Leaders for toothy fish

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Originally Posted by backwoods

What do you guys use for leaders when fishing with lures for Spanish? When I was down at the pass a few weeks back, I hooked into a couple of good ones (one on a Rat-l-trap, the other on a Gotcha), but they cut my 30# mono like butter within a few tugs. I can totally see using 50# mono or wire with bubble rigs, but I'm not sure what the solution is with normal lures.

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A 3" or 4" trace of 27# single strand wire is usually quite sufficient to prevent most cutoffs.
I just add that in front of the 30# mono.
I can live with (afford ;-) 1 or 2 cutoffs per day, but this time of year it can become expen$ive real quick!

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Originally Posted by Pier#r

A 3" or 4" trace of 27# single strand wire is usually quite sufficient to prevent most cutoffs.
I just add that in front of the 30# mono.
I can live with (afford ;-) 1 or 2 cutoffs per day, but this time of year it can become expen$ive real quick!

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Thanks, I wasn't sure what wire would do to the action of a lure like a Rat-L-Trap. I was using the mono strictly as leader behind 20lb braid.

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Originally Posted by backwoods

Thanks, I wasn't sure what wire would do to the action of a lure like a Rat-L-Trap. I was using the mono strictly as leader behind 20lb braid.

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If you consider the dynamics of a tight-wiggle lure like a Rat-L-Trap, you'll likely come to the conclusion that its action shouldn't be significantly impaired with wire leader vs. mono. As I've said before, the teeth of a large spanish aren't significantly different from a small king, which will usually bite right through mono leader. I use #27 COFFEE colored single-strand leader with a haywire twist. I usually only use a few inches (4"-5") of steel leader when fishing for spanish with a gotcha plug. If you're using braid, you may want to consider doing what Pier#r does, [A 3" or 4" trace of 27# single strand wire is usually quite sufficient to prevent most cutoffs.
I just add that in front of the 30# mono]

I suggest that you try the steel leader with the 'Trap to see how it acts, though. There's really only one way to make sure and that's to field-test it yourself.

Thanks for the clarification TUCK. Guess I'll be practicing my albright.

Attachment 4230
Here is kind of what I've done with the albright. Can some of you knot gurus let me know if these are OK or not? Thanks

Does anyone use Surgeons Knots? I use a simple Surgeons knot to add 30# mono to my 10 or 12# main line. Then I also like a Surgeons loop at my leader to jig connection. I use this all the time on Looney jigs and jigs with soft plastic tails. Thoughts on Surgeons Knot?