Thread: Question for the Leader Masters

ok i'm redoing all of my gear and looking forward to spring fishing(yes, i know fishing is ongoing, but replacing reels and all). i am looking into starting to make my own leaders as over time it will be the much less expensive way to go over buying packs from the local stores. i'll list the items i plan to go with i just want one of the guys that know more about what is the right setup to make sure i am grabbing the correct materials to make efficient leaders.

i've ordered this wire and making sure i am grabbing the proper sleeves before i make the final purchase(grabbed the 1000 ft roll when i found it over 80% off):
American Fishing Wire Surflon 1X7 90# Nylon coated stainless wire(afw site says .36 diameter)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...uct_refresh_T1.
right now you can get the 1000 ft roll for $11.


ok now my question. the afw site shows the outside diameter of the wire as .36. the site says that this wire uses either 5 or 6 crimp sleeves.i am looking at a 1000pk of single barrel sleeves, but according to amazon the size 5 is only .71(not double the diameter) so i'm assuming i should move up to the size 6 sleeves that are .82 interior. my question is am i thinking correctly on which crimp sleeve is the correct one for that leader wire or am i completely off base on my thought process?

any help would be much appreciated. right now i am just in save and wait for sales mode to try to get better products for cheaper price. i just want to make sure that size 6 .82 is the proper sleeves to grab. thanks in advance for any replies.

my new reels i plan to be adding 1 okuma avenger 40(6.6ft rod), 2 avenger 50's(8ft m rd), 1 avenger 65(9ft m-h rod), and 1 avenger 90(10ft h rod) baitfeeders. also adding 2 sabiki rods as the kids love to bait fish. also placing 40lb, 40lb, 65lb, and 80lb braids to the rods respectively.

90# is overkill for pier fishing IMHO.
And likely the coated will not be fun when teethies chew it off.
Plus crimping is just another thing that can go wrong IMHO

Most folks stick with 30# 1x7. 20 is good too. AFW has the sleeve recommendations for wire size on their webpage. They had good deals on amazon on the 30# too.

See a lot of people bring way bigger tackle than is needed. 65 class okuma reels are plenty much.

Chances are you will never get a mackerel bite using 90lb coated wire. Like Rich said,most use 20 or 30lb uncoated brown wire tying it with an overhand or figure eight knot,no sleeves. Others use 27 to 38lb bronze single strand and twist it.

The heaviest I've ever gone was #40 single strand and didn't like it. I always use #27 and #18 seven strand uncoated wire. Figure 8 knot and you are good to go.

The bad news is: 90# coated wire is super overkill for the pier and highly visible to a fishy.

The good news; 90# coated wire is great for repairing wind chimes and hanging heavy pictures. At least you got it cheap and it has other uses!

15# mono is the heaviest main line I use, and I use uncoated 27 to 30# wire, 7 strand or single strand with the smallest flat black swivel I can find. I have caught plenty of King, Jacks, Bull Reds and more sharks than I can count with this set up. For smaller species I use 12, 10 and 8# mono.
I do use 20# mono on my Cobia set up, but that's not a daily event.

Originally Posted by darkstarpoet1

40lb, 40lb, 65lb, and 80lb braids to the rods respectively.

You'll find most successful mackerel fishermen on the pier are using mono 20# or less. The only reason to use 80 lb line is if you are setting a drag to over 20 pounds. 90% of the time, mackerel fishing with that tight of a drag will result in pulling out or straightening a treble hook.

Additionally, look at the max drag rating on your reels, it won't be very high. The hook, leader, mainline, rod, and reel are a chain. The weakest link is what matters -- going way overkill on certain parts is just a waste.

With kings, the leader does not have to have high tensile strength, it just needs to hold up to teeth.

I use 27# single strand, #4 2x treble, small black swivel and 14# mono mainline.

Only time I ever used heavy coated wire was prepping trolling lures back when I had my 20' cc.

thanks for the advice. i know the 90# is overkill on pier. i will also be doing some offshore, but not too far out with this line, so wanted to make sure i got the correct sleeves for that line in particular for good holding leaders for some of those deeper species. the reason i asked for advice on the sleeves is it was hard to pass up decent weight line at that much of a discount when i do have some uses for heavier leader. i'm more of trying to get the sleeves to match these for my mid type leaders for offshore, but not deep offshore if that makes any sense.

the advice on the 30# 1X7 with tying the figure 8 will work great for my pier fishing though. i planned to only be using my 40 and 50 okuma's for the pier unless i got bored and tossed the 90 out to play with a shark.

my question was mainly because the afw site has conflicting information on the size of the line and its recommended sleeve for it. it states the line was .36, but the sleeve for it was .71. the math didn't add up so i wanted to check. like i said this was more a general question as i will be doing more than pier fishing. i will be grabbing one of the spools of 30# for the pier primary leader line as well though as that does seem to be the common suggestion. that would have been a later question as i started getting more pier ready stuff was what was the more common leader lines used there.

i do appreciate all of the feedback though. the helpful people on the pier are the main reason our family has spent our vacations close to home in that little slice of heaven at gulf state park over traveling too much. we already asked the kids where they wanted to go for vacation this coming year and they wanted to spend both weeks in the cabins at the park fishing off the pier. we even tried to get them to go to disney for one of the weeks with no luck. we love the people, love the park, love the vacation, love to fish, and even love the shallows.

According to the chart on the AFW website, the 90# black leader is .036. They recommend either the 5 or 6 sleeve. The 6 is .082 ID. If my math is right, if you double the leader you get .072. That leaves plenty of room to get the wire in and then crimp. I'm guessing 5 would be a snugger fit. Just make sure you get the AFW sleeves, the Hi Seas are different. I use the 1 sleeve on 30# which is what they recommend, when I use a sleeve. It works fine....just like they say.