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as many of you know, i am heading to the keys in april. now, as far as leaders go, what is the best set up. should i use flouro leaders or mono leaders and how long should they be and what size. i was thinking about just getting some berkeley vanish as a tippet, but should i spend the extra money and get real tippet material. i think we will be targeting as many fish as possible.
The water is typically quite clear and I would recommend using fluoro (it also hold up to abrasion better than mono). I use standard Seaguar and Seaguar Grand Max. I tried Vanish a while back which is a cheap, low grade fluoro and had terrible luck with it. It delaminated easily and did not hold up as well.
Leaders down there don't need to be real technical. My standard is as follows
48" of 40lb
36" of 30lb
36" of 20lb
12" of 30/40/50/60/or 80 depending on what I'm chasing. If it's toothy I'll sub Terminator Ti wire here in the 20 - 80lb range, again depending on the fish.
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Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!
I've used Vanish exclusively and have never had a problem with it. Even once lost a spool in a marshy area i fish, found it 2 months later, and even though it had been through about 120 tide cycles it still worked fine. Oh, yea, and it's less than half the cost. Go figure...
[This message has been edited by D. Micus (edited 01 March 2005).]
[This message has been edited by D. Micus (edited 01 March 2005).]
Glad to hear you have had no problem D. I have talked to many who have had the same experience as me but I have talked to a few that have said the Vanish is OK.
I can tell you why Vanish is so much cheaper and that's simply because Vanish is a much cheaper grade of fluoro. When Berkley was developing it, they were pressured by the big boxes to offer a much lower, price point fluoro. So, they had to change it up and greatly reduce the grade of materials used to get it into that super sharp pricepoint. They are not simply selling a high-grade fluoro for much less money. Test like diameters for knot strength, abrasion resistance and overall breaking strength and you?ll really see the difference.
If the Vanish works for you that's great. You will not see me using it and I know several guides that will not go near it ever again either. To each his own I guess . . .
Forgot to mention above that one might get sticker shock when they see the price of Terminator Ti wire. Yes, it's not cheap, BUT in this case you really get what you pay for. Because it's pretty much impossible to kink or bend you will use far less of it than other types of wire. Last year I must have thrown out 10 or 12 spools of Tyger leader. Not that stuff is garbage. It pigtails like crazy and should be illegal to sell (kidding of course but you get what I mean). You can go with single strand like Malin but it bends and kinks which results in wasted time. I've caught as many as 30 or 40 Barracuda and King Mackerel before and never had to do a thing to my Terminator wire. Gotta love things that are easy. Oh and no, they don't pay me to say that (although I wish they did) http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
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Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!
Thanks Jeff,
I was in the market for some wire for an upcoming trip to Abaco. Timely advice..., I ordered some Terminator Ti wire. Sounds like the stuff I was looking for.
Jason
I'll second the opinion on Vanish (the negative one that is). The first fluorocarbon I used was Vanish. Never again. It was very inconsistent. One leader would work ok, the next from the same spool would break or delaminate. I use Seagar now. If you are using it for leaders, you are not really using that much at a time. Compared to everything else in fly fishing, it is actually pretty cheap.
If you are using a floating line, I would recommend a mono leader and a long fluorocarbon tippet. That's what I use most of the time in saltwater.
Something to consider:
[url=http://www.berkley-fishing.com/technotes/1246-Fluorocarbon.htm:71db3]http://www.berkley-fishing.com/technotes/1246-Fluorocarbon.htm[/url:71db3]
buy american!
I am a big fan of Vanish and never had any real problems with it that could not be put down to user error.
Seaguar is good too although I find it a little stiff in the heavier weights. Perhaps in the heat of the Keys it will become a little more flexible.
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JME
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Member of B.A.S.S [url=http://www.ukbass.com:22bc8]http://www.ukbass.com[/url:22bc8]
Gotta love that marketing. The Carbon Pro is their fishing line, not their leader material. The standard fluoro leader material performs much better Vanish which is why Berkley did not compare thei Vanish to it.
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Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!