florocarbon leader question??

i’ve been using thorne bros florocarbon leaders and they work and look great but when fishing bulldogs the hooks tangle up in the leader…should i be using a different style leader or will this just happen sometimes?? when the bait hits tha water it gets tangled. maybe a wire leader would fix this?? wondering if u guys have any suggestions..

also i got a fish on a dawg and floro leader on monday and i don’t know if the fish scuffed up the leader or if it is the dawg hooks that are scuffing it up but the leader looks shot…if there are scuffs on floro do u toss it in the garbage?? if so this kinda sucks to buy a $6 leader and only catch 1 fish on it…if that is the case maybe back to more wire leaders. haha

thanks for any info guys and stay safe on the water!!

I use the 130# from Thorne as well. What you are describing is what we refer to as a Dawgball. I don’t think going to wire would solve the problem, just something one needs to live with when fishing plastics. Happens with Dunwrights, Thunderbeasts, etc. The curly tail slows the back end of the bait mid-flight and the hooks end up crossing the lead.

Always seems to happen when you make the day’s longest cast. And inevitably when burning the dawgball back to the boat is when you will finally get a follow.

I was fishing with Bob and Tim last fall; Tim had a Pounder tied up, and he showed us a little trick for getting it out. Kind of the same way you free a snag when bass fishing. Draw the line with your hand between the reel and the first guide, like you are flippin, then snap the rod upward and release the line. It pulls the bait forward quickly slacking the line and then the Dawg sinks away or out of the leader. Tim is good at it, I still am not.

As far as swapping out a knicked or scuffed leader… I would do so without any reservation, the leader\line is your only insurance policy between you and a fish. After all the casts I have to make, a five spot is a small price to pay to make sure I actually land what I hook.

wies:

Like Dan, if I thought there were any imperfections in the leader, I would scrap it. If you want, save the snaps and swivels for retieing if you ever get into that.

Also a neat trick on the unfouling brought forth by Dan from Tim!!!

Another trick I have learned over the years to help the inevitable leader hangup is to thumb stop the line at the very end of the cast. It seems to straighten out the bait just before entry and tends to reduce this fouling. Doesn’t work all the time, but a lot. I do this with big lipped divers to as sometime they will swim upside down back (the lip not allowing the bait to turn right side) to the boat if they are not straightened before entry.

Mark

thanks for the tips guys. hopefully sometime somebody like tim can post a video on how to untangle a dawg, that would be pretty sweet to know how to do that. or maybe 1 day u pros will post an open seat… haha

Normaly I can get them out by grabing the rod at the butt with both hands and snapping it, partner calls this my Gypsy Moth move ( no clue where he ever came up with that) but it does work 80% of the time. As far as leaders I run 130 and 150 Stealths and still giong strong after many fish and going into their 3rd season…

yea that was the first fish i got on that leader and i didn’t know if it was the fish doing those leaps of faith or if it was fouling up on the bulldogs?? either way i did switch out the leader but kept it for parts