Todd makes some great videos and I completely agree! I almost always select the line for the action and weight of the bait - not really worried they see my line. I throw the heaviest I can get away with at all times!

I use lighter line because it allows my bait to get to deeper depths than thicker lines.

Kyoya Fujita runs with a 15 or 16lb leader for his finesse spinning setup where he boat flips SM and LM. Dude is a monster on the Elites.

@PhishLI any idea what leader he’s using? Fluoro i presume, but do you know the rest? I moved to FC leader material this past year (instead of mainline pieces) and have been impressed with Sunline FC leader. It isn’t cheap per yard, but I didn’t go through half of three spools last year so overall cost isn’t bad. The 10lb held up to a good bit of cover I wouldn’t expect. But 10lb in this is borderline as heavy as I want for a jighead minnow. That said, i caught a bunch of 5-10lb non bass on the 6# out in open water and it was fine.

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

any idea what leader he’s using? Fluoro i presume, but do you know the rest?

I'm pretty sure Mercer said Fujita claimed that he was using 16 lb J-Fluoro Samurai. As for the rest, I don't recall exactly. I imagine the braid was probably at least 20lb or more with the way he was horsing in big fish in that particular tournament.

Ah, found the vid where Fujita expands on it. 30 lb Daiwa Saltiga 12. SALTIGA x12 BRAIDED LINE – Daiwa US

That would have been my guess. He doesn’t have any line specific sponsors that I can tell, but he is a Daiwa guy and J-fluoro looks like their top end leader.

9 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

That would have been my guess. He doesn’t have any line specific sponsors that I can tell, but he is a Daiwa guy and J-fluoro looks like their top end leader.

Safe bet.

Can you imagine the static a random person might receive on any given fishing forum after having claimed to be running 30lb braid mainline to a 16lb fluoro leader on a ML rod throwing finesse baits? The scolds would come out in force. The mythology in fishing dressed up as logic or common sense is something to behold.

14 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I throw the heaviest I can get away with at all times!

For sure. Leaving hooks or baits stuck in a fish's mouth is a real mood killer for me. I can't slough it off easily.