Fishing – Strong leaders

It has been a wet winter, but for those who did get out fishing, some good catches were had. Reports have been coming in of snapper who are already carrying roe. Just a reminder that if you do not have to take a female, then let her go so she can lay that hatch.

There are plenty of males around. It appears that the fish are already moving deeper in anticipation of the breeding season. The peak of the season is usually around the end of October into November. This is a time of easy picking at a depth of 40 to 50 metres.

As mentioned in my last report, I plan to do an educational series on the different types of fishing lines as well as how to choose the correct line. I will start by explaining the difference between a trace and a leader. Trace is a short section of stronger co-polymer that can vary between one metre and two metres in length and attaches to the end of your main line. When you put a knot in any monofilament line, it becomes the weak point. If you hook into rocks or weeds (the foul) and your line breaks, it will break above your trace at the swivel. This means you will only lose the trace and not a section of your main line. A leader serves the same purpose except that the length of the leader is determined by getting two to three wraps onto your reel spool and then letting it continue through all the eyes of your rod, with the end of the leader, once again, between one and two metres from the tip of the rod. The reason that you have the wraps on the reel spool is so that you can put in a big strong effort when casting without your line breaking under the load.

Leader is used predominantly when surf casting or when casting stick baits or poppers. A strong leader allows a longer cast by reducing the overall drag through the air. This is because you can use a very light main line behind the leader. By using a 6kg main line, which is only 0.30mm diameter, and tying a 15 to 20kg leader (0.45mm diameter) you can cast a lot further. Please note that you cannot use a swivel with a leader, as the knot needs to freely pass from the reel spool through the rod eyes. A good rule of thumb is for the leader or trace to be at least double the strength of your monofilament line strength. Braid, on the other hand, should be paired with leader/trace which is no more than 10 per cent stronger than your braid. Top quality braid does not cut into itself like monofilaments do at the knot. They therefore do not break at the knot. If your trace is too strong, you will find that once you are stuck in the foul, the braid will end up breaking somewhere at the rod eyes. You end up losing a whole lot of braid, which is costly.

Anthony Roberts, Tackle & Outdoors
tecnisportnz@gmail.com