Rockabye

The Real Story: I introduced an orange “Slammer” to a rock. I bought another, but it didn’t work as well. So I made one. It didn’t work at all. Back to the scroll saw for plan B and low and behold it worked to well. It was hanging up on the steel leader if I wasn’t careful. Back home I grabbed a bag of gold leaf made for picture frames that I purchased from a craft store for a few bucks. I covered the lure with Enviro–Tex Lite and that gold leaf and put it on the dryer. When it a was done the gold sparkle was real pretty. Back to Big Creek for a test. More hang ups. I usually reserve fluorocarbon leaders for trolling because from my experience the fish is much more likely to hit the tail then the head. To me leader durability is less important trolling then when casting where the fish is much more likely to target the head and bite the leader. The fluorocarbon was better but was still hanging up. I tried the lure with just the 100 lb Pro line I had on the reel and it worked great. Hence the initial question, could I get away without a leader. Pro line is hard to cut with a dull knife, It might work. I’m to cheap to by the 150 lb pro line I saw on line for something that probably wouldn’t work, so I asked here. I usually don’t bother with forums because unless you write the thesis above you get answers like “ use steel leaders”. What I was hoping for was a bass fisherman that landed (or not) a muskie or pike with just pro line. Or maybe a muskie fisherman that has actually tried heavy pro line sans steel leader on purpose. Instead I got the answer my Dad told on my first pike trip back in the 60’s. No matter, I love to build lures and I’m sure this forum will be an invaluable source of information on doing just that. Thanks again to all who took the time to respond. Rockabye

Thanks for the responses. I won't take the chance and will stick to my usual steel leaders. If I ever decide to kill a fish, I may experiment trying to cut Power Pro and flourocarbon line on the teeth. So far I limit my use of flourocarbon leaders to trolling reserving the steel leaders for casting.

Is Power Pro Braided Line tough enough to omit leader material? I'm wondering if 100# or 150# would work for toothy critters like muskie or northern pike. It gives me better action with my lures and less hang ups on the hooks then with conventional leaders. I haven't yet taken the chance when actually fishing but use it without leaders when testing out a new creation.