Thread: Does line color really matter?

It hasn't for me, and I've been using it for decades.

I used to always thank that but now I use it on everything I believe it may even be better. I love it!

I've seen it with my own eyes, yellow line will be outfished by clear line on gills and redears in some clear water situations.

Redears are the one fish for which I use a flourocarbon leader. I sat in a boat with a guy who was using flourocarbon and tied on a leader to my Stren Yellow when he had boated about 10 fish to my NONE. I immediately started catching - never did catch up though.

Learned my lesson.

So do you guys use a leader night fishing too? I use the hi-vis yellow so that I can see it at night, but use the same for my day trips too.

I only fish for crappie unless I've got my wife and kids with me, so I can really only answer from the crappie standpoint. I love using Power Pro 10lb braid with light wire hooks when casting jigs because it has no stretch and you can instantly feel the thump. However I have noticed a trade off. Because of the absence of stretch, sometimes I tend to straighten hooks out in the the fish's mouth. With mono, you have that little bit of give in the line to act as a shock absorber, tho you can't feel the thump as well. With that being said, my brother has wore me out before using mono while I am using braid(without a leader). We use hi-viz Mr. Crappie brand in 4 or 6 lb test. For crappie, I know the yellow doesn't spook them, because of our experiences.

I don't know if it's just luck or its a fact, but I have seen mono outfish braid(without a leader) more times than not, no matter the color of each.

Now, if u tie and flouro leader to your braid, it works really well, but it tends to break off as much as the mono and it's a real pain to have to tie on a new leader and your jig each time u break off.

In my perfect world I wld have 4 or more rods with braid and flouro leaders tied on so if I broke off I cld just grab another rod, because I believe that is the perfect setup, but that's not in my budget right now.

I will throw in my opinion for whats its worth. I am only speaking about crappie, thats all I do now. I prefer Suffix yellow or orange , helps me see many bites I never feel.
Most conditions I don't think it spooks them, but in a very clear lake like Cumberland I have had it put on me by my partner until I changed to a low vis line. We were fishing about 15 feet deep.

I agree with colayn. Because I seen it a few times that clear line out fishes yellow line at cumberland.....same thing with braid at cumberland