Scientific Anglers

Musky Leader 

Well, not to disappoint the leader junkies out there, but I use the pretty much the same leader for all my musky fishing. The only change I may make is from fluorocarbon to monofilament if my sole purpose is topwater. To narrow it down even more, that’s only ever an issue if you are fishing thick cover. That would be like weeds just below the surface or trying to stay out of barely submerged timber.  Then mono is used.

The leader I’m referring to is a basic “level leader” of 40/40. Either a three-foot section of Absolute 40-pound fluoro or mono Albright knotted to 12”-18” section of 40-pound nylon coated wire. I leave just a bit of tag end on both ends of this knot.   If you are targeting pike, you could use 25-pound wire.

For connecting to fly the line, most lines these days have a welded loop.  That makes things really simple. I tie a perfection loop in the leader and just do a loop-to-loop to the line.  This is a knot you want to know as a musky angler. If your welded loop wears or you’re just not a loop believer, you can just nail knot to the fly line.  In either case it’s important to keep your knot clean and trimmed pretty close.

For a proper figure 8, you’ll have that portion of the leader into your rod and through a couple rod guides.   If you hook that fish on the “8” or you need to recast, you want the knot to exit smoothly.  On the opposite end, wire leader to the fly- another perfection loop straight to the fly. I prefer a small loop. If you’re a fly changer then tying a snap to the wire leader is an option also.