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| My buddy chuck Schauer found a dead musky with a bulldawg in its throat this past week. It was 39" and had the bulldawg head first in its throat. It had sheared a florocarbon leader. The bulldawg was Walleye in color.
I have been using floro leaders this year, and have caught some of the biggest fish of my life on them, but am starting to think twice about using them anymore. Wouldn't want to see my best lure and a nice fish go bye bye. |
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Location: The Yahara Chain | I will never use floro, again. Lost a trophy Pike(48-50 incher) the first time I used one.
They might work for trollers but if you are a caster, like me, Don't use them. Unless you enjoy the sick feeling you get when a huge fish bites right through your leader.  |
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Posts: 14
| I have been using the same fluorocarbon leader for 3 years. Never had trouble but some of these stories are concerning, even with respect to trolling. It seems like most fish hit the Believer right on the head and could easily get some teeth on leader. Anyone been bit off trolling?
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Posts: 8797
| After the fish I had on yesterday, and the damage to my bulldawg, AND my leader, I am VERY skeptical about flourocarbon. I was all set to switch, in fact I was going to order some today and start tying leaders.
BTW, It wasn't my dawg you found, but I'll take it off your hands if you don't want it.
Jeff |
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Posts: 4266
| Last year I watched two very good fish try to eat my gliders head first right in front of the boat. I caught one because the fish had a profile shot, the other one came at the lure and tried to eat it, or should I say swallow it, but got the leader sideways in it's mouth and couldn't get a grip on the lure. It was weird to see it shaking it's head with the lure outside of it's mouth and getting the leader back bent at a 90 degree angle.
I've always used wire and make my own leaders and see no reason to go to flouro.
Beav |
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Posts: 78
Location: Pardeeville, WI | Had a 3 foot long flourocarbon leader snap like a rubberband when I trolled through some stumps within about 20
minutes of using it. I will always stick with steel from now on. |
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Posts: 462
Location: Syracuse, Indiana | A couple of years ago fishing the Big V, working a Viper with a 12" solid wire leader, something bit me off (took the bait and leader). 80lb Power Pro cut like a knife. Even steel doesn't guarantee NO bite offs. Herbie and his staff at AML have been using floro for a long time with good success. Bottom line - use quality equipment you are comfortable can handle the fish. |
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Posts: 354
| I agree that even the steel is no guarantee. I lost a really nice fish on a bulldawg bite off. I was straight retrieving it and she sheared it right off. Must of just inhaled it. I used a flouro
leader a couple years back and after about 30 min. use found a pretty good slice in it. That was it for me. I work too hard to get one to bite in order to lose it to a defective leader. |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | #*^@, when I first saw this post, I thought that someone went scuba diving on Lost Land and found the original bulldawg that snapped off my line on the first cast that I got from K-Bob. |
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Posts: 152
| Since going to flourocarbon I have boated 60+ fish trolling and not had a fish bite off. I will not use them for casting. Later |
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| Line fails, leaders fail nomatter what they are made of, flourocarbon is just another option, I use em all and don't give a second thought about using flouro, sounds like that fish may have been a goner either way. |
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Posts: 317
| most flouro leaders I see aren't big enough. the saltwater guys use 100#-150# flouro for cudas and sharks. the musky flouro leaders are usally 50#. no way a musky will bite through 100# flouro. |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Stalker,
I have used 100# flouro for leaders, and don't tell me there is no way they won't cut it, I had it happen.
Steel for me! |
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| Why would the fish have been a goner? He said it was barely even hooked. The leader probably got snipped on the hookset. enough reason for me not to use them for casting. He said it was 80-100 lb. diameter. |
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Posts: 686
Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin | Guess it's hard to say without being there, just thought if the bait had moved back to the throat area moreso than hooked on the jaw or outer areas then it may have had issues beyond slicing a leader. Hmmm, thats an interesting point too, mortality caused by a fish wolfing down a bait compared to being hooked inside or outside of the mouth. |
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| I wont use a Bulldawg just for that reason. But I think its a combination of the two. I have seen 3 Bulldawgs swallowed and only one of the Muskies survived. They are just tooo soft and easy to swallow for even sub 40"fish. I would never use Floro for anything other than trolling.
JM2C |
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | I have caught and released many giant pike on the 12" Bulldawg without any problems. |
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Posts: 32902
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Come ON, a LURE is the problem? Bull. I designed one of the, no wait, THE first soft plastic lures for muskies in cooperation with Jim Cairnes back a very long time ago. The Creature caught hundreds of muskies for me and associates, and continues to do so. The Bull Dawg isn't anything but a Creature with the jig head ingeniously embedded in the body of the lure. There are now several variants of that lure out on the market for bass and Muskies.
I have deeply hooked muskies on every single type of bait out there, and missed and lost them on the same baits because of poor hook-ups too.
If something sounds a bit illogical when one looks at the actual facts, it probably is. Waves on the water make the wind blow....
One thing for sure. If I can cut a leader with a very sharp knife, I will NOT tie it on the line, personal preference.
Sheeeeeesh. |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | I have caught half of the muskies in my career on bulldawgs. Also, half of the muskys in my boat have been caught on 150# mono leaders that I make myself. This is not even counting the countless northerns in my boat. And some of those northerns have been real decent ones. Hey, bad luck happens to all leaders, and all baits. Some fish die. You try your best, but some probably die long after you figure they are ok. However, catch and release does work, and you can't go deer hunting, treat those deer for gun shot wounds, and expect them to live. This sport is the best thing going. |
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| Opening weekend I lost a nice musky on Bearskin Lake in Wisconsin while fishing with a regular shallow dawg in walleye color when my crimp on my seven-strand wire leader failed. If it's not one thing, it's another... |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Flouro is great casting material and I'll go as far to say that its great for trolling over areas where it won't get scraped up by rocks or Zebras. The key thing to remember is to constantly check your leaders..ALWAYS. If there's knicks or scrapes in it...toss it. The thing is, making leaders and having the components isn't as easy as just buying leaders, so guys are more relecutant to toss out old leaders, they just keep using them even though they're bad.
Bring along a spool of Fluro and if you see your leaders go bad, snip off the components and make new ones as you go. That's the best way to fish flurocarbon. May be more expensive, but if more folks would take more care with fluro, we'd be reading alot less horror stories about it.
I have yet to see a fluro leader be broken by a fish, and I have to be close to 100+ Musky/Northern on 60-80lb test. |
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Posts: 440
| Found this tip the other day.....from the saltwater guys at leadertec.com.
I was under the impression they (saltwater fisherman) were using flouro for toothy fish. The following doesn't give me that same impression.
The claimed advantage of fluorocarbon is that its refractive index is close to that of water making it more difficult for fish to see underwater. It also does not absorb water like nylon and so its wet and dry breaking strengths remain similar.
Fluorocarbon is much more expensive than comparable nylon and more care must be taken when knotting it.
When tuna are proving leader shy the traditional solution was to drop down to much lighter leaders which increases the chance of the leader being abraded through during the fight.
The modern solution is to switch to fluorocarbon leader material which is much less visible in water whilst retaining strength and abrasion resistance.
For: Supple, easy to knot or crimp (although slightly more difficult to knot than nylon), claimed to be invisible underwater.
Against: Poor resistance to teeth, expensive to buy. Large diameter compared to wire or cable of similar breaking strain
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