Fishing out of Shoal Lake lodge in western Ontario last week we caught a ton of nice smallies but those darn pike would cause several cut offs a day. I was using 12lb  fluorocarbon leader to 15 lb. braid. Do you think there would be fewer cut offs with a heavier leader and not reduce the smallmouth catching?

You’ll probably have to jump up to 20 pound to see a reduction in bite offs. I have found that to be the minimum.

 

Will it reduce the number of smallmouth bites too? I don’t know. Only you can decide if it’s worth it.

On a Jackall flickshake anything above 8# flouro leader reduces the wobble action greatly.

By definition, finesse presentations require a light leader for natural action.

But I don't have to deal with those toothy critters.

 

If you insist on using anything but wire leaders you will still get bitten off unless your FC leaders are in the 50# and higher range. You can use light, tieable wire that won’t affect lure action much and you don’t need to make them any longer than 6” or so. 

3 hours ago, gim said:

You’ll probably have to jump up to 20 pound to see a reduction in bite offs. I have found that to be the minimum.

Same experience for me. 20lb is the minimum, and at 25lb I can’t remember ever having an esox saw me off. 

I use tieable wire leader on any bait I think a pike or musky might eat, or that's worth any serious money.

I still catch a ton of smallies.

This year I am experimenting with Knot-2-Kinky 7 strand nickle titanium leaders and so far, I'm really happy with the results.  It is available in line weights from 6 lb. to 25 lb., is super flexible, ties great knots and is nearly invisible in our tannin stained water. 

The wire  is dark, and not shiny, and has no coating to flak off, and I have never seen any of it kink in over 10 years of using the single strand version.

I have the packages tucked away for a river float tomorrow, or I'd grab the line diameter for you, but it's absurdly thin...I'm thinking that even the 25 lb. is about 0.015"...you can imagine how thin the 6 lb. is.

Here's the leader diameter for the single strand version:



I have been using the 6 lb.  7-strand on my bass popper fly rod, and it's light enough to have no negative impact on popper performance.

Link to company website: https://aquateko.com/products/knot-2-kinky-7-strand-leader-wire

 

EDIT: I found the diameter in mm, had do a conversion:

3 hours ago, Scott F said:

If you insist on using anything but wire leaders you will still get bitten off unless your FC leaders are in the 50# and higher range. You can use light, tieable wire that won’t affect lure action much and you don’t need to make them any longer than 6” or so. 

I've even seen 50# get cut twice.

I'm a wire guy, all the way.

7 hours ago, Further North said:

I'm a wire guy, all the way.

Me too ~ 

😎

A-Jay

I use Eagle Claw 8 pound test microleaders.

I use 17lb fluorocarbon and have got bit off by musky a few times. I have seen 130lb got bit through. It that’s a freak thing. Personally I like running wire now for anything with teeth. It doesn’t kill the action like heavy fluorocarbon does 

3 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

Personally I like running wire now for anything with teeth. It doesn’t kill the action like heavy fluorocarbon does 

That's another serious downside of heavy fluoro - it's too stiff.

Most of my intentional (as opposed to unintended) musky fishing is done with fly rods and big flies...we count on the line/leader to be flexible enough for the fly to kick on the pause...and havey fluoro just doesn't work for that.

I'm in the camp that tieable leader like @A-Jay @Scott F and @Further Northrecommend is the best and really only solution.  I often fish areas thoroughly with multiple presentations and don't want to switch out all my floro leaders because time/money, so I'll start an area with slow rolling a spinnerbait or tightlining a big flutter spoon.  These lures will tell me if the northern are active in the water I'm about to fish and for some reason elicit a bite that doesn't get the line slashed and if I do get bit, hopefully my rod doubles over.  My water has a decent population of Northern, but is not overrun with axe handles, so this "trick" is actually somewhat effective at limiting bite offs.    

 

scott

I use short sections, 4" to 6", of tie-able wire. I have some lures I keep handy with short sections with wire already tied on and looped at the end for fishing pike infested waters.