One of my favorite leaders is a 12 foot length of Berkley FireLine,Has roughly half the diameter of mono for the same break strength,Also has NO stretch so detecting strikes while Nymph fishing is Muchly improved. no it's not clear..and I do not use a tippet of clear material....but you could if you felt more comfy with one......I use 4 lb. a lot while fishing for carp...and see no ill effects of line shyness....can't think of any pickier fish out there...Just some thoughts.. 10 lb works great in my bass and panny fishing,I fish an extremely weedy lake a lot...