I lost a nice pike last night due to a broken 12lb test tippet, so I need to change my leader setup.

I am fishing from a boat in about 4 to 10 feet of water with a 7 wgt floating line. Using mostly size 1 lefty's deceivers. The fish are abundant in the 6 to 15lb range with an occasional 25 pounder, so I need something substantial.

I am thinking of this:
line-6ft braided sinking leader-4 ft 12lb test mono leader- 1ft wire tippet
or
line-10ft 30lb test leader-1 ft wire tippet.

I tried a commercial mono leader with coated wire tippet, but the loop connection failed and I lost another nice fish.

Any suggestions?