Determine Leader lbs.

Think it all depends on your conditions and personal preference. On my bass spinning rods I use 30 lb fluoro. Why? Because I like its ability to take a decent amount of abrasion before I have to retie them; those bass gill plates can be brutal. If the blues ever decide to come back to Maine, I'd probably up my leaders to 40 lbs...

I also use 30 lb braid on those reels, but have a definitive reason; 30 lb braid is the same diameter as 8 lb mono, about the thinnest line my fat fingers can tie knots in while fish are breaking around me. It's not a matter of breaking strength; 30 lb is way overkill since I set my drags at about 5-8 lbs to prevent breakoffs and straightened hooks...

I use 20 or 25 flouro for bass. Really have not seen too many blues to make it necessary to get anything stronger and I really don't fish heavy rocky areas, More dropoffs and ledges. Like Roccus said if you have sticky rough bottom you may want to increase the line wt.

Hey all,

Is there a general rule of thumb that everyone uses in determining what pound leader to use with mono/braid line?

Depends on the application.

That being said I tend to go a little heavier than most. I’ve seen to many large fish lost due to under-equipped line/leader choices. I also go heavier because when I fish it’s usually on a PB and I need to have a bit more control of the fish to avoid tangles, etc...

Thanks everyone, I pretty much use 30-40 on my Bass rod. On my spinning with 15lb braid I was thinking of going 10-15lb Fluoro