Do I need a wire leader for muskie, or is fluorocarbon enough?
You need one or the other on every cast — no exceptions, because a muskie's teeth shear straight through any mainline, and a bite-off leaves a fish swimming with a bait wired into its jaws. The modern split: single-strand or seven-strand wire for bucktails and topwater, where kink resistance and thin diameter matter; heavy fluorocarbon at 100–130 lb for jerkbaits, gliders, and rubber, where suppleness helps the action — with the honest caveat that fluoro can be cut on a deep bite or ruined by abrasion, so inspect and retire it aggressively. Length: 30 cm (12 in) is the working minimum. This is a conservation rule as much as a tackle rule.
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