What's eveyone preference when it comes to letters material for toothy fish? Wire was the usual on here but stared messing with building them with heavy mono (50-80lbs) after having form wire ones break . Seems to catch a little better for some reason and hurts a little less when you loose on on the rocks lol

Then also been playing with this 300lbs braid. Haven't had anything be able to chew though it and stuff like gar seem to like it better then the wire or mono. Seen them spit baits out before with the other but not this stuff

When I buy leaders I get the stainless steel braided ones usually in the 36 inch long range so the fish can't roll and get the line behind it's gills and cut it.

Just Google tieable steel leader. Simple, efficient, reliable.


Ive used it on a 200lb bull shark.

Son and I caught a couple hundred pike up to 24lbs w100lb test Fluorocarbon. Never broke one off. 3 trips to the great white north.

Son and I also use flouro leaders while catfishing the neuse and the cape fear where longnose gar attack the baits as well

Gar teeth are pointy, not skarp on the sides. They can eventually wear through your mainline mono, but wire is overkill in my experience. 20# mono holds up well on them.

Not sure what your after but for pike on my quick strike rigs I tie with 50 pound fluro. Trolling cranks in the summer I just use 20 pound fluro

I am not fond of wire leaders for fish. 200# mono or up,or gangion.

steel for northern pike here,

I don’t like the way a steel leader affects the action of a crank bait. I’ve caught hundreds of walleye on ten pound mono, I don’t ever remember having a tear off.

Here....bluefish are the problem, the go to is either wire, or light twisted cable...the cable needs crimps, the wire is twisted ....the wire came before the cable and I don't know how the heavy mono or braid works on blues....I don't fish for them, but they're brutal on regular mono, and fingers...

Tackle shops loved when blues hit the beach and the surfcasters out for stripers lost their 10 - 20 dollar plugs....cha ching!, lol

Guess I am Old fashion. I use a lot of home made 2 foot leaders made from 27 pound test brown wire.......jk

for king mackerel and large spanish mackerel I use #2 or #3 single strand wire. I use #9 or #10 for wahoo.

any special way to attach hook to wire, or just wrap the wire like a snelled hook?

John C, we used a lot of #9 wire when I was overseas for Wahoo and the occasional marlin or tuna. Fast trolling at 9-10 knots makes the reel scream on a hit but also makes amess when lines cross. Thanks for reminding me of those times......jk

"any special way to attach hook to wire, or just wrap the wire like a snelled hook?"

you just run the wire through the eye and twist the wire around itself maybe 5 times, leave a small "eye" or loop in the wire so the hook can move freely

thanks, gcs.

look up "Haywire Twist" and practice it. It takes some getting used to but you wrap both wires around each other and finish with a barrel twist which wraps the tag end of the wire around the leader piece. They have to be wrapped around each other or it will pull free. There are several good videos on Youtube.