Fish-Hawk.Net

I am tossing a fluorescent yellow squid like creature that is being chased by 2 rotating kitchen spoons and it's all being held together by a piece of coat hanger. That said, I am worrying about the visibility or my heavy line and hoping that the presentation doesn't seem unnatural.

Now I recognize the difference between burning a spinnerbait for aggressive fish and using a drop shotted leech to target the less aggressive ones, but are we giving fish too much credit?

Switching between my wacky rigged worm (with fluorocarbon leader) and spinnerbait (on heavy braid) left me wondering last weekend. After all, I was catching fish on both.

Anybody car to share their thoughts, opinions or any research that they may have come across on matter like this?

Finesse baits, where the fish have a chance to examine the offering, dictate clearer line (fluoro or thin mono).

Reaction baits such as jigs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and most fast-moving baits, dictate less of the strike is dependant on line visibility, and is more dependant on flash/noise/action/"eat now or miss out".

I think we give fish way too much credit. I've no doubt there are exceptions to that, by I try to fish by the odds and percentages....

Most fish, on the majority of days don't get spooked by line...

IMO, A healthy 50% or more of bass are caught from aggression/reaction bites not hunger, and I doubt in their "pee pee off-ed-ness" they check for line before smacking it...

Yeah, I'm a non-believer in the hype... but I've never had a paycheck on the line for fishing either... so it's not critical for me... its just a fun game.

yeah, I have been doing well with un-tipped jigging spoons and 20lbs braid in crystal clear for walleye this season. Tried spraying the spoon with GULP spray and stopped when I noticed no difference.

Presentation means way more, if it looks like food, moves like food chances are it'll get eaten. While fish probably do see leaders and line, they don't know what its purpose is! Just dunk a wire leader into the lake and watch stupid sunfish attack it as if its a tiny minnow or something.

Just remember, before all these fancy new gimmicks came out, people still caught large amounts of big fish.

Let me tell you I use 65lb spider wire and catch a ton of fish wacky rig I had someone tell me that it was boat rope (MR Twister) and let me tell you him and his fishing partner was in for a shock to see the sack of bass we brought to the scale its all about the presentation to the fish this year I'm trying fluro and if I don't like it its coming off and the 65lb goes back on

65lb? lol you using that to pull up boat anchors too?

65lb test line for WACKY rig? Maybe for froggin' or flippin' jigs in nasty cover, but for WACKY rigs? To each his own...

I think in a perfect world it probably does but there are lots of variables.

I was rigging my gear for bass season and used an article from Bass Master magazine as my guide. I didn't do it so much based on the visibility factor as I did on how the various lures and baits reacted on the different types of line.

Fluorocarbon sinks and is supposed to transmit ticks, bumps and bites better than mono. So I'm using fluoro on my crankbaits and plastics and dropshoting.

I've also read a couple of articles where guys say they only use mono for topwaters. I bought into this as well although I use mono on my extra plastics and spinnerbait rods as well.

I'm using braid for my frogging and jigs.

I'm sure others are doing things differently and depending on how things go (or the next article I read) I may be changing up again in the near future. I'm also trying to use lighter lines this year downsizing from to 10 & 12 lb mono to 6 & 8 lb mono so I guess that along with using more fluoro qualifies as "clearer" line.

Just one man's (unexpert) opinion.

Good luck.

I couldn't agree more about choosing a line based on presentation.
Some things just don't work well like fishing trebble hook adorned topwater baits using limp braid. If you've done it you know what I mean.

Frequently lighter line will enable me to cast further and that can be a good thing for clear water fishing in itself.

On the other hand moving from 6lbs to 8lbs line I have noticed a fairly dramatic increase in abrasion resistance. It really doesn't take many encounters with the odd weed or rock in mostly open water to damage line that light.

The reason I created the thread was mainly to see if people believed that less fish would commit to biting their bait because they saw the fishing line. Some cool points here though

I don't know that it makes it a difference, but I certainly act as if it does.

For example, I definitely use fluoro leaders with braid, fluoro alone, light line etc. in clear water for trout and smallmouth. Does this make a difference? I don't know, but it certainly helps my confidence level, which I believe in turns helps me catch more fish.

If it is not a hardship to use less visible line etc., then I want to give myself every possible advantage.

CD

65lb test is like 12lb test i dont break off and I dont swing for the fence a nice lite pull up and its fish on but like I said I swiched to fluro and we will see

I find it makes all the difference on winter days when they're not really active.
Summer months..I'm usually after fish that couldn't care less about line colour.