I saw the word 'Fireline' and remembered I owe the bulletin board some feedback on how this line drift fishes for steelhead. But first, a word on plugging with gelspun polyethylene (Fireline, Gorilla Braid, etc) and/ or Spectra (Spiderwire) lines. One of the best plug pullers I know has switched entirely to braids because can tell by the way the rods are working exactly what the plugs are doing. Remember, braid has 2% stretch vs. 20-25% stretch for mono. If you have the plugs running right, you can watch the rod tip and know exactly what's going on (which is useful if your clients are numbnuts like me and sometimes are barely quick enough to grab the rod before it flies out of the boat). This guy uses neutral colours (browns) and ties directly to the snap (a double uniknot works well, as does doubling over the line and tying a 5-6 wrap clinch knot but test your own knots with hand scales as different people have different experiences). An alternative is to use the bright colours, cut a Vee in a fat-tipped permanent magic marker in brown, black, green (whatever) and colour the last 10 feet of the braid. The colour wears off after a while, but you simply re-apply the marker.

With the limber plug rods people use for salmon and steelhead, you can get away without using a leader. If you fish a shorter, stiffer rod (e.g. for Northerns or Muskies or in the salt) then you'll need a leader or else the shock of the strike will often cause a break-off. I fish in Australia a lot for swamp critters, and the guides pointed out to me that even a 4 foot mono shock leader puts an extra 1 foot of cushion (stretch) into the equation, and you need that cushion if you're trolling and a big fish hits the lure at speed and keeps going. There's no reason you can't put a 7 foot mono leader on the end of a swivel and tie the mono to your snap. Saves colouring the line, gives you lots of stretch and doesn't detract too much from the great feel you get from backtrolling with braid.

I drift fished 14lb Fireline (yellow) for about a day and a half. Caught a bunch of fish, but soon stripped off the line and spooled up with Maxima Ultragreen 10 and 12 lb. (Maxima UG is great line by the way: breaks heavy, very good shock resistance and resiliency, good abrasion resistance and excellent knot strength. Bad points are it's very thick for its test and it's expensive.)There were a couple of reasons why I gave up on Fireline:

1. The knots joining the 14lb Fireline to my 10 lb Maxima Chameleon leader were pulling out at about 8-9 lbs. Didn't cost me any fish, but I lost confidence in the system.

2. I was often fishing with only 30 feet of line out. With 15 feet of that leader (I was fishing clear water and didn't want to spook the fish -- they are floating fly line shy -- with that yellow line), I wasn't getting appreciably less drag in the drifts, or an improved feel.

3. When the fly snagged and I broke off, re-tying on the stream with numb fingers was a mother of a task: first a Spiderhitch in the Fireline, then an improved Albright to join the Fireline to the mono (and if you're really obsessive, you then superglue the improved Albright -- if you can get the glue out of the tube in 38 degree weather).

None of the above would keep me from using Fireline to pull plugs, however. I'd simply tie directly to a #7 barrel swivel, use a mono leader and put that Hotshot in the water.

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