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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Hi, I've been using them the last 2 years and have not had a failure and boated some nice fish up to 49.5" on them but did have a gut I know tell me he heard they have problems sometimes. However he personally never used them. Anyone have an opinion on them and if it's negative please explain. |
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Posts: 214
Location: Central Iowa | I've used the lighter ones for pike, throwing bucktails, shallow raiders, etc., nothing really heavy and had problems with the snaps...they kept coming undone and there's nothing worse than that. I replaced the snaps with some heavier duty cross-locks and no problems with them. |
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| I, along with several others I know , have had the crimps break.IN MY OPINION, the crimps will never be tight enough.If they haven't broken yet, it's only a matter of time.Manufacturer doesn't matter either.Maybe ok for the weekend angler, but why take a chance.How many guides who fish a lot use them?My guess....not many.I love titanium framed guides though. Steve |
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| I've had 3 of them , none will last 1 solid week of a canadian fishing trip, fishing 12-14 hours a day , casting. They all start to fray. BUT How many regular leaders would you go thru in that time frame ? I think it averages out about the same price all things considered but I would not want my fish of a lifetime on one thats several days old. They will definetely not last a season. ManitouDan |
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Location: Minnesota | ..whenit comes to tackle ehy skimp? The only thing between you and the fish of a lifetime is your line and leader.....
buy the Berkley cros-lok snaps and twist up your own. Works great for a ton of us and will illeviate the ???'s in your mind.
www.jawbaits.com |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | I usually go threw about 2-3 per rod each summer. Spend one week in Canada then I'm a weekend warrior. Never had a problem with them. I use to be more afraid of the tiniest of kinks in other leaders so these always made me feel more calm until I talked to my friend. Thanks for the opinions. Any more? I think I may just try better snaps and keep an eye on fraying. The snaps were my biggest concern compared to other leaders.
Steve, sorry to sound stupid but what is the "Crimp"?
Edited by Obfuscate Musky 2/1/2006 1:41 PM
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I have seen the crimps break and the leaders break quite often.
I would not go with Titanium leaders.
They sure sound good, but in the long run you would be better off not using a titanium leader. |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Why are the crimps weaker on Titamium compared to other leaders if the pd. test is the same? I totally get changing the snaps if they are more prone to opening up and think that those do need to be changed but I don't understand the crimp situation. Sorry i'm not too bright on leader materials ect. But a small kink in a wire leader can fail to so my decision is what is more likely to fail the crimps in titanium or an unnoticed kink in wire.
Thanks for all the replies. |
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Posts: 214
Location: Central Iowa | the single strand wire leaders are twisted at the connection, wrapped back around itself...there's no crimp involved. |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Great, Thanks. Any other experiances please let me know. I did some research on the crimps and it sounds like it's because titanium is so slippery that a poorly locked crimp can slide loose. Thanks for the education. |
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Posts: 2068
| Used them when they were "new" - now two bad experiences later you couldn't pay me to use them. I took one out of the package - threw on one of my favorite spinnerbaits ....fiirst cast crimp comes undone ....watch the bait fly halfway across the lake..
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Posts: 148
Location: Milwaukee, WI | The snap-side crimp broke on one of mine during the cast & I lost a spinnerbait because of it. I retrieved what was left of the leader. That's why I know it was the crimp that failed.
At the time, I thought they were great leaders & went out of my way to buy them, verses others, because they would not get "kinky". Paid premium prices for them, too.
After that failure, and then hearing of other anglers' problems with them, I don't/won't use them anymore. And now there are about 10 of them gathering dust in my basement.
When they first were introduced, some of the marketing hype said that these leaders were made with the same materials & processes that are used to make wing-flap actuators on small aircraft.
Crimped titanium cable failures may be a good reason to avoid taking any trips in small aircraft ?? |
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| They're expensive and they're not reliable. I make my own flouro and stright wire, it's very easy and kinda fun. R&H sells a cool kit to make straight wires, I think its called "Dubros" or something like that. Look for flouro instruction thru a search of this site; I learned to make mine with help from Extreme Mike. |
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Posts: 2089
| I don't necessarily think the sleeve is the problem, but the nature and physical properties of the titanium itself.There is a certain amount of elasticity with a very hard surface which doesn't allow the crimp to hold.Any metal engineers out there?The sleeves would be fine used on other materials.Hmmm. Steve |
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Posts: 346
Location: In the slop! | Steve hit the nail on the head. You CAN crimp titanium, but it is tricky. I stress test every one I make, if it will stand up to a 50 pound sustained pull, you will never hurt it fishing. I can't comment on terminator's leaders, (have never used them) but don't sell Nitinol short, it's good stuff. |
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Posts: 502
Location: Lincoln UK | Going against the flow here, I have total faith in them, it is all down to how you employ the crimp.
I use a crimp that only just slips over the doubled end, the looped end should be as tight as possible without it flattening and with around an 1/8th of the loose end standing out.
I then very gentle nip the 2 ends of the crimp to ensure that the wire is parrallel, this is not crimping just nipping.
Then with two pairs of narrow nosed pliers held at 180 deg apart and with a gap of around 3/16th apart turn the pliers in opposite directions until they are in the opposite position to what they were, this puts half a twist in the Ti and the crimp holds them snuggly.
At no point is the crimp actually crimped.
I have never had one even look like it was going to fail. If you test them by pulling on the loop with the other endnailed to a bench you will actually have the Ti give in the middle and stretch around an inch on 15" of 100lb Ti wire before it returns after releasing pressure.
It does take a few tries to get it correct but honestly is worth a few practises, the twist holds the ti together the crimp keeps everything straight. To keep it all neat cover the ends with a little heat shrink.
Hope I have explained that well enough. |
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| I have had quite a few clients with crimped leaders and I change them to a wrapped or tied leader right away. I tried crimped leaders pike fishing and had some come open. Not sure why I tried them. Solid wire leaders or tied leaders are pretty much fool proof so I should have just stuck with those. I guess curiosity got the best of me.
Don't fix what aint broke!
Ty |
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Posts: 364
Location: Kentucky | I think I'm persuaded to switch back to straight wire. Been using titanium without a problem but did have one open up at the crimp just sitting in the tackle box once. |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | I think I may be done with them too. Or at least I'll be experimenting this summer. However I took a couple old ones out last night and took two pliers to the things trying to get the crimp to slip and I couldn't get it to move with all my pressure. |
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