Leadcore

[garysj01]

Hi everyone

Recently i have been spending a lot of my time trying to disprove the danger theory regarding leadcore, yes leadcore, i hear a lot of you shriek NO.

Whether we like it or not, anglers are going to use it, full stop. Due to its press in the media, new anglers especially are going to see their idols catching fish on a regular basis and want to get on to leadcore with realising the danger it can pose. I myself have used it for years, i absolutely loved the stuff it meant i could disquise my rig as good as could, i could fish next to snags and weed without the fear of getting cut off. But recently i read a thread that pointed out (among other issue,s) because of the abrasive nature of leadcore it could possibly cause damage to the fish. This did indeed started me thinking about the usage of leadcore and to be honest i raged war on everybody who strongly advised against its use.

There are a few problems with leadcore so i will address them one by one.

 

Firstly

Leadcore twisting and kinking on the cast, therefore stoping any beads or swivels attached to a hooklink from coming off the leadcore should your rig snap off.

I did play around with this for ages and the best way to stop this happening was to take out the lead inner, now im not saying this stopped the problem 100% but it did greatly reduce this happening on the cast.

 

Secondly

The lead inner sometimes after a bit of use can penetrate through the outer wall of leadcore causing the problem stated above. As before by taking out the inner core you can reduce this happening.

 

Thirdly

Bits of weed and debri getting caught in the spliced loops of leadcore, thus stoping any rig from coming off should you suffer a snap off.

Tie the leadcore to the swivel or lead using a 4 or 5 turn grinner knot and to connect the mainline at the top, pull the mainline through the leadcore and out of the side and tie a 4 to 5 turn grinner knot on the outside of the leedcore, i for one have never trusted loops and when i did i purchased some already tied and they came undone, thankfully the lead end and not the mainline end.

 

Fourthly

This is the one i really struggled with, the abrasive nature of leadcore, meaning it can damage fish. This one i played round with smothering the outer core with tungsten putty, plastercine and all manner of substances to try and get the outer core just a bit smoother. I cannot get this outer core to a sufficant enough smoothness to guarantee it not damaging the fish. And believe me i have tested and tried for a long time now.

 

In conclusion i know there are probably a lot more aspects about leadcore which i have missed but these have been the ones i see commonly brought up in threads concerning leadcore safety.

And for this reason i will not be using leadcore and would advise unless you absolutely need to use it then dont.

 

Many thanks for reading

Gary

 

PS i suspect one of the moderators or administrators will probably put this somewhere else but i just thought i was worth mentioning on a fresh thread

[lessthanphil]

Forgive my ignorance (I haven't used leadcore for ages) but wouldn't removing the inner effectively make it's use pointless and make using a tubing, heavy fluro or a pre-fab leader a better option anyway?

[garysj01]

Yes it would render the leadcore no more than just a braided leader, i thought it was worth addressing as i have seen this in print before. Sorry i did mean to put this issue in and forgot

[lessthanphil]

No worries, thanks for the clarification.

[garysj01]

No worries, thanks for the clarification.

I have seen this written about in magazines and i think some anglers may be under the influence all you need leadcore for is to disguise your presentation, which is not what it was intended for.

[lessthanphil]

Yep, personally I think there are far better options to disguise the business end - plain old fluro does the job pretty well - it can be extremely difficult to see.

[Guest single_bleep]

Any views on the Solar Unleaded? I've not used it but a couple of mate rave about it. A bit off topic but they also do a hook link version, anyone used that either?

[garysj01]

Hi

I havent seen the leader by solar so i wouldnt like to comment on it, all i will say is, if it is made out of a braided material then it does have the potential to damage a fish.

[Guest single_bleep]

I need to get a closer look myself before passing judgement, from what I understand it is similar in construction to leadcore but with no lead. You splice it the same but suggests you use glue (which puts me off a little) its very supple and heavy so it 'pins down to every contour' apparently. May just have to bite the bullet and buy some to try it out.

 

The hook link interests me more though, current rigs I'm using - more supper the better.

[Guest single_bleep]

*supple

[garysj01]

I need to get a closer look myself before passing judgement, from what I understand it is similar in construction to leadcore but with no lead. You splice it the same but suggests you use glue (which puts me off a little) its very supple and heavy so it 'pins down to every contour' apparently. May just have to bite the bullet and buy some to try it out.

 

The hook link interests me more though, current rigs I'm using - more supper the better.

Hello fella

Can i ask why your thinking of using a leader?

[cobleyn]

Any views on the Solar Unleaded? I've not used it but a couple of mate rave about it. A bit off topic but they also do a hook link version, anyone used that either?

 

It's awesome stuff. Used it for leaders and for hooklengths for big stuff.

[salokcinnodrog]

The only thing this Moderator is doing with the post is "Stickying" it.

 

Like Gary for a lot of years I used the stuff (and can "prove it" from old diaries), but did not realise the problems that go with it. Eventually after comments made by Goblin, Jemsue and some other people on here, and losing a fish, I decided to get into the water to prove or dispel the myths that I thought they were making up.

 

To my surprise I found all they said was true regarding splices, abrasion, twisting, kinking and preventing release and the problem of potential fish tethering.

 

Like Gary I also purchased some ready made leaders and the ends frayed away, even with a Needle knot, and on a cast the whole leader left the mainline. I had to go in to retrieve them as it was during the experiments I was running.

 

 

I had a BIG argument with a certain magazine and its editor about publishing leadcore rigs as I thought it was irresponsible, the whole e-mail saga went on for a month or so, and yet he didn't want me to publish or post his comments on here or any other forum. Then the magazine went onto do a "For and Against" debate, with Keith Moors and another name. I was accused of scaremongering, and told that the time I spent typing I didn't have time to do any actual fishing.

 

I remember the death of Arnie the Big Common at Linear (? the name of the lake I am not sure of), and being found tangled up in leadcore in snags on one of the lakes, then the same sort of death has happened to other fish since then; Grey Tail I believe was found dead wrapped up at Suffolk Water Park, and a couple of fish I have found myself (still living fortunately), and then Simon Crow decided to take the trouble to publicise a DEAD fish he retrieved wrapped up in a Leader. There was also another picture published on here and in magazines with a fish having taken a piece of plastic corn wrapped up in a bundle of lines (in plural), some of which were leadcore and leaders.

 

Gary,

I would be very interested in any photographs you have of your experiments. Might be worth posting on here, and sending to a magazine or 2 to see if they reply.

 

Incidentally the (13page) thread regarding my comments sent to the Magazine is still on the forum, and if anyone wants to have a read of the thread and the argument it turned into I will PM the search terms or the link if you want it.

[Guest single_bleep]

I need to get a closer look myself before passing judgement, from what I understand it is similar in construction to leadcore but with no lead. You splice it the same but suggests you use glue (which puts me off a little) its very supple and heavy so it 'pins down to every contour' apparently. May just have to bite the bullet and buy some to try it out.

 

The hook link interests me more though, current rigs I'm using - more supper the better.

Hello fella

Can i ask why your thinking of using a leader?

 

 

Hi Gary,

 

To be honest I've been using leadcore for years on a reservoir I fish mainly because I want to get the line pinned down nearest the lead without fishing slack lines. I too have the same concerns over fish safety hence why I only use it on this venue where there are no snags. This is why I am interested in looking into the unleaded - my thoughts are that if it is as supple as they claim then the 'kinking' issue will not be a problem.

[Guest single_bleep]

Any views on the Solar Unleaded? I've not used it but a couple of mate rave about it. A bit off topic but they also do a hook link version, anyone used that either?

 

It's awesome stuff. Used it for leaders and for hooklengths for big stuff.

 

Hi cobleyn,

 

Any issue with it tangling due to how supple it is? Obviously I don't want any problems with it wrapping around the lead and such, Turing the whole thing into a 'death rig'.

 

Would you liken the hook link to anything else out there on the market?

[cobleyn]

Its very supple stuff, so I can't see it having the same issues as lead core. If you get a length of it and put it in the margins the stuff literally disappears as its so heavy it sinks into the top silt layer.

 

I've never seen a hooklengths like it either. I've only used it in the heavier strengths (80lb I seem to recall) for cats in Spain and for redtails and arapiama. Very abrasion resistant!

[snowmanstevo]

Any views on the Solar Unleaded? I've not used it but a couple of mate rave about it. A bit off topic but they also do a hook link version, anyone used that either?

 

It's awesome stuff. Used it for leaders and for hooklengths for big stuff.

 

I was shown this by a fellow member at Cromwell (he even give me some coz he,s a nice guy!) and i was amazed by it

 

I dont know if his recent capture included this product i,ll let him comment but lets just say it was a BIG fish

[iambunn]

I was going to be getting some of this but a couple of the lads on my lake have tried it and binned it already. Sinks really well, nice and supple but can't be trusted as a few fish have been lost due to the splice slipping, and when they have been landed, there have been abrasions down the side of them which hasn't been seen on there before. I'm steering clear of this stuff until I hear more from other anglers.

[Guest single_bleep]

Cheers for the feedback on this lads, I may just have to get some and try it out for myself. I don't like the thought of it marking the fish though.

 

Iambunn, do you have an images of the fish that were marked?

[leggs007]

I was going to be getting some of this but a couple of the lads on my lake have tried it and binned it already. Sinks really well, nice and supple but can't be trusted as a few fish have been lost due to the splice slipping, and when they have been landed, there have been abrasions down the side of them which hasn't been seen on there before. I'm steering clear of this stuff until I hear more from other anglers.

 

i will show them at sandhurst lewis

i have not had any problems at all in fact since i started using these leaders my catch rate has gone up i only use them for chod rigs and as long as the bead slides of the leader ok and on to the line i can't see a much safer or simple rig you can fish a naked chod but that needs to be weighed down with putty or sinkers and the line some people use may not contour the bottom sweetly,these leaders do an excellent job and very slow sinking with the chod,had 2, 15lbers 1,26lber 2,30+ and my latest capture in 3 sessions all using solar leaders,and unless they get banned or i'm not allowed to use them on a water,i will carry on using them the results speak for them self

[moorsey]

It doesn't matter which type of leader you use nor does it matter what you do to it to improve it, you are still transferring the weak point from the hook link swivel to the top of the leader.

[garysj01]

I have to say i fished the snags yesterday, and i do mean snags, tree stumps, roots, lillies and branches all in front of me, i did use a fluoro leader of 20lb and my hooklink is 10lb, and through a couple of heart stopping moments where i could feel the snags grating the leader it held, though i do use a much weaker hooklink id rather the hooklink go first than anything else. As you said earlier you are transfering the weak point of the whole presentation to the leader knot and not the swivel knot on the hooklink. My hooklink is the weakest point of the whole presentation and on inspection of a couple of rigs i did get fish on i could see the hooklink beginning to fray with no signs of ware on the leader.

[mrdevon]

Not sure if this has been posted before but a shocking scene

 

[garysj01]

Shocking, were they all attached to leaders or just hooklinks?

[mrdevon]

Not 100% sure but some of the hooks and swivels look a little large to be used by a normal carp angler possibly some kind of poaching set up with a numerous hook set up