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Posts: 305
Location: Illinois | While throwing small lures or jig/creature or livebait, how light of line can you scale down to and still be responsible to the fish in terms of break offs and length of battle? What about leader size. I usually just throw small lures with my usual musky set ups and sometimes a lighter set up would come in handy. |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | I'm sure you can go lighter than this, but I usually throw 65lb power pro for my smaller spring baits. (6"Slammers, grandmas, jakes, jigs) I go with a 7'6" rod with a lighter action. Seems to work okay. I also use some of my bass stuff, so it is a 6"6" MH with 14 lb test when throwing really light stuff like rattlin rogues, and husky jerks.
Leaders I tend to use the same things as normal. With the bass stuff, I may go to a single strand leader in 45lb test area, if my frozen memory serves me correct. |
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Posts: 1046
| #50 superline and #60 leader is probably as light as I would go on musky. Rod/reel is mostly personal choice/money! That would be the lightest for me to be fair to the fish and to myself!
Edited by The Handyman 1/28/2005 4:43 PM
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Posts: 32953
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 17# monofilament with the creatures, even 14# if the outfit is well balanced. |
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Posts: 600
Location: West Bend, WI | I go with 65# test pp on a bass reel.Works fine for me? |
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| 50 pound Spectron or Power Pro for casting or trolling
20 pound mono for jigging as recommended by Mr. Worrall |
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Posts: 1237
Location: South Portsmouth, KY | I caught my 53 incher on 12# test. I guess as long as you dont force the fish you will be fine. Just follow the fish. Also 6 inch leaders work fine for me. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I really don't see why you need to down size your line in the spring.
Even though catching fish can be done on light line, I don't see why it is necessary.
I use 80 pound Power Pro from March-December.
Why do you guys feel you need to downsize your line in the spring??? |
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| Mike, I plan to stick with 80 pound Power Pro all year round now that I am fishing more Southern waters. Downsizing to 50 pound Spectron helps toss some of the really small, light lures, and increases sensitivity to feel strikes better. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I've never had a musky hit a lure and me not know it. I don't need to "feel" the strike with lighter line, I can feel the strikes just fine with 80 pound.
It is my opinion that with lighter line and lighter leaders, there is a greater chance of breaking off, or having something go wrong.
80 pound does well with 6 inch jakes, jigs, small reef hawgs, and Rattlin' Shads and Rat-L-Traps. I really don't think there is that big of need to down size your line.
But again, that's just my opinion. |
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Posts: 184
Location: Rockford Il 61108 | Nothing wrong with going light on your line. It proves you can handle the fish and work your drag. My 8 year old nephew can land a 45in on 80pd power pro. Every now and again Ill spool up with 20pd Mono just for fun. It is a biig difference in how you fight the fish. Great feedback guys |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Mike, I think if I were to throw smaller husky jerks, rattl'n rogues, and other really light small, say 4.5" baits, it is tough to throw them on 80lb power pro. There are some rivers, and even some of the lakes that I fish, that we can multi specie fish, and 14 lb mono has worked fine for these types of situations. Even on Pewaukee, I have gone that low. The fall back to that, is if you stick a good fish, you can tire it out bad. When fishing action lakes, and rivers, there would be no problems with going lighter. I've gotten some mid to upper 40"fish on 14 lb test, and never had a break off. Compare that with loosing fish due to floro breaking??!! I may never understand.  |
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Posts: 626
Location: ashtabula ohio | i was thinking of trying some of that "flouroclear" this spring as im also experimenting with flouro leaders for the first time. 20 or 30 lb...? anybody ever use it ? |
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| I've never had a musky hit a lure and me not know it.
is it possible that you've had hits you didn't feel and don't know about?
i watched a musky come up and grab a glider this fall on the pause and never move. just grabbed it and sat there with it. i counted to 2 and set the hook...
i never "felt" the hit.
i can imagine a fish slurping up a jig in the spring and not feeling it due to lack of line/rod sensitivity. they don't destroy the bait every time they hit it.
Edited by lambeau 2/1/2005 4:29 PM
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