How to tie a wobbler to braid and fishing line with various knots

The emergence of new and effective baits for catching predatory fish has forced anglers to be even more careful about how to attach this accessory to the main cord of the tackle. There are a number of important reasons for such interest that affect the results of fishing and the financial costs of purchasing such bait as a wobbler.

It will not be a secret to anyone that buying a branded and popular wobbler costs a lot of money, in comparison with spinning lures of other types. Therefore, its loss is always a great disappointment for the fisherman, and even more bitterness from this loss if the loss was contributed to by improperly attaching the bait.

What are the methods for attaching a wobbler?

Every self-respecting fisherman who is keen on hunting for predatory representatives of water bodies should imagine how to tie a wobbler without subsequently having problems with its loss. You need to have a clear understanding of when, in what way and with what knot, depending on the material of the main cord, you need to fasten it.

There are a number of ways this manipulation occurs:

The wobbler can be attached to the main cord through a leash with a clasp or by direct connection to the cord.
The wobbler can be secured using a winding ring.

Attaching the bait through a leash is useful when fishing exclusively for pike. Her teeth do not spare either fishing line or braid. Here a steel leash is a mandatory precaution. As a rule, steel leashes are sold equipped with a swivel on one side and a metal fastener on the other.

Choosing the best leash for a spinning rod. Pros and cons of different types of leashes.

This is a paradox: there is a very narrow topic in spinning, on which the more you write, the more questions and doubts you have to listen to - we are talking about such a minor, in general, detail of equipment as a leash. I, it seemed to me, presented my views on what it should be in a very detailed and intelligible manner in two books, and I regularly touched on this topic in periodicals. However, as it turns out, the issue has in no way been removed from the agenda. When fishing, you often come across spinning anglers whose understanding of the optimal leash sets an example of what should never be done.

Pike was not the first fish that I caught many years ago when I began to master spinning. And not the second, and not even the tenth. From the theory I knew from books, I, of course, knew that pike teeth pose a very serious threat to the fishing line, and therefore it is necessary to put a leash, but I fished purely in Russian, i.e. according to the principle “until the thunder strikes...”.

And then one day the thunder didn’t exactly strike, but it unambiguously made itself felt. I caught an 800-gram pike with a homemade “spinner,” and while removing it from the hook, I noticed that the line immediately in front of the spinner was cut, as if it had been run through with a rasp. This means that the problem really exists, and it must be solved.

First, I found out what the retail chain was offering. In stores there were two types of leashes: half-meter long, twisted from two steel wires, with winding rings at the ends, and slightly shorter “double-knee” ones. Somehow, from the very beginning, I don’t know why, neither one nor the other inspired confidence. In addition, they were thoroughly coated with grease, which made these leashes unpleasant to the touch. And I began to look for an alternative.

At hand were 10-centimeter pieces of steel wire almost a millimeter thick. These were blanks for safety pins, I got hold of several hundred somewhere - for making the frames of rotating lures, now I decided to use them for leashes. They turned out to be short, 7-8 centimeters, but, surprisingly, over the course of several years there were only a couple of times when this length turned out to be insufficient - and the pike finally got to the fishing line with its teeth, cutting it. In later years, I note that it happened several times that the pike bit off the bait twice during a fishing trip, and the leash was longer.

Such a high efficiency of a short leash was due to the fact that at the turn of the 80s I fished mainly with hardware, and primarily with spinners. But a typical oscillating spoon is itself long, and during a characteristic bite, when a pike grabs the bait across, contact of the teeth with the fishing line is practically impossible. Only if the spinner is compact, like a “Spoon”, or the pike is large. However, I didn’t catch large pike at that time, so the question of lengthening the leash was irrelevant.

But then I began to slowly master jig fishing. And problems immediately emerged: on two fishing trips in a row there were offensive cuts. It became clear that such “chain mail” for fishing with “foam rubber” and its analogues were a bit short, it was necessary to look for an alternative again...

The further course was predictable: the leash requires wire, and the easiest way to find it is in the Cultural Goods store, in the Musical Instruments department. Half the counter there was occupied by a variety of strings - from balalaika strings to those that were used on instruments, the name of which didn’t mean much to me at the time. I found out which ones were cheaper - they turned out to be balalaika ones. The problem is mostly solved.

I made leashes 12-15 centimeters long from strings. There is only one thing that I had not decided on at that time - what kind of strings are optimal as raw materials for leashes. I used those that were currently on hand.

Certainty came after I took part in competitions on the Shatura Lakes. This was already in the late 80s. At the base, one of my roommates turned out to be the then Moscow champion in spinning, Alexander Kovalenko. From him I learned several interesting things, including about leashes. Yes - a string, yes - a guitar string, specifically - No. 2. It is convenient and reliable - both in general and for jig fishing in particular. And Kovalenko was just a representative of the jig school; he actively caught the then relatively little known foam rubber fish.

Since that time, I have made almost all of my leashes from guitar strings - “twos”. The string leash has now become so popular that, I estimate, at least half of the metal “B” guitar strings sold in Moscow are used not for their intended purpose, but by us, fishermen. I think if, for example, Paco de Lucia or Sir Paul McCartney found out about such a barbaric attitude towards the most important detail of their favorite instrument, both would shed a stingy male tear.

It turns out that I have been using leads made from strings in general for 25 years, and purposefully made from guitar “twos” for more than 15. Time is more than enough to identify all their relative pros and cons. But first, I’ll say not about guitar leads, but about some of those that were considered, or even continue to be considered, as an alternative to them. Let's start with a couple of practical examples.

1996, competitions near Saratov. The FireLine cord had just appeared. If you remember your first impression of it, then most likely it was something like this: the new cord is something armored and invulnerable. So one of our team members, Vladislav R., confident in this, decided to use the 20-gauge Fire as material for leashes.

We fished not far from each other, so I saw the key episode from beginning to end. A pike weighing about 7 kilograms landed on Vladislav’s wobbler. He fished it competently, but when it seemed that the “crocodile” was about to be in the boat, a subtle movement of his head followed - and the leash was cut in half. Vlad was so upset that he was no longer able to catch at full strength until the finish line and brought “zero”. If he had taken that pike, we would have been first, but as it is, we barely managed to grab third place.

2000, “pilot” Russian Championship near Krasnodar. The namesake of our previous hero, Vladislav N., used Kevlar leashes, which were very strongly recommended to him by an acquaintance who worked in a fishing store. After all, body armor is made from Kevlar and many other things that are heavy-duty and impenetrable.

The bite back then was so-so, and a pike with a threshnik already definitely guaranteed Vlad a place in the prize-winners. In short, you understand: Vlad had a chance to take one, and a very real one, but it all ended exactly the same as in the previous example - as soon as the pike brushed its teeth on the leash, it fell in half...

Nowadays, few people have illusions about multi-filament cords - it is well known that pike bite them with almost the same ease as monofilament fishing line. But many spinners continue to get burned on Kevlar. I would like to hope that this publication will become a deterrent warning for someone: simple Kevlar, without metal reinforcement, is in no way capable of resisting pike teeth. There is nothing paradoxical in this, because the nature of the load from a bullet hitting a bulletproof vest and from a “saw” passing along a stretched leash are very different.

With this paragraph of this publication, I risk incurring the wrath of our fishing merchants who sell a variety of ready-made leashes and semi-finished products for them, as follows from the very name of this paragraph. Recently, there has been increasing interest in semi-finished products, which allow the fisherman to make his own leashes of the required length and breaking load. Here we are already talking about those leader materials that are really capable of resisting pike teeth. If it’s the same Kevlar, then not by itself, but already reinforced with a metal cable.

There are a lot of options for leader materials. The most popular is 7x7, i.e. 7 steel threads are collected into one flagellum, and then a leash is twisted or woven from seven of these - or its semi-finished product, usually sold in unwinding lengths of 5 m or more. There are leading materials, cheap and expensive, relatively hard and very soft, those that can be tied with the most ordinary knots, and those that require crimping tubes.

Out of curiosity, I tried, if not everything that is available in fishing stores on this topic, then a lot. And he invariably discovered certain shortcomings. Some of the leader materials were much worse at tying knots than promised. Others required extreme care in manufacturing: if you pressed it a little, squeezing the fixing tube, the leash easily breaks in this place; if you didn’t tighten it enough, it slips out. I won’t cite all the negativity about lead materials here, but no matter how much I tried to objectively compare them with a guitar string, it turned out to be a one-sided game - the string is better in all respects.

Read also: Catching large rotan

More precisely, not in all of them, but this is not directly related to spinning. It’s just that many people don’t really understand what exactly these or other leash materials were originally intended for. At least those that are as soft as possible are designed primarily for fishing with natural bait. In our interpretation, these are, to put it mildly, “semi-sporting” gear, such as girders or circles, where in the vast majority of cases the fishing scheme involves the pike swallowing the bait, and a hard leash often results in a large number of bites that are not brought to a logical conclusion. In spinning, as you know, almost always the hook follows immediately after the bite, and whether the fish feels a hard leash or not - the result in no way depends on it.

Another question that often arises is posed like this: a leash made of soft material minimally distorts the “game” of the bait, while a hard leash made of string simply cannot help but influence it, right? This is possible, but only if the guitar leash does not correspond in its parameters to the type and size of this bait. We will further dwell on this correspondence in more detail, but for now I will allow myself to limit myself to the shortest possible remark: for approximately half of the types of spinning baits (these are jigs, spinners, spinnerbaits, etc.) the formulation of the question itself is incorrect - these baits do not have a wobbling “game”, which could fundamentally be disrupted by a rigid element located in front.

For others, something similar is possible, but only if there is a large imbalance between the characteristics of the bait and the leash. At the same time, often soft leashes, which, as a rule, require some kind of adapters in the form of fasteners and swivels, have an even more noticeable effect on the “game” of the bait.

However, the first two questions (the impact on the quality of the bite and the “game”) are closer to philosophy. Much more significant for us is the third question: how strong are they guaranteed - leashes made of different materials? And this is where much of what is usually considered as an alternative to the string simply fails miserably.

But let's move on to the designated issue, starting with one type of leash that is quite popular among our spinning anglers.

I remember how at some competition back in the last century I took a prize place, for which I was given a large bag with all sorts of fishing stuff. There was an inexpensive reel, two skeins of braided fishing line, a dozen wobblers, I don’t even remember what, and plus a couple of dozen leashes, so beautiful, deep green.

The idea immediately arose to give all these green Chinese leashes to someone right away - I had been using string leashes for a long time and had no reason to complain. But banal curiosity took over: I wanted to understand what to expect from, as they called then, a “lice test,” or, if you prefer, a crash test.

The results were simply stunning! Firstly, the average load from which these solid-looking leashes became unusable turned out to be much lower than one might have expected. I don’t remember exactly, but something less than 4 kg. Secondly, the leashes were destroyed with approximately equal probability in three different places: either the loop of the leash itself broke, or the clasp unbent, or the swivel to which the fishing line was tied fell apart in two.

Another time or two the leash simply snapped in the middle. Thirdly, the spread of breaking force turned out to be very large: different leashes from the same “bunch” could last a long time even with two kilograms of load, and with more than six kilograms. Such a large dispersion in such characteristics is always bad, especially when you know about it in advance. For example, a pike sits on your “threshnik”, and now you think - what to do, either drag it confidently, not giving it a chance to get caught in the snags, or, on the contrary, let it walk, fearing that the leash was caught among the weakest? Such doubts do not lead to anything good.

Those leashes, which served as the source material for the crash test, a little later began to be collectively called “green-Chinese.” Most often they are green, although there are also, for example, black ones, and the country of origin is not in doubt. At the same time, among the “green-Chinese” leashes there are also quite reliable ones (I don’t mean individual leashes from a “bunch”, but entire batches), but, anyway, when dealing with them, we are almost always dealing with a pig in a poke. It is impossible not to notice that the trend towards a general improvement in the quality of fishing (and other) products produced in China is now becoming increasingly obvious. So in a few years the situation may change very noticeably. But we still live with current realities...

The situation with green Chinese leashes is by no means unique. A large variation in breaking force is typical for a variety of “non-guitar” leashes, and by messing with them, you doom yourself to playing the lottery: whether it breaks or not, whether it’s the leash itself or the accessories. I once tried accessories from a very expensive Japanese company. More reliable, of course, than outright consumer goods, but there were still several cases when the fasteners unfastened on their own, and the swivels broke under more than moderate loads. Therefore, I decided to give up all this, especially since guitar leads do not necessarily require any accessories.

The floater’s approach to the leash is such that this part of his tackle should be consistently less durable than everything else. You and I have a completely different situation. So let's talk about what is reliable and predictable.

So, the base material of the leashes is guitar string number two from the Ramensky plant. It allows you to achieve a guaranteed tensile strength of about 15 kg, and more often the fracture limit is even higher. This, as you understand, is quite enough for the vast majority of cases when we fish with a spinning rod.

In an ultra-light class (and sometimes light) spinning rod, you can use the number one string. There is a guaranteed load of about 7 kg - more than enough.

I would like to note that I use ramen strings as a basis. On the one hand, they are easier to find than other cheap guitar strings in the capital and surrounding areas, on the other hand, they completely suit us in terms of their physical and mechanical characteristics. In other regions, strings from other manufacturers are more often sold, and the wire used in them may not differ for the better from Ramenskoye.

Actually, at the Ramensky plant several years ago there was a period when strings were made from a material with significantly different properties. For the “two” they used wire with a diameter of not 0.4 mm, but 0.35 mm, and moreover, more brittle. For the last three years, this problem has not appeared at all.

I will also add that the strength of the leash depends not only on the wire itself, but also on the execution of the twist; later we will say a few separate words about this.

What is the optimal leash length for catching different fish?

With the strength of the guitar leash, everything is more or less clear. But with what its length should be - not very much. Here, a lot depends on the type of bait, the species and size composition of the fish we are counting on.

With “turntables” and “oscillators” the situation is relatively simple - the leash for them can be quite short, but if it turns out to be longer, this is unlikely to have a negative effect on anything. Usually, when I catch pike (or anything in a row, including pike) with a medium-sized spoon, a 10 cm long leash solves all the problems. If we catch perches with a small “spinner”, but there is a certain probability of a pike attack, then a leash length of 7-8 cm will be just right; it’s better if the leash is made of string No. 1.

The most popular length of my jig leashes is 12-17 cm, sometimes (if a large pike is caught) I increase their size to 18-20 cm. However, in jig fishing by lengthening the leash you can hardly achieve a 100% guarantee against cutting - unless by increasing it to more than half a meter . All this is due to the fact that the pike sometimes (especially when moving downstream) attacks the jig bait both in front and in anticipation at the same time - and sometimes runs its teeth onto the cord 30-40 centimeters from the bait. At least, I used to connect (precisely in anticipation of such bites on the line down the river) two of my standard leashes in series, and this did not help.

What you see in the photo with a large pike, where two leashes are connected to each other, is an example of when this is completely justified. The location of the action is the Cheboksary reservoir near Vasilsurskaya Sloboda, where “crocodiles” are quite common animals. And they grab the “foam rubber” completely unceremoniously - from the side, behind, in front, in short - at random, so it’s better to have a longer leash. In the absence of one long one, I put two short ones.

But still, in the region of “evil crocodiles” we happen to catch relatively rarely, and usually the standard 15 cm for a leash for a jig is more than enough.

With wobblers, you can, as a first approximation, follow the rule: the length of the leash should be equal to the length of the wobbler. Well, maybe for fats the leash should be 3 centimeters longer, since fats themselves are short, and pike, even relatively small ones, tend to “swallow” them.

In general, the topic of “wobbler and leash” is one of the most frequently raised. It is here that our brother is tormented by doubts. Let me note in this regard that the guitar leash weighs almost nothing, its mass is approximately equal to the mass of the winding ring, which most wobblers have on the front loop. If you are afraid that the balance will be disturbed by the leash, simply remove this ring. However, it is worth taking into account that most wobblers that pass as suspenders actually have weak positive buoyancy, and from 50 to 250 mg (this is a characteristic mass range of guitar leads - depending on their length and thickness) rather contributes to the wobbler approaching its declared type, which upsets the balance.

Length of string leader when fishing with jig

As with jigs, “planned” bites sometimes occur with wobblers, which are difficult to combat by increasing the length of the leash. This includes hitting the cord with your teeth when biting in advance, and a more “sophisticated” option, in which the pike suddenly begins to spin around its axis, winding the cord around its muzzle, and it sometimes ends up on its tooth. This happens to me once every four years - as if on a schedule - a kind of fate, it’s useless to fight. Although the pikes that leave are all large. It's a shame, though.

Finally, when I fish in purely perch ponds (i.e. where there are actually no pike), I use a micro leash - 2-2.5 cm long, which mainly acts as a fastener. However, it can also play a defensive role if suddenly a small bee that came from out of nowhere attacks the wobbler or spinner. Still, sometimes these very few centimeters matter.

Any ready-made leash sold in a fishing store costs some money. “Green-Chinese”, of course, is inexpensive, but for one made of serious leader material, plus hung with branded fittings, they often want how much a budget wobbler costs. It is not right. Guitar leads, if you make them yourself, cost mere pennies - a set of three strings, from which one and a half dozen leads come out, can be found in stores for 8-10 rubles. True, when making leashes with our own hands, we spend time and effort, which also cost something, but this is a slightly different question.

This question arises most acutely in a situation where you have to go fishing early tomorrow morning, and there are zero leashes available, so you have to quickly grab wire cutters and pliers. In this regard, the idea has long occurred to me - to put the production of guitar leads on stream. At the same Ramenskoye factory, for example. What difference does it really make to them whether they produce strings or ready-made leashes?

Someone is already producing guitar leashes in small series for sale - I saw them in a couple of Moscow stores. But, firstly, they get lost against the backdrop of counters bursting with more flashy goods, secondly, they still cost a little more than would be justified, and thirdly, they are not executed in the most ideal way.

One of the most important advantages of a guitar leash is the convenience and reliability of attaching bait to it. For those who are not in the know, let me explain: no clasps or winding rings are required here; the pre-twisted end of the leash is simply untwisted with your fingers, the bait is attached - and the twist is rolled up again. With some skill, all this is done very quickly - literally in a couple of seconds. However, there is one “but” here: the twist must be correct and familiar.

Correct means this: it is important to twist the main piece of wire and the side one symmetrically relative to each other. The most common mistake is to leave the main piece straight and just wrap the end of the wire around it. If so, then the twist strength will be lower, and the operation of replacing the bait will become less easy. The twist pitch should be medium; too steep a pitch makes it difficult to replace the bait, and twisting at a small angle is somewhat weaker in strength.

The familiarity of twisting suggests that the pitch of the turns in it is exactly what you usually deal with, and the direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) is the same. It’s just that sometimes you happen to use other people’s guitar leads - for example, when you run out of your own, you take it from a friend - and you immediately feel the difference. With your own leashes, all manipulations can be carried out even in the dark, with strangers, which are at least slightly different, there is some discomfort.

I will briefly dwell on several important questions that inevitably arise before those spinners who are just discovering guitar leashes.

If you use a braided cord, then there should be no “architectural excesses” not only at the back end of the leash, but also at the front end. The leash is attached to the bait, as you have already understood, by twisting and unwinding, and the “braid” is simply tied directly to its front end. If such a leash has a swivel, remove it and throw it away, or at least put it away.

It is absolutely unnecessary from a variety of points of view - and its anti-twisting properties are greatly exaggerated, and it can play the role of the “weak link” perfectly. Tying the cord directly to the wire leash does not in any way affect the strength of the knot; in the case of a monofilament, it is worth installing an adapter in the form of a winding ring or the same swivel, only from those in which you are confident.

Most guitar leads are made symmetrical - with the same twists in front and back. But for those leashes that are designed for jerk fishing, the front twist should be slightly different. It’s just that when fishing with poppers or minnows, the bait along with the leader periodically slips forward relative to the cord, and with the next pull the cord can get inside the twist, which, of course, is not good.

Therefore, the first couple of turns of the front twist are performed as usual, and then the tip is simply wrapped around the main wire. Such a twist turns out to be one-piece, but for the front end of the leash there is no special need for detachability.

Using the guitar leash, you can “read” some of the nuances of the bite. For example, if after contact with a predator the leash is bent at an angle (often close to straight), it means that the attack was from the side and in front of the bait. Often the result, as in photo 7, is something very similar to a spiral. This happens when we half-heartedly clamp the wire with pliers and pull it through with a sharp jerk. In this case, pike jaws acted as pliers (the pike slightly missed and hit the leash), and the jerk in the form of a hook turned out to be effective - the hook found something to grab onto.

A transparent plastic pencil case, as shown, is very convenient for storing leashes. For example, long floats are sold in such tubes. We can at least throw away the float, but the “container” will be useful to us. Is it worth shortening the pencil case to the optimal length (18~20 cm).

The leash is a consumable item. He rarely lives for more than two or three fishing trips. But sometimes among the leashes you come across “active long-livers” - in the sense, those that do not lie for several years “in a dry and dark place”, but are often used for fishing and do not want to come off. Here it is worth keeping in mind that the physical and mechanical resource of the leash is still limited.

It is more or less guaranteed to withstand about fifty twisting and untwisting operations; if more, the wire at the twisting point may simply break from a small force. The “veteran” must be sent to “retirement” on time!

What was said above about the much lesser suitability of various leader materials should not be understood in a completely radical way. Just a couple of weeks before writing these lines, I received a leader material from American Fishing Wire - unlike others, it was almost identical to our guitar string, and even turned out to be a little more powerful! Thickness - 0.45 mm, guaranteed strength - 17 kg, flexibility and elasticity - very similar, and the price is affordable, plus an anti-corrosion coating.

A guitar string, however, is also not particularly vulnerable to rust, except in brackish water - such as the Azov estuaries, where it cannot withstand more than one or two fishing trips. This is all to say that if suddenly in your city there are no “correct” strings in the department of musical instruments, sometimes you can find an alternative in a fishing store. It sounds somewhat absurd, but still.

Read other articles, reviews and testimonials:

How to catch chub with a fishing rod. Float tackle for chub
Review of travel spinning rod Favorite Blue Bird Compact New 16
Review of YGK G-Soul Upgrade PE X4 braid
Review of the Black Hole Bassmania spinning rod. Reviews from fishermen about the spinning rod Black Hall Bassmania
Review of the Norstream Nibble spinning rod. Reviews from fishermen about the Nordstream Nibble spinning rod

What knots to tie a wobbler to braided cords

It is preferable to attach these types of artificial baits to the braided line using the following types of knots:

double clinch;
Rapala manufacturer's assembly;
palomar.

These types of knots, with the peculiarities of their knitting, most closely match the physical properties of the fence. As you know, braid is rougher in relation to the qualities of monofilament and fluorocarbon and is able to withstand, without any harm, such a knitting, without fear of creases, overtightening and burnout. The use of these units is used directly in the installation of bait directly, through a leash and using winding rings.

What knots to attach the wobbler to monofilament fishing line

Attaching any type of bait to a fishing line without losing its strength, meaning the strength of the fishing line, is much more difficult than attaching to other types of main cords in fishing. If purely technically there are no problems in tying a knot, then due to the physical properties of the material from which the fishing line is made, it has a number of negative aspects when tying. In particular, she is afraid of burns that occur as a result of friction when tightening the knot.

Important! When tying a knot on a fishing line, in order to avoid burnout, it is imperative to lubricate it.

Another very unpleasant point is the loss of strength at the knot site. Based on these features, it is recommended to tie the equipment elements to the fishing lines with knots that can have the least impact on the material in terms of friction and clamping force. These types of knots include the Pitsen and the Lindemann .

Having mastered the technique of knitting the presented types of fishing knots, the angler will ensure the safety of his baits from breaks due to loss of fishing line quality when using other types of knots for fastening.

How to make a leash with twisted string

Take a guitar string and make a twist on both sides, or a loop on one side and a twist on the other to change lures. Four turns is enough, the bait will not go anywhere.
We make a bend on the wire, forming a loop. We fix it in the pliers and simply start twisting both wires together, making a pigtail.

Unlike a leash with a fastener, here the fastening segment is a twist. This type of fishing line protection from the teeth of predatory fish is made from guitar strings of any diameter, from the thinnest strings to fairly thick ones without braid. Thicker ones are used in jerk or trolling fishing. In other words, when the load is maximum and there is a chance to catch a really big fish.

What knot to tie the bait to fluorocarbon

Fluorocarbon is a complex material in terms of retaining the knot in its final state. Under constant dynamic load, the knot connected to this material relaxes, then completely unties and, as a result, the bait and possible catch are lost. As a result of accumulated experience, the majority of advanced anglers agreed that the Nesevri knot gives the best results in the reliability of fluorocarbon tying. By experimenting with tying this type of knot at home, despite its initial complexity, you can gain stable tying skills and carry out the practiced technique directly on the pond itself.