I get a lot of questions about what size and what type of leader we run in our lures. So today I want to lay the whole system out: the pound tests I use, the brands I buy, how long I cut my leaders, and the wire and crimps that connect everything. My usual disclaimer applies. There are a lot of ways to do this, and a lot of different ways work. This is just the way that works for me and my crew.
Most articles tell you to pick leader by species. I do it the other way. The lure size decides the leader, because the lure size decides what is likely to eat it.
Pretty much all my 7 inch and 9 inch lures get 300 pound test. Even my 12 inch lures get 300. My theory is simple: 300 pound test will handle anything I want to catch. Any mahi, any ahi, and the marlin I want to land, you can land on 300. If a fish is big enough to break 300 pound test, I do not want him. I know guys who run 400 pound test, and that is fine, but 300 has been the right size for us.
The small lures are where the leader choice actually matters. If it is not ahi season and I am focused on catching aku, I run 130 pound test. A lighter leader gets you more aku bites.
But during ahi season, if there is a pile of aku around and I want to pick a few off, I bump those same small lures up to 200 pound test. Here is the reasoning: I might catch fewer aku on the heavier leader, and some days I will drag it and catch none. But if an ahi is lurking around that aku pile and decides to grab your small lure, 200 pound test gives you a real good chance of landing that fish. You can land an ahi on 130, but you have to be a lot more careful and real gentle when you leader him. I have heard plenty of stories of guys hooking a big ahi on light aku gear and losing the whole thing.
On the aku lures I like fluorocarbon, 130 to 150 pound. If I am out in the deep where ahi could show up, I go 200 to 220 pound fluorocarbon. Honestly, I have not found that fluorocarbon makes much difference for ahi. It is the aku that seem to care about the lighter, clearer leader.
I only run three leaders. I buy pre-cut leader from POP here in Hawaii, including their Platinum line, and I run Momoi Hi-Catch in 300 pound test. Then I run Maxima 300 pound test in the lures I really do not want to lose. The Maxima is expensive, but it has a reputation for being strong. I have never broken any of these leaders yet.
One more thing: relatively speaking, leader is cheap. If your leader is getting milky and losing its clearness, change it. If you just caught a big marlin or a big ahi, change it. If you see any nicks in it, change it. Taking the time to swap a few dollars of leader will save you a lot of heartache in lost fish, and it will save you from losing lures too.
People ask about leader length and the honest answer is it does not matter much. What matters is that all your leaders are the same length. I make every leader three arm spans, which for me is about 15 feet.
The reason is leadering. When I am pulling a good fish those last few feet by hand, I know exactly when his head is going to pop up, because every leader on the boat is the same length. I can tell my gaff man, this is an ahi, next time he circles he is going to show, get ready. That little bit of predictability makes the most dangerous part of the fight a lot calmer.
At the end of a trip I coil every leader the same way, twisting as I make the coils. Next time you change lures, you hold the lure, toss the coil in the water, and it runs itself out straight with no tangles.
The leader itself is mono, but the connections do the real work. Inside every lure I run chafe tubing through the head, with a mushroom burned on the end so the leader never rubs bare against the lure.
Between my double hooks I use 500 to 600 pound stainless wire with 1.9 crimps. When you crimp, do not crimp right at the edge of the sleeve. Come in just a touch, so the ends flare up a little like a dog bone. A hard edge on a crimp will slowly wear into mono leader and eventually cut it.
On the hook side and the swivel side I use a Flemish eye: pass the line through the eye twice, work the loop down, then crimp. If a crimp ever slips, the Flemish eye cinches down into a knot instead of pulling free. I lost a whole rig once off a plain loop, and I have rigged with the Flemish eye ever since.
If you do not want to build your own, we sell the same double stainless hook rigs we fish ourselves, and the stainless hooks to rig your own.
That is the whole system. Nothing fancy: 300 pound test on the big lures, 130 or 200 on the small ones depending on the season, three arm spans, fresh leader whenever it looks tired. Best of luck out there.
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Some of my best days started as busted ahi plans. Here is how I find and work floating rubbish in Hawaii, from hunting speed between piles to the six inch lures and Aku Bones that go in the water first when I break down.
I run a 9-inch spread during ahi season, but the 7-inch and 6-inch lures earn their spot in the box for everything else. Here is how I use each size, when I reach for the Ali’i heavy series in rough water, and why I pull them all out once that 3-month ahi window opens.
We sell or give away the best cuts of every ahi, and the fisherman keeps the rest. Here is how I smoke the head, why the meat around the eyes smells like crab, and how what is left turns into a really good head soup.
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