My experience in Quetico is that, while using lures such as Rapalas, a northern may bite anytime. I usually fish with 10 lb braided line. My trips to Quetico from Texas are so infrequent (annually) that I usually don't use a steel leader with any lures, in order to avoid scaring off any potential walleyes or smallmouths. But inevitably I end up losing a number of lures during the week to the occasional northern. I am fine with this, since I budget for it somewhat, but I am curious about what others do in this regard?

Gary

You really lose that many lures to fish? Last week I went the opposite direction - I put 6lb. mono leader on 10lb. fireline in order to help against the line shy fish. Not one fish lost including a decent northern and laker. If you have that many bite-offs, could it be that you are running your drag too tight? I think your lost fish could possibly be managed by retying often and setting the drag nice and loose.

I only know one person that has been up to the BW and he also said "if i dont have steel leaders i will hate it". Im thinking im going to have a rig with heavy braided with steel leaders and then one with mono in case the steel keeps the fish away. It seems most people on here dont use the steel leaders

Great Question

I lost seventy bucks in Rapalas last year to big pike! This year went up with three rigs, one for soft plastics, one for lighter lures, and one for pike with heavy braid and steel leaders. Lost no fish, and caught tons. I did have a much better net this year, so no fish cutting me off at the boat which can happen when trying to lift them out thrashing around. To people who like mono, life's too short to keep dealing with line spooling off, and yes I tried new line, less line, more line, different line, no line is better than 10 to 14 pound braid! Stronger, tougher, no spooling, more sensitive, more immediate hook sets, and with crystal what more could you want?

we used leaders always when we were there lost two fish (pike) before we put on leaders and didnt loose anymore. We caught mostly pike and smallmouth so we will always use leaders. But we are not real fisherman just like to fish a little

Hmm . . . . I appreciate all of the responses so far, but I am not sure I am any closer to arriving at a consensus answer to the question. I leave in a few days (basecamping again on Saganagons) so I may default to only using leaders when I am specifically fishing for pike (unless I start losing too many lures again!).

Gary

On Cummings in May I only lost one lure to a pike. It felt like a decent sized one, maybe 25-30 inches but who knows. My buddy had a leader on the entire time we weren't targeting walleye and he lost 0 lures. However while the smallies were on the beds we found they would hit the leader instead of the floating rapala and then I would catch his fish every time! They hit either way but they hit my hooks instead of his braided wire.

I would say never. with da many different lines out der dez days you should find sumptin better den a wompin steel leader.

If your targeting big fish then the 6-12 inch lure should act as the leader. But if you want to use tiny lures ta perhaps swindle a large fish then yes use a darn leader.

Never, ever, use a steel leader unless you are fishing purely for northern pike!!!!

I use a leader only when targeting pike. I lose far more lures to snags than fish!

I use a leader only when targeting pike. I lose far more lures to snags than fish!

do yourself a favor and bring high quality leaders! if you are targeting walleyes, than i would not use a leader. if using topwaters, steel leaders are a must...there are many pike that are ready to free you lures not secured to a leader.

Only time I'd use a steel leader is if I were going after big pike, but then again I hardly ever target big pike when I'm up there, just too much extra tackle to carry.

I have a 7' 2 piece spinning rod lined with 8# Trilene XL and I haven't had a lure lust to a fish biting through my line in 3 trips. Granted, haven't caught any huge pike (biggest was about 33" caught on a jig, no leader).

Remember to get your knot wet before you tighten it all the way, too.

Never, use a steel leader unless you are fishing purely for northern pike! cause you won't catch anything else.

I have been using the braided lines lately without a leader and have not had bite off, they seem to resist bite offs much better than mono. I think I am getting more action also without the extra hardware in front of the lure.

I use 10-12 lb. Fireline, often without a leader, & rarely have bite-offs, & I target pike frequently.

A friend of mine uses a leader of 20 lb. mono & I've rarely, if ever, seen a pike bite him off. That helps with those who fear the "line-shy" factor of a big piece of steel, too.

quote immgr: "Hmm . . . . I appreciate all of the responses so far, but I am not sure I am any closer to arriving at a consensus answer to the question. ..."

Take some extra lures and a selection of steel leaders. Maybe take some heavy mono to try that method.

That way, you can do the experimentation up there and come back to report your results.

quote EastVal: "I only know one person that has been up to the BW and he also said "if i dont have steel leaders i will hate it".

I agree with that person. It doesn't cost anything to bring a few steel leaders with you. If you keep getting bit off, you can tie on a leader and catch some pike.

I was just up there. I quickly lost three jigs to pike. I put on a steel leader and caught 3 pike and 3 nice walleye.

quote EastVal: "I only know one person that has been up to the BW and he also said "if i dont have steel leaders i will hate it".

I agree with that person. It doesn't cost anything to bring a few steel leaders with you. If you keep getting bit off, you can tie on a leader and catch some pike.

I was just up there. I quickly lost three jigs/leeches to pike. I put on a steel leader and caught 3 pike and 3 nice walleye.

You'll usually catch more fish without leaders and that should be your first tactic. But if that isn't working, you should be equiped to swtich to leaders if needed.

quote Mad_Angler: You'll usually catch more fish without leaders and that should be your first tactic. But if that isn't working, you should be equiped to switch to leaders if needed."

Thanks, Mad Angler. That will be my approach.

I've had the best fishing without leaders. I expect to lose lures, but that's okay; I catch fish-wallies and northskies-and I always have a great excuse to buy more for the next trip! It's a win-win; I catch fish and piss my wife off. True story-biggest northern I ever caught in the BW was 40 incher on a Lindy Rig. Hook was darn near bent straight when I landed it, but I was using Fire Line and had my drag set real soft. I never use leaders.

I hardly ever use a leader. I believe more fish are lost to weakened/loose tie-on knots than to the line breakage.

I agree with those last two posts. Keep the leaders at home. Make sure your knots are good, lubricate the line before pulling the knots tight, check for line damage after every fish and snag, keep the drag super light and let the fish run, and minimize the fish's ability to thrash at boatside (landing net). You will hardly lose any and catch more than with using a leader. Last week I somehow snagged a lure and pulled it in. It was an old crankbait with hooks rusted off. It also had a steel leader - must not have done much. Maybe, just maybe, if all you are targeting are big pike with a musky setup then they belong on your lure.

I bring a spinning reel with 6lb mono and a extra spool with 6lb fluorocarbon as well as a medium action baitcaster with 12 lb "superline". I have yet to get bitten-off while using any of the superlines, but I allow the lure, location and conditions to dictate which rod I'm using at the moment.

In the past, I've caught less walleyes on superlines than mono - quite noticeably.

quote fishguts: "Never, use a steel leader unless you are fishing purely for northern pike! cause you won't catch anything else.
"

we started without leaders i caught 2 pike lost 2 spoons, put leaders on caught pike,smallmouth and largemouth. No walleye. First time to ever fish with leaders, ohio fish dont bite lures off!

I personally try to fish lakes that have very few pike in them, but if I have to fish a lake where biteoffs are a problem, I use fireline as a leader and never get bitten off.

I fished a remote lake north of BWCA last year with six-pound mono. There were huge pike that kept exploding on my smallie surface fishing. I had each hooked for about a second before they cut the line.

This year, I'm fishing with 80-lb. fluorocarbon leaders when I'm casting to pike. I've used them in the past and they work well. Otherwise, I'll use a few lures to pike on my six pound mono.

I like your profile picture Miss Molly, very nice smallmouth bass !

I never use leaders unless I'm casting for pike.

same, no leader ever unless fishing pike!!

bump

I'm from Indiana, have very little experience with pike, no experience with leaders, and I don't remember ever being bitten off in two trips to the BW. We mostly use 8 - 10 lb. mono with no leaders. We don't carry a net and we lose most of our pike, by a longshot, when they throw the lure right next to the boat.

To answer your question, I don't think I'll ever use a steel leader in the BW.

I caught this guy on 8 lb mono with no leader.

I am from Indiana. I have taken 6 trips to the BW. I use steel leaders on two occasions:
1- When i am out targeting Pike...if i am targeting Pike, i dont care if i dont catch other fish and if they get scared off due to the leader, oh well.

2- When i am fishing for something else and get more than one bite off, that tells me the Pike are active and i might switch to fishing for them. I hate losing nice pike though, that is a bummer.

Being from Indiana i really dont care what i am catching in the BW, as long as i am getting nice fish. Where i fish in IN, a 15 inch bass is a real win. In the BW, i am a really disappointed if that is the best i can do. I caught a 27inch pike in the elkhart river last summer (only pike in IN for the year for me) and that was a real treat...really nice fish. I usually get a decent number of LG mouth bass around 13 inches, decent gills, and some nice crappie and gills through the ice. I usually catch more nice fish in a couple days in the BW than i do in a whole year in northern IN.

I love my BW trips.
:)

One thing to consider is that if you lose a big Rapala to a Northern's teeth, it will not be able to spit out 3 treble hooks. Maybe this is of concern or not depending on your attitude. To me anytime you are killing a fish but not eating it, it's a bummer. In my experience there is no "trick" to keeping a Northern from cutting your line. It has less to do with how big the fish is and more to do with how the fish "hooks up" to the lure. If the lure is inside the mouth and the line is grazing back and forth on the incisors you're pretty much going to lose it for sure unless there is a leader or luck involved. A lot of the biggest northerns to come in on light line are due to hook ups outside the mouth, which is ideal.

Also, sometimes snags are bad enough. I like to troll back and forth over rock piles to find sweet spots to jig. A lot of times the rocks are enough to cause abrasions in mono and break the line. Firewire is great for this, but there are other issues with with super lines that send me back to mono. Having a leader on will prevent some of this.

My current arrangement is to roll with two rods/reels. One with 6 or 8lb test for jigging Walleyes no leader. One with 10 lb test and a leader. The second rod is only for trolling crankbaits and the first rod is only for jigging. When trolling I tend to paddle (comfortably) fast to drive the lures down deeper and to keep bass from getting on the hook. My impression is that the faster you go the more you are getting the "slam" bites where they are not investigating the bait as much. If I catch a Northern Jigging and the line breaks, I feel that the fish has a pretty good chance of spitting a single hook, plus I am using bismuth Jigs so the fish will not be poisoned.

In my opinion, people tend to be too worried about scaring off Walleyes. Sure, sometimes they are biting so light that you can barely feel them even jigging on an awesome rod carefully etc. But sometimes they hit just like a cruising Northern. Last year I caught many Walleyes including a wise old 28 incher on steel leaders. I have witnessed people catching walleyes even jigging with steel leaders (which I would never do).

If people are totally ok with losing fish to line break, losing lures, and possible killing the fish, what's the fear of a couple less picky bites? Just my take.

If I was in a spot where I was exclusively catching Walleyes, I might reconsider, but in my experience there are all too many trips where we are sighing over catching "sh*t sharks" in our Walleye holes.