Line Visibility

[FISHIONADO]

I've always used flouro leaders because I thought it was less visible and attracted more strikes. Maybe that is true with a slow moving live bait. The link below (more marketing than article) shows that line visibility isn't an issue for jointed rebels. Are fish really smart enough to know that a line in front of a bait is bad news? Maybe some species like halibut have better eyesight and it matters more for them?

http://www.mexfish.com/apgs/rebels/rebels.htm

LEADERS AND LINE: Supposedly, the lighter the line you use, the more strikes you will get, right? In practice, we found that using line up to about 25 pound test with Jointed Rebels worked just fine. More than that causes problems with lure action and will cost you hits. However, I am 100 percent convinced that the problem with heavy line is not line visiblity. This is because Neil Kelly, who absolutely hated to waste time tying on new lures, always fished with an ugly, six-inch black plastic coated wire leader with a big, ugly snap at the lure end. This way, Neil could snap on new lures in seconds. In an effort to beat Neil's incredible fish counts, I usually tied on direct, and sometimes I would go down as low as 6-pound line to beat Neil's 25-pound. In all the years we fished togther I NEVER ONCE beat Neil. So much for line visibility.