I want to know what would be an ideal line choice to cover pretty much all techniques. I’ll be fishing for bass and pike, right now I am running 20# braid with 12# Y-Z hybrid leader. Is what I have fine? Or what would you guys use? Also what knot should I use to connect a line leader if I should use one? My combo is the SilverMax baitcaster MH.

Oh boy..you will get a zillion different opinions on what to use.

 

Couple of ?'s...what is the water clarity like where you fish most of the time.?

 

What if any cover does the body of water have, i.e. hard cover ( lay downs, tree stumps, stuff like that ).

Or do you have thick, med, or sparse vegetation, or is it mostly open water.?

Knowing these things would determine what may work best for you.    

10 minutes ago, Hammer 4 said:

Oh boy..you will get a zillion different opinions on what to use.

 

Couple of ?'s...what is the water clarity like where you fish most of the time.?

 

What if any cover does the body of water have, i.e. hard cover ( lay downs, tree stumps, stuff like that ).

Or do you have thick, med, or sparse vegetation, or is it mostly open water.?

Knowing these things would determine what may work best for you.    

On my lake, the water clarity is i think around a 5-6 out of 10 (10 being the murkiest). The lake has a few lay downs/wood cover and there is a good amount of thick and med vegetation for the most part.

Couple of lines that would work, straight braid, but in 40 or 50 lb, works in stained water, and in thicker vegetation. A leader could be an option, I don't use leaders.

 

Also consider a good quality mono, or hybrid line in the 12 to 14 lb range. If I could only have 1 line to use for everything, it would be mono, fished with it for many years. Hybrid will have more abrasion resistance, but not quite ass manageable as top quality mono lines. Sunline makes some very good lines. 

What if i’m fishing with soft plastics, would you still run straight braid? And right now, I have 20lb braid with 12lb Hybrid leader. Would you think that work, or should I just use the braid without a leader? Or should I use a spare pack of 12lb mono that is lower quality(i think it’s just a berkley trilene smooth casting)? Or what about using the pack of hybrid line I’m using for a leader right now and just use that for my main line? Basically, should I use my lower quality 12lb mono, get new, higher quality mono, stay with what i’m using now, use straight braid, or just use 12lb hybrid as my maim line?

I've fished soft plastics , i.e. worms, creature baits, ect with 12 lb mono in stained water without any issues. If you had water that was on the clear side, then a smaller diameter line would be better.

As for going with straight braid, try it, if you catch fish, then stay with it, if not then use a leader or switch to mono as a main line.

There's really no or wrong, it's whatever works best for your situation.

I'm sure tomorrow, there will be many others that will give you more options.

5 hours ago, squishy_pants said:

I want to know what would be an ideal line choice to cover pretty much all techniques.

There isn't. It's why we have more than 1 line available. 

Spinning tackle:  #6 Tatsu

Baitcasting gear: #12 Tatsu

Exception for treble hook lures: #11 Sunline Shooter Defier Armilo

 

Braid with a leader: 

Spinning:  #20 Seaguar  Smackdown

Baitcasting: Smackdown #30

8 hours ago, squishy_pants said:

I want to know what would be an ideal line choice to cover pretty much all techniques. I’ll be fishing for bass and pike, right now I am running 20# braid with 12# Y-Z hybrid leader. Is what I have fine? Or what would you guys use? Also what knot should I use to connect a line leader if I should use one? My combo is the SilverMax baitcaster MH.

I think what you have is fine... but it's the cover and structure that you fish will determine what is good.  Do I think that you can pull off ALL techniques and situations with that...no.  but you will good to for Alot of things with that.  

 

I use alot 50#braid with leaders of 12 to 16 lb floor

 

I use floro from 12-17 lb on casting setups

 

I have a couple casting rods with 8 or 10 lb big game

 

I have 8lb big game on spinning rods 

 

My frog rod and my flipping stick have 65 lb braid

 

 

My braid is daiwa j braid

I use sunline sniper and sunline assassin floro.  

 

I like your set up for most applications.  Nothing wrong with that as long as you aren't in really thick cover.  Indef think you are the right track, remember the lighter the better always go as light as you can get away with but dont afraid to beef up sometimes.  

 

 

All that said, is personally I'd beef the braid up to 40 lb and use leaders as you can from 10 to 16.  That will cover most things.  If you have a spinning rod that you can do light line presentations with then that would be a great 1,2 punch