Getting ready for the pickerel trip and am just wondering the best way to make a toothy critter leader? Do I add a swivel or just connect with a knot somehow? Any advice on this one would be great.

I'm planning on just using some of those abrasion-resistant leaders/tippet. I think wire is going to be overkill.

Of course I am almost always completely wrong about these things so in that case I would suggest an albright knot, looping the wire tippet and knotting the butt section of the leader to it.

This is also probably a terrible idea so at this point I am just going to STFU.

Well I was thinking about an albright knot too. The wire I have(dont know where I got this stuff) is an 18# wire and is fairly thin as it is braided. Maybe that will help a bit.

I'm too cheap to buy any wire, so I was planning on going with 17 - 20lb mono and retying my tippet after a fish. If I don't catch a fish it should work very well. If I do somehow catch one, we'll see how the mono holds up. I know they're toothy critters, but are they THAT toothy?

Derik, you mentioning braid makes me wonder how braided line would work for a tippet.

I was in backwoods yesterday using my gift certificate and asked about shock/wire leaders. He said unless you catch a monster they won't get through 20lb fluorocarbon.

20 lb mono is all ya need

Next time I'm at the Red I'll pick up a sample of

EVERY HEAVY MONO AND BRAID EVER CREATED


note to self, concerning the last trip

"Doh !"

I dont have 20# mono I have 18# wire to play with.

Orvis 12# AR Leader and tippet will work just fine...caught quite a few on this stuff...or 20# flouro if you want

And before somebody chimes in about it costing too much and how frugal, they are think about this

Add up how much you're spending on gas, food, lodging, and flies...now why would you skimp on the one thing that us going to actually enable you to land a fish?

$12 for 2 leaders and tippet...cheapest part of the trip

Straight 20

I've never had a pikerel cut my line using spinning gear with 8# test, 20# would be more than enough and wire would be serious overkill. Spiderwire or some other super line would make a great tippet. These critters aren't that line shy.

Good luck everyone, wish I could go too.

I will just use like 12# test or something then, dont sound like they are that toothy afterall.

and may you lose 1000 fish, geesh don't you guys ever listen?

No there just not smart enough to pay attention to the people that know what there doing/talking about