20lb vs 30lb for spoon rigger setups

[Sk8man]

I use separate rod/reel setups that have 12 lb, 20 lb and 30 Sea flee (12 for Fingers in Spring/Fall, 20 for Lake O Spring, and 30 Sea Flee for summer flea season and use fluoro leaders on all of them

[Chas0218]

I can't believe people are using heavy line like this.  20lb?  50lb?!?!?!  Are you kidding me?  The heaviest line I have on down rigger rods is 14lb, and Ive never had a break off.  Even on my wire dipsys I only use 17lb leader.  Im shocked right now

 

I don't use 50lbs line I was using that as an example.  I have tied 50lbs. line to 12lbs. leaders without the knot getting stuck in the eyes of my pole using a Double Uni knot.  

 

I use 20lbs. and 30lbs. big game to a 12lbs. flouro leader.

[ERABBIT]

Two types of sea fleas one is bad but can be controlled just by switching out/cleaning rigs. The other (fishhook type ) will cling to 30# test nasty guys guys need 40# , 50# mono or fleaflicker , bloodrunsea flea.

 

Andy think it's your eye on your rod , I had one jamming up with the #8 spro , it finally broke. I got some diffent rods this year and checked the eyes before I bought them....... mine seemed like the top eye was smallest if your's are the same you could change that one out.

Good luck

Ed 

[Chas0218]

I run 30 on my flasher fly rods I used to run 30mono then 25 floro on all my rods but went to dan keating seminar and he runs 12 stren ( not even sure if it's floro Scored a few free spools at show. )on his spoon rods So I tried it My catch rate went way up Lighter line. Gives spoon more action Less risitance in the water I was like no way at first I had to get over the fact was worried about breaking off fish. But I never really did Pick up his book. Or video keAting on kings

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The stren is probably mono unless it says flouro specifically on it. Like this stuff

 

Generally speaking with a 10'-15' leader of 12lbs. flouro you're not going to have much line resistance effecting the action of the spoon. 

 

I'm just curious when you say your hook up rate went up are you referring to the actual number of fish you caught or less short strikes/false releases?  If it went up that much I may have to experiment to see if mine improve.

[fathobbit0074]

I bet I get a 2x more fish on light line spoon rig than I do on heavy line 30/25 seagar flouro spoon rig I have rods that still have heavy line I run And If I am and changiing out lures all the time I ll throw spoons on them and they get out fished by. Lighter rigs I fish fingerlakes all year round and run. 12 mono tk 10 seagar flouro all year round. Sure fleas are bad in summer. But I'll just keep cleaning g them off. I fish Cayuga sen and big O quite a bit and I find Cayuga. Fleas by far the worst Lake o fleas don't even compare to Cayuga Not even close. In my opinion. So I Havd no prob with fleas on o. Maybe i just don't hit it that bad but I' up there mYbe 2x a week all summer I know there ard guys that fish both what do you think ?

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[DJ 17]

I fish both cayuga and Ontario.  FLEAS SUCK both places but I think Cayuga is ridiculous.

[Tim Bromund]

I fill my rigger reels with 300 yds of 17 or 20 lb Trilene XT, than splice in 120-150 or so feet of 30 lb big game (to cover the distance from the rod tip to release for flea season), then a 50 lb spro power swivel to around 10 feet of fluoro leader, 10 lb in the spring for the shoreline Brown Trout and 20 lb for the summer.

 

Tim

[Barndog]

I agree with all of Bazooka Joe's statements. That's how we have been doing it as of late. Except we use FleaFlicker. Fleas were ridiculous last year and salmon were biting off stuff from July on out. My two cents...

[chowder]

You must not deal with the fleas. Andy just change your knot to a double surgeons. I run 30 to 20 seagar gold label. No issues.

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I've always used the Albright but took Scott's advice and used the double surgeon's from my 30lb maxi to 15lb FC. I'll probably switch out to 20 in a few weeks but last weekend a lot of the fish including the 'freight train' that busted off were right on top so I'll use 2 of these setups as high flat lines off the boards and compare the 3rd one to my regular spoon rigger setups which are straight 30lb maxi.

[BAZOOKAJOE]

I've always used the Albright but took Scott's advice and used the double surgeon's from my 30lb maxi to 15lb FC. I'll probably switch out to 20 in a few weeks but last weekend a lot of the fish including the 'freight train' that busted off were right on top so I'll use 2 of these setups as high flat lines off the boards and compare the 3rd one to my regular spoon rigger setups which are straight 30lb maxi.

Yup, i had a biggun break the uni-knot between a leader and mainline.  That's why i use the spro swivel now.

[BAZOOKAJOE]

I use separate rod/reel setups that have 12 lb, 20 lb and 30 Sea flee (12 for Fingers in Spring/Fall, 20 for Lake O Spring, and 30 Sea Flee for summer flea season and use fluoro leaders on all of them

I was assuming all along summer king fishing.  But this is what i do except 15 or 20 on my spring king/brown rods with 12 lbs leader.  Then i break out (or re-spool) with 30 lbs sea-flee, big game or flea flicker and up the leader to 15...when the fleas show up.  I up the leader to 20 later in the summer.  And run no leader with flashers.

[chowder]

So the double surgeons held great and went right thru the guides w/out any hesitation with good fish on. Only line fatality yesterday was a 10lb cheater that parted ways from the main line when 2 Hoes hit both spoons simultaneously.