Thursday 10/13 Jonas Green

[Mark]

20 pound Power Pro Braid with 12 to 15 pound Stren or Trilene mono leader. It depends on which spool of mono I grab and put into my center hatch when I load up. I rarely retie a leader to the braided line on the water. But I will extend a leader in my kayak with a double surgeons knot, mono to mono.

I use the same mono spools for tippets on my fly line leaders when fly fishing tidal waters for perch, pickerels and stripers and for freshwater bass and pickerels. The heavier weight mono helps to turn over the larger flies I use for those fish.

[Steve6902]

Okay I really do not want to hijack this thread. So thanks for the tips. It seems I need a lighter leader.

[J.A. Veil]

For nearly all stripers you are likely to catch this time of year, you don't need super-heavy line. On the med-light, medium, and med-heavy spinning rigs I use for striper trolling I use 20-lb Powerpro with a 20-lb or 25-lb mono leader. For the ultralight rods I use for perch and pickerel, I use 10-lb Powerpro and 20-lb mono leaders. The leader is overkill for perch but is useful for lifting pickerel into the kayak to remove the hook.

[Mark]

When I started fishing tidal waters in my kayak I didn't use braided line. My reels were spooled with mono and light mono at that -- 8 to 10 pounds. And I didn't use leaders. Occasionally I would break off a fish boat-side trying lifting it out of the water. However I got many more fish into the boat with that light set-up, even keeper sized stripers.

After seeing what others were doing I switched to braid (which I really like) and heavier (for me) mono leaders. I've tried 20 pound mono but it feels like a rope to me. I imagine 50 pound mono is like the butt end of a heavy fly fishing leader. It would think it's rather inflexible and somewhat hard to knot. However, whatever works for you is what's important.

Regarding leaders, one note of caution mentioned by Joe Bruce at a recent talk concerns the use of loop knots. Many of my fellow kayakers attach their jigs with loop knots to give the jigs more freedom of movement. I do the same. It's a good technique. However the eye of hook does cause friction within the loop and may weaken it over time. It pays to retie periodically or the knot will break at the bottom of the loop from the constant rubbing of the hook eye. That has happened to me.

Also hard on leaders are pickerels. They rarely break off my relatively light leaders. But they do fray them with their teeth causing me to add more length. After catching several pickerels, run your fingers up and down the leader near the hook and you will feel the cuts and frays even if you cannot see them.