Nothing crashes the rush of fighting a big pike or muskie faster than a break-off. In a split second everything breaks loose and you’re back on the ground—you inspect the terminal end of what’s left and find a failed leader. The last time you checked it was yesterday, six fish ago. “Man, I know better than that,” you think.

Wire is strong, so it’s often taken for granted as far as details are concerned. Leader comes in different materials and constructions, offering an array of choices to match your fishing situations. How wire’s made also determines its working properties of diameter, strength, flexibility, and suppleness. If you use the right wire, make good connections, and check it frequently, you can avoid those break-offs and land more fish.

Single Strand

Single-strand wire, available from companies such as Sevenstrand (Magnum), American Fishing Wire (Tooth Proof), and Gudebrod (Tooth Tamer), is made of one solid stainless-steel filament. It’s thinner but less pliable than stranded wire of the same break strength. Wire up to about 30 pounds—30 being tough enough for most pike situations—is thin and still quite flexible, coupling well with casting swimbaits, rubber-skirted jigs and plastics, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits. The stiffer nature of single-strand makes it less likely to hang on treble hooks while working erratic presentations like jerkbaits and topwaters.

If fish aren’t shying away from thicker wire, you can get away with 40- to 60-pound tests for casting and trolling big baits. Tests of 100-plus pounds are often used for jerking and trolling up big muskies. Leaders in the 12-inch range cover most pike fishing situations, though leaders of up to 3 feet are often used for muskie trolling.

To make a basic leader, attach one end of the wire to a swivel for mainline connection. On the other end attach a sturdy cross-lock snap for connections to lures, or tie the wire directly to the bait. Cross-lock snaps are handy for quickly switching baits. They tend to collect weeds when fishing through heavy cover, so it’s often best to tie direct for a lower profile.

The haywire twist is the most reliable link between single-strand and the eye of a lure, hook, swivel, or snap. Pass the end of the wire through the eye, leaving a 3-inch tag end. Retaining a small loop, hold this tightly with the fingers of one hand, while with the other hand you make a series of semi-tight wraps of the tag end and mainwire. Make sure the wires are wrapping around each other rather than just the tag end around the mainwire. Thinner wire requires more wraps. The wraps act as a cushion that prevents collapse of the knot structure. For breaking strengths up to about 30 pounds, make 8 to 10 wraps. Use 6 to 8 wraps for 30- to 65-pound wire. Tests approaching 100 pounds need only 3 or 4 wraps.

The semi-tight wraps need to be followed by 4 to 6 tight barrel wraps to prevent unraveling. Bend the tag end at a 90-degree angle to the mainwire, grip the top of the wraps with your fingers or pliers, and wrap the tag end 4 to 6 times around the mainwire. If you have trouble making wraps by hand, you can make good ones quickly and easily with tools from Du-Bro (E/Z Twist) and American Fishing Wire (Haywire Twist Tool).

To get a clean break of the tag end, In-Fisherman Editor In Chief Doug Stange showed me a trick. Bend the tag end into a crank handle, then rotate the tag end around and back until it breaks free. Most times the break is flush to the connection and is cleaner than can be accomplished with a cutter.

Single-strand wire can kink, compromising its strength, so it’s best to replace a kinked leader. Solid wire also bends, but bends aren’t a problem strength-wise. However, they can throw off the action of a bait and might make the leader more visible to the fish.

You can remove bends quickly with the Wire Straightener tool by Du-Bro. Clamp the straightener on your leader, apply pressure, and slide it along your leader a couple of times and you’re ready to fish again.

After fighting a fish, check the wraps to be sure they haven’t slipped (pulled against the connection point). Slipped wraps weaken the shock absorption characteristics of the connection, so it’s time to retie.