Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Pike -- leader preference, no hatred

Gene - I'm in the knottable wire camp. It's overkill for most of the fish, but essential for ensuring that 1 huge fish you may hook doesn't simply bite you off. I've used the AFW 7x7 Surflon Micro Supreme Wire that you mentioned in 20-lb test, and I really like it a lot. 

What I've done in the past is pre-tie 12-15" of leader to flies that I know I'll be using a lot and leave a loop in the end of the wire. That way I can do a loop-to-loop connection from the end of my heavy mono to my wire. As long as one of the loops is large enough to pass the fly through, it makes switching flies a breeze. 

Also, one thing that I've found with pike (I don't have any experience with musky... yet!) is that they tend to really inhale smaller flies, which can make them super difficult to retrieve, even if they're barbless. Trying to get a 3-4" fly out of the throat of a small-ish pike without having really long forceps is quite a challenge. 

Really helpful - search Amazon for: SE Forceps, Straight 12" + Curved 12"

When are you going? I'd be happy to let you borrow the forceps for your trip. I won't need them until the end of July. 

Hope that helps! And good luck!

--Scott

On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 12:31 PM, TurbineBlade <doublebclan@gmail.com> wrote:

I have not fished for pike or musky, and have not been successful fishing for pickerel up to this point (went for pickerel, came home with crappie one day last year). 

I'll be in pike country in a few weeks and am really not interested in major tackle changes, since I don't fish for pike enough to warrant buying a 9-10 weight that would sit in a closet for years at a time.  I'll be fishing the stand-by 9' 8-weight with a heavy, short head fly line of my own making that works quite well.  I also have a slo-mo and depth charge on spare spools. 

Leaders -- It kind of seems like if you want to start a fight, you just bring this up and wait for the Northerners to go at it.  Some like heavy mono tippet, some like fluoro, some swear that anything not wire is just stupid, others hate wire, some don't change anything because they don't care, etc.  Some say they formerly used wire but get more hook-ups with heavy fluoro and won't go back, some hate tyger wire, some only use single strand (piano wire) from Ace Hardware, etc. etc. etc. 

Clearly there are many ways to go about this and probably any/all can result in some level of success.

I have some AFW 7x7 (expensive) coated wire that seems to knot well, and I have some Seaguar blue label 40-pound fluoro. I've found that I can loop-loop wire and heavy fluoro tippet pretty easily to the stocky leaders I already use locally (big game mono 40-30-20-12/10)   I can also blood knot the fluoro tippet by doubling over the smaller line.  Both seem to work okay. 

What's you preference for this?  I know there are some musky/pike guys on here --

These will not be trophy pike -- just smaller and maybe some medium ones thrown in.  Like smaller channel catfish pectoral and dorsal spines will teach you though, I don't trust that small pike are any less capable of cutting my line than larger pike. 

 Most of the flies I'm cranking out are only about 5-6" in length (poppers, gurglers, bucktails, rabbit leeches), which are quite a bit larger than what I generally use around here, but are still smaller than what a lot of pike people seem to prefer. 

Thanks --

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