What's the best leader?

“There are loads of options for leaders. Some anglers swear by leadcore whereas others like the softer unleaded which is advertised as following the contours of the bottom of the lake. Some people just fish naked all the way through whereas other advocate a fluoro leader or tubing. Throw in tungsten leaders and tubing and there are so many options it can be quite confusing. Which leader is best?”

The simple answer is there isn’t a simple answer. It all depends on the usual questions such as what you are fishing over, how far out you are fishing, are there any obstacles, how deep is the water etc. A short length of Illusion fluoro fished as a spook leader is about as good as it gets if you can get everything tight on the bottom at the lead end. If you can’t, the thin nature of nylon is better, particularly when fishing tight lines. Some people might be concerned about damage to the fish but I have rarely seen any more damage than that which is caused with normal leaders.

For me tungsten leaders and tubing are a bit of a no-no. I used to use both but now feel that the tungsten ones in particular can be dangerous and in any event they rarely sink. The tungsten is supposed to nail them down but there is quite simply not enough of it to do the job and I’ve got loads of piccies of them off the bottom. Tubing is very obvious, and unless tungsten impregnated, it doesn’t sink very well so that leaves us with braid. Leadcore will lie flat on a clean bottom and should be fished slack or semi slack, and unleaded leaders are similar and a little softer but they don’t always follow the contours as much as the advertising behind them would have you believe. The ultra supple ones try to, but once again there is not enough weight in the material for it to sink completely between obstacles.

That just leaves us with straight braid, which floats. The majority of the braids that I have looked at float, and the ones that are advertised as sinking are more realistically neutral buoyancy than sinking. A few blobs of tungsten will help them down as indeed will flying back leads but remember once again that if the line is fished tight, the weight and the leader will be lifted off the bottom. It’s all down to what’s between you and the rod as to whether you fish tight or slack, and if it’s slack a leadcore or unleaded will do the job, whereas if it’s tight opt for a naked or Illusion spook leader.