Some thoughts from France on lighter/longer leaders for the more finesse side of things
(10% off everything at Veals Mail Order has been extended until midnight tonight, Bank Holiday Monday, use code EASTER10 at checkout)
A new estuary based bass fishing video from Ultimate Fishing dropped into my YouTube feed a few days ago, and while I don’t think that the overall filming and editing quality is quite up to their usual standards - lots of focus hunting! - I think the subject matters are fascinating. Big respect as always to this amazing French fishing tackle company………….
Have a watch of it and there are many snippets of useful information to take away. Whether you apply any of them to your own fishing is up to you and the type of bass fishing you either do or plan to do, or how open you are to trying different things. There is one sequence in the video for example that has really got me wracking my brain to think of any similar types of ground or specific areas I might know of already which might “behave” in a similar way with how the bass can move and feed. Not exactly great for my sleeping patterns with the brain bouncing away, but I’d rather be thinking about stuff I might be able to at try than not.
Jump to around 11:30 in this new (English speaking) Ultimate Fishing video “Estuary Bass Fishing Masterclass” above and you will see the two anglers start to talk about the whole leader strength, length and diameter thing. If you don’t use leaders for whatever reasons then this won’t interest you, but I do use leaders and I am very open to the French estuary bass wizard Nicolas Cadiou’s reasons and thoughts. Which let’s face it is honed over a lot more finesse style estuary based bass fishing than I have ever done, so why on earth would I not take note of what an obviously very astute and intelligent bass angler does and is willing to talk about?
There is no point in me trying to summarise what the lads talk about in the French video when you can simply watch it yourself, so why not have a look and really concentrate on the information that is so generously handed out. Anglers who get me thinking about my own fishing get a big thank you and loads of respect from my end. It’s so easy to dismiss stuff because something works just fine for you already, but how about trying something new or different to see if you can do better than “just fine”?
Then take a look at around 16:15 in the fishing video above which I posted and talked about last week. The thinking behind a much longer fluoro leader than I would have ever thought about using is different again, and once more it isn’t something which I had ever really thought about. As I said the other day, I understand the thinking behind slightly larger guides on a lure rod to allow for a leader knot to pass through during the cast - gotta be the FG knot all the way for me - and somewhere in the video above I am sure I remember Tom saying that longer leaders don’t work with his beloved HTO N70 lure rods and their tiny tip section guides especially. Such good rods which are obviously not remotely affected by leader length if you use the normal sort of say 3’ long leader which most bass anglers I know of use - me included - but I am perfectly open to giving the longer and lighter leaders ago for the increasing amount of estuary bass fishing I find myself doing.
Will it make a difference? I don’t know, but I do know that I will never know until I give it a go. By all means disagree with me for any number of reasons, but if you happen to be trying creature baits these days for example, why did you not dismiss that “fad” out of hand because what you were previously doing has been working just fine? This is the whole crux of fishing to me - the thrill of learning and understanding and trying new stuff. I have been looking around at some of the most cost effective leader material and I remembered that I always got on really well with the Varivas Hard Top fluorocarbon which comes on 80m spools for less than a tenner. I have just bought a spool of the 10lb/0.26mm from Veals Mail Order and I also got 10% off as well. Here’s to cheaper longer leaders!
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