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Might be a stupid question..........

I use a lot of braided lines and like to tie on a fluoro leader.
Is there any difference between using leftover fluoro from a spool and specific fluoro leader material spools?

I've just been using leftover 12# and 15# fluoro from a spool with no real issues, just wondering if there are any advantages to buying some specific fluorocarbon leader material or is it the same??

I've been told there are differences and the main one is least material is typically designed to be more abrasion resistant. This also translated to stiffer. Personally, I'm just going to use left over material as the leader stuff is pricey for what you get.

For many applications this should be fine but as mentioned if you are looking for abrasion resistance I would go with the leader material. I use the leader material when fishing off the bottom or with cranks in rocky/woody areas.

I also use leader. Material for spinner rigs or quick strike rigs.

Tensile strength (normalized per diameter) and abrasion resistance are the the two principal differences between FC main line and the FC leader material. Per diameter, FC leader is significantly stronger. In recognition of the cost differential, perhaps you could use FC leader in the small diameters (6lb-12lb) and use leftover soft FC for the bigger diameters (>15lb). From all of my lab testing, P-Line Shinsei has the best tensile strength routinely exceeding 110kg/mm2.

Hope this helps

Paul Shibata wrote:Tensile strength (normalized per diameter) and abrasion resistance or the the two principal differences between FC main line and the FC leader material. Per diameter, FC leader is significantly stronger. In recognition of the cost differential, perhaps you could use FC leader in the small diameters (6lb-12lb) and use leftover soft FC for the bigger diameters (>15lb). From all of my lab testing, P-Line Shinsei has the best tensile strength routinely exceeding 110kg/mm2.

Hope this helps

How does that compare from PP?

I have often wondered about the "Pound Test" claims. I used to hear if the line was 10lb test, you should be good for a 20lb fish. (Not that it was an issue very often. If that equation were accurate, I would do fine with 5lb test most of my life!!)

Craig

Ed had told me about leader material being extruded slower and more uniform in diameter, translating to stronger, more reliable line, but at a price.
I use P-Line CFX (as per Ed's suggestion a few years ago) in 8# test as a leader for my dropshot rig. Never had it break on me yet, and it's very supple, and manageable. No coiling at all.

I've always purchased full spools of Fluorocarbon mainline for my leaders and have yet to have a problem.

cprince wrote:

Paul Shibata wrote:Tensile strength (normalized per diameter) and abrasion resistance or the the two principal differences between FC main line and the FC leader material. Per diameter, FC leader is significantly stronger. In recognition of the cost differential, perhaps you could use FC leader in the small diameters (6lb-12lb) and use leftover soft FC for the bigger diameters (>15lb). From all of my lab testing, P-Line Shinsei has the best tensile strength routinely exceeding 110kg/mm2.

Hope this helps

How does that compare from PP?

I have often wondered about the "Pound Test" claims. I used to hear if the line was 10lb test, you should be good for a 20lb fish. (Not that it was an issue very often. If that equation were accurate, I would do fine with 5lb test most of my life!!)

Craig

Tensile strength is often misinterpreted for breaking strength. Measured as psi or kg/mm2 tensile strength reflects the strength of the material irrespective of the diameter. For example, if a line tested at 100kg/mm2, this suggests that if the cross-sectional diameter of the material was exactly 1 square millimeter (1mm2), 100kg of force would be required to break it. Based on this you would be able to compare the strength of different lines regardless of the lb test. In a previous life I used to perform independent testing for Pure Fishing (Berkley, Spiderwire, Stern etc), Triple Fish, 3M, P-Line, etc. The best nylon copolymer had the greatest material strength (~120kg/mm2), followed by fluorocarbon. Superlines fused or braided Spectra (Dyneema) had much greater material strength (3 times). However it was very difficult to accurately measure the cross sectional diameter (weave spacing and shape irregularity) to make the direct comparison.

Craig for practical reasons, you can loosely trust the box rating. For new lines that I haven't tested I just use calipers to measure the diameter to determine where it "fits" in my arsenal. Stick with the better quality lines and you should be fine.

Hope this helps,

-P

Paul Shibata wrote:
Tensile strength is often misinterpreted for breaking strength. Measured as psi or kg/mm2 tensile strength reflects the strength of the material irrespective of the diameter. For example, if a line tested at 100kg/mm2, this suggests that if the cross-sectional diameter of the material was exactly 1 square millimeter (1mm2), 100kg of force would be required to break it. Based on this you would be able to compare the strength of different lines regardless of the lb test. In a previous life I used to perform independent testing for Pure Fishing (Berkley, Spiderwire, Stern etc), Triple Fish, 3M, P-Line, etc. The best nylon copolymer had the greatest material strength (~120kg/mm2), followed by fluorocarbon. Superlines fused or braided Spectra (Dyneema) had much greater material strength (3 times). However it was very difficult to accurately measure the cross sectional diameter (weave spacing and shape irregularity) to make the direct comparison.


Hope this helps,

-P

All that helped is remind me I should have paid better attention is MATH class..

I use leader line. I've got 12, 15 and 20. I started with Seaguar and stuck with it. I rarely go thru a spool of any of those a season.

RJ

Thanks for the info guys.

I think I'm going to stick with what I've been doing for now but will eventually pick up some leader material to try.

biggs wrote:Thanks for the info guys.

I think I'm going to stick with what I've been doing for now but will eventually pick up some leader material to try.

If she aint broke don't fix er!

RJ

I have always used regular Fluoro when freshwater fishing. Much, much easier to work with and cheaper per yard. I have never had a problem.

The exception is when I get to salt water (surfcasting) each year and I need a "shock" leader mostly to save $20 - $30 2-4 oz lures from flying off into space. I had to switch to high end fluoro leader material in the end. Absolute pain to work with but I have never lost a lure since (or a fish due to terminal tackle breakoff).

Rod

I just use regular fluor and never had a problem. Started using the FG Knot this year, works great.

Up until this year I used mono(Trilene Big Game) and fluorocarbon leader material.

I have spools of 6, 8, 12, 15 & 20lb fluoro leader material in my tackle bag, however for this year I decided to try a spool of 7lb fluorocarbon line as leader material for my D/S rod as an experiment. I tend to put a lot of fresh leaders on my D/S rod and go through a lot of line doing so. Those of you that dropshot smallies will know what I mean when a smallie turns your line into such a jumbled mess it's just quicker to cut and re-tie than to untangle.

I will continue to use fluoro leader material in other presentations that take advantage of its superior abrasion resistance over fluoro line.

I will still use good ol' Big Game as leader material too.

Steve

I was just talking about flouro leader vs straight flouro with plowjock. Yesterday on the Big Rideau I broke of three times.
I had purchased sunline flouro leader and started to use that instead of maxima flouro leader. I had also used seaguar trout and steelhad leader.

I broke off three times. Never had that issue with Maxima leader. I thought about using straight flouro or mono instead. Abraasion resistance is not the issue know strength is.

I will need to be more attentive to how I tie on with the flouro leader but at this point I think I will use straight flouro .