Braid leaders yes / no

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Hi all.
I have a spinning outfit I use on the boat a BG20 with 20lb braid on a Kingfisher pasidon flick stick, what I would like to know is the following, do you require a leader to your snood trace (flouro) and if so do you use mono or a thicker braid ??,

[REEFMAN]

Mono/Fluoro Leaders are used because of their stretch/shock absorption, their abrasion resistance and for their low visibility. Braid has no stretch, so it would be no benefit as a leader. Braid also has very poor abrasion resistance, so it's of no value as a leader.

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Thanks Reefman, another question, how long do you make the leader ??

[Fritz]

use some fluoro or mono as leader as reefman has stated above. The length of the leader should be the lenght of your drop when casting. Make sure that the leader knot does not go thru the eye of your stick. This will result in the knot getting damaged and you cursing like none other when you loos a fish.

[Capt. Hook]

CLS, you must have a mono leader of at least 7m to absorb the shock properly, otherwise you will have the following problems.
1. You will pull the lure out the fishes mouth when he hits
2. If it is a biger fish the shock will part your line
3. If you line did not part as in 2 you will wear a big hook hole in his mouth and he will come loose.
4. You line will most likely part on any decent fish
5. If you fish goes for the bricks, you line will part

What I do is I make a wind on leader with a thin, light dacron and make a 40 turn bimini in my braid and connect with a 5 turn modified cats pawl.

For you 20lb braid you can make a 20-30lb leader 6.5m long and then add a 50lb shock tippet of 300mm if you need, for 30lb I would not add a shock tippet.

At the end of the line tie a small swivel and fit a forged spilt ring for attaching your lures.

The swivel will help with line twist and act as a short bite trace. With teh split ring changing lures etc. will be easy.

[REEFMAN]

I agree with Mike wholeheartedly on the issue of Leader length - although we are wayyyyy in the minority on this score. MOST guys prefer a short leader with the join just outside the rod tip.

In my opinion, this defeats the purpose of having a leader, as the short size of the leader (as Mike says) is not enough to absorb the shock of a big take.
I prefer having a few winds of leader on the reel - firstly this protects your casting finger, provides good shock absorption as well as much needed abrasion resistance.

What I did was to increase the tip eye/guides on all my spinning rods... the big knot problem solved, one time an' all!  :sml: But a definite option is to go with Wind-on leaders or even the tapered leaders from T-line...

[Cam Mundy]

I generally work on two winds onto the spool of the reel
on another note I'm sure in the one issue of the ESA magazine they recommend some red braided line as a leader directly to the lure I can't remember the reasoning or what the braid was called