Fluorocarbon pike traces

[Dales]

But there are loads of anglers who do use 150lb Fluro and don't experience the horrors that us Brits who never use it moan about. Just because they are American, Canadian, Swedish or what ever does not make there data less valid then British anglers who have a dreadful history of Pike care.

[Steve Walker]

Trebles.

 

For me, that is the most important consideration in whether to use wire or not. If using singles, I don't see that losing a hook in an accidental pike is any worse than losing a hook in any other accidental fish.

 

I've been bitten off by pike more times fishing at Wingham fish-ins than everywhere else put together, but we wouldn't fish for tench with wire.

[Steve Burke]

To those who say they've landed loads of pike on fluorocarbon I simply say it's not a case of if you'll lose a pike, it's when.

 

My view is therefore very simple. If there's pike in the water and I'm using anything but a lure with a single hook I use wire. Period. Almost 40 years of lure fishing tells me that pike do sometimes swallow lures. And a lure with one or more treble hooks would almost certainly be difficult for the pike to get rid of - although I've no direct evidence of this, only secondhand.

 

However if I'm using one single hook then I'm happy to dispense with the wire. This is the case when perch fishing with worms. These have caught me many a pike, and I've also been bitten off by pike many a time. However it appears that pike can get rid of 1 single hook very easily. For instance, I once 3x hooked a pike in one day (it was easily identifiable as it had a growth under its chin). It bit me off twice and I landed it the third time. There was no sign of the other 2 hooks.

 

If taken to the logical conclusion we'd always fish wire with any bait if the water contains pike. Just think about the Wingham pike that take vegetarian baits!

 

So for me it's a compromise.

 

Thankfully though, the message about wire traces does appear to be getting through to anglers in the US and elsewhere where catch and release is relatively new. Their fish handling skills have much improved, but in many cases they're still behind countries like us.

[grayson]

Interesting; I started to try dropshotting in last fortnight of river season. Following what seemed to be received wisdom I used a nylon hook link of about 10lb bs,I was targetting perch and again. what I read was that pike were rarely a problem on this method and that if caught bite offs were v rare because of way that hook stood proud on the Palomar knot- or something like that. I loved the method and caught several pike and lost several more- falling off and not bite offs. No bloody perch mind- they obviously can't read..I was starting to believe the stuff about no bite offs - which seemed counter intuitive-when I hooked a pike of about 5lbs in a small stream and guess what ? It bit me off. Now I am not going to get all Pike Nazi but I am sure as hell going to try to avoid a reoccurence because my own conscience doesn't like using a technique with this risk when it should be avoidable easily .So..I need some wire - and i'd like to use same Palomar rig. I suspect my usual cable type pike wire- Fox I think- is far too heavy and inflexible. Any suggestions for a good brand- preferably born out by your own experience when dropshotting rather than 'normal' lure fishing ?

[Andy_1984]

But there are loads of anglers who do use 150lb Fluro and don't experience the horrors that us Brits who never use it moan about. Just because they are American, Canadian, Swedish or what ever does not make there data less valid then British anglers who have a dreadful history of Pike care.

 

Most probably because the fluoro trace is still on the outside of its toothy mouth. Why haven't you commented on that Dales ? i think its a big bloody point worth thinking more about.

[Steve Burke]

Grayson, I haven't done enough dropshotting to know if I'd prefer a special type of wire. However, as a perch fanatic I fieldtested a huge number of wires from all over the world, and for nearly all my lure fishing I use 49 strand wire. I'm terribly busy at present so I'd ask you do a search here for 49 strand wire that will give you the reasons why and how to use it.

 

I'd add that I used to import it before I retired from the tackle trade. My successor at Caliber Tackle has just closed down so Wonder Wire is no longer available. However Harris Tackle sell 49 strand wire in 15lb breaking strain, although I've no idea of the manufacturer.

 

American Fishing Wire manufacture 49 strand wire and it's available from several outlets, sometimes under a different label. It's not the same as the original Wonder Wire, but I believe my successor at Caliber switched to it. I've used it though and can recommend it.

[philocalist]

This must surely be one of THE topics that is chewed over ad infinitum, and I doubt there will ever be a consensus of opinion on the issue: people who choose to use fluorocarbon leaders for whatever reason are likely to continue doing so, as will the others who advocate the use of wire - with perhaps an inconsequential few who will swap over for a while, then no doubt swap back again.

 

Andy, what are your view on using flouro for other species like zander and perch, where there's a chance of also hooking pike?

 

It's reasonable to assume that if we fish in a way to purposely attract the intention of perch and zander (particularly with lures, and live / dead baits), we WILL at some point encounter pike. The logic would seem to be therefore that we should use a wire trace under these circumstances 'just in case' - or maybe it is not quite so important in these circumstances as (with baits at least) the hooks used for these species are typically singles, not trebles, and of a much smaller size than those used for perch and zander? Consider also that it is not exactly unusual for pike to be caught on worms, maggots etc - even boilies - when targeting other species ... and I don't think any reasonable angler would expect the use of a wire (or fluorocarbon!) trace under those circumstances, no?

 

If I'm not trotting with a 'pin', most of my angling time for maybe 40 years has been spent behind a pike rod, or (more often) with a lure rod in my hands. The pike rod ALWAYS carries a wire trace, but the lure rod? Well, no - despite the fact that a pike MIGHT take a lure at any given point ... it all comes down to experience, conscience, probability, and the gear in use on that day (which in turn is a reflection of the species I'm targeting) If I'm PURPOSELY targetting pike, typically with bigger lures and a heavier set-up, I'll always use a wire trace.

That said, I beileve that a fluorocarbon trace IN A HEAVY ENOUGH breaking strain would be safe, but at that sort of strength it offers no benefits (to me) over wire ... it's very thick and inflexible and a real PITA to knot properly / neatly. That in itself is (I think) one of the biggest problems with advocating the use of fluorocarbon for trace material - people would opt for using lighter (and thus inappropriate) breaking strains.

Traces at other times when I'm lure fishing? Sometimes, and always wire if I do. If I'm chucking small spinners about expecting perch / chub / trout, I'll not use a trace unless I know the water is thick with pike (in which case, I'd likely to be fishing for them intentionally, ergo using a trace). Conversely, there is a water I've fished since the late 70's, never with a trace as I'm after the smaller species in there. I've NEVER been bitten off on that water in all that time, neither have I EVER seen evidence of small pike, yet there ARE pike in there well in excess of 20lbs! Experience, probability, conscience.

 

One of the things that muddies the decision a bit more for me (lately) is that as lure fishing really started to become poular in the UK, a much wider selection of lures became easily available. Prior to this, it was smaller Mepps / Droppen - type spinners, which never saw a wire trace, or plugs - much larger, aimed at pike and always protected by a wire trace. Now, with the wide variety of available lures, particularly plugs / crankbaits etc in smaller sizes, and the various softbaits, that 'line' seems to me much less distinct, as while these lures are very attractive to the smaller species they will also be taken by pike, moreso than the smaller 'metalware' ... a direct consequence of which now sees me using a wire trace as a precaution where before I would have discounted the possibility of pike at that location.

See ... no easy answer!

 

 

Bloody Hell! ... EIGHT new posts as I was typing!

Edited April 5, 2013 by philocalist

[Rusty]

Good thread this, I have a 36 inch waist so count myself as a well rounded angler.

 

What about a practical application of the theory? I plan to go lure fishing on the K&A canal this weekend. My setup was going to be 15lb braid (because it’s on the reel) connected to a thin wire trace and a small mepps spinner with the treble cut to a single hook. I’m targeting perch but pike will be present.

Perch being able to see the trace makes sense to me so I was considering changing to 10lb fluorocarbon, what should I do?

[Steve Burke]

One quick thing to add. In my experience perch do shy away from wire traces. At least they do with light lures like jigs.

 

I well remember Leon and I teaching a youngster to use jigs for perch at Wingham. We caught perch at first on wire, then takes stopped and we could see the perch follow but not hit. A change to a nylon trace immediately saw them start taking again.

 

And all this with fish that had almost certainly never seen a lure before!

[Worms]

I'm watching this with interest.

 

I used to do a lot of pike fishing and, still do a couple or three trips a year, both on stillwater and rivers.I've always used multi-strand wire or the braid/wire knottable trace material. I've never been bitten off.

 

I have been toying with the idea of dead-baiting with large circles and perhaps hard mono/fluorocarbon. I do a lot of tope fishing, now they have more, bigger and much sharper gnashers than pike and I've always used hard mono (skippers' requests). The bait can be flapping about over drop-offs and on various ground conditions with the tide constantly moving it about and so abrasion resistance is paramount...not forgetting of course the hugely abrasive skin of all sharks and, again, I've never been bitten off.

 

So far I'm not convinced that hard mono/FC lines are unsuitable for pike angling based on my tope fishing experiences with dead baits!