in the pads trees etc, or should I continue using straight braid and hope a pickerel doesn't bite thru it?

You could use a leader out of flouro designed for leader material. It's stiffer and tougher than fluoro designed to be mainline. 

Personally, I don't think I'd worry about it though. It sounds like you're mainly going to be fishing less expensive, single hooked baits in that heavy cover. I think I'd just deal with the occasional bite off instead of the hassle of dealing with a leader. 

Blubasser86 said it best use braid and deal with the biteoffs. 

Yea, braid, especially heavy stuff, like 65lb would be hard even for a pickerel to easily bite through. If you're set on leaders though I use Seaguar Red Label since it's cheaper and tends to be a bit more wiry/tougher than true finesse braid.

Thanks for the replies guys, I haven't had many issues with biteoffs so far(lost one small pickerel) I just fear that one day that big pick will bite and I'd like to land it if possible.  I'm not really set on the leaders so I think I'll just up the size braid I use, I been using 30# but I have a spool of 50# I can spool up if need be.

I landed this fish with 50lb braid and no leader flipping a beaver. Granted, it cut the line like a hot knife through butter in the net, but it didn't matter at that point. 

Very nice fish, Blue.  Congrats.

On 5/15/2016 at 0:26 AM, Wprich said:

I have a lake that I fish that has heavy cover pads mostly but also trees logs etc are in the water as well.  The lake has some monster bass in it and I've been catching some good ones using braid with top waters(rage toad, shad, and craw).  Thing is this lake also contains some big pickerel, so I'm considering using a leader of a thick # test to minimize biteoffs.  How would a thick leader of mono or fluoro perform in the pads trees etc, or should I continue using straight braid and hope a pickerel doesn't bite thru it?

so, where exactly is this place?  how far from stone mountain are we talking?