Post
by Bartnmax » Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:35 am
I can remember many years ago, snapper fishinbg in PPB, when leaders generally weren't used at all.
Most guys would simply run the main line all the way down to the hook with a running sinker above.
Many, many thousands of fish were caught using this type of rig, so do we really need leaders at all?
I believe we do.
There's far more pressure on fish these days with a much ;larger fishing population on the water during the seasons.
Anything that can give us that slight edge & produce a fish is worth considering, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. before looking at whether we need leaders or not we need to know what they do.
Basically there's a number major functions of our leaders these days.
1. They give us protection from abrasion. That includes sharp teeth as well as coral, rocks, anchor ropes, and anthiung else that's likely to damage our line. yeah we can go the way of the old fellas & just use 24kg main line without a leader, but today's light lines offer fantastic sensitivity to bites, etc so why go backwards & use 25kg lines for fish weighing only 4-6kg (or less)? Far better to use the lighter lines with a leader to protect against abrasion.
If we start fishing for species such as Baracouta, Spanish Mackerel, etc we're not going to last long without that bit o' wire at the end.
2. Visibility. Yeah by now we all know that flurocarbon has pretty much the same refractive index as water so it's prety near invisible when in water. That's gpotta be an obvious advantage.
3. They allow us to make up more complex (read sometimes more succdessful) rigs & also to be able to store spoare rigs seperately. if you happen to get bitten off duing a hot bite you don't have to worry about sitting down to re-tie rigs. You just tied on a pre-prepared rig & get back into the action.
4. Shock absorbance.
In this modern era of brain main lines we need that shock absorbance more than ever. Despite what many people think braid does actuallys stretch due to the effect of the weave. The material might not stretch but that weave allows for around 7% compared to mono's stretch factor of anywhere from 10-30%
However, for all practical purposes we can accept that braid has very little stretch, that means the time when we have that fish at it's most vulnerable, it also has us at our most vulnerable. Mpore fish are lost next to the boat than when out wide. That's due to the very limited amount of shock absorbance if the fish happens to put in that one last 'swish' of it's tail.
Again when surf fishing we also need that shock absorbance to prevent break offs when casting with brain main lines.
Even with mono we can still suffer break offs if not using leaders.
So, there's plenty of reasons to think that leaders should be an intrical part of anyone's fishing rigs used today.
The old time fly fishermen of yester-year have long known of the requirment to use leaders & have led the way in that regard for more tan 50-70 years now.
Bill.
