Fishing Michigan

In the last five years fluorocarbon lines have made a big impact in ice fishing, as well as open water fishing.  Because the line is virtually invisible under water, you can often go bigger with the line’s lb test than you would normally in certain situations.  Besides pure FC lines, you have co-palomers and hybrid lines in the family.

There are many brands of fluorocarbon lines available from manufactures like Berkley, Stren, P-line, Seaguar and Gamma.  My  two favorite FC lines are both from Berkley, in the Vanish and Vanish Transition.  Vanish has held up incredibly well for me over the years in both competition and heading out for a lil’ “me time”.

Original Vanish, I use this primarily for leaders off of Power Pro or hi-vis monofilaments down to my jig.  I attach the leader to my main line by using a double uni knot, or sometimes called the back to back uni.  In shallow water, where everything seems to be elevated to the next level (water clarity, brightness and fish moods), I use a four or five foot leader.  In deeper water where things are definitely darker, a two to three foot lead is employed from the Power Pro.

For bluegills, crappie and sometimes perch, I use 2 lb Vanish.  Some of the bigger perch jigs and lures get 4 lb leads.  Walleye get 6, 8 and 10 lb leaders depending on the type of jig or spoon being used.  Pike and lake trout (salmon too) get 12 or 14 lb leaders,  you can go as high as 20 lb and have success.

Vanish Transition is one of those hybrid lines that mixes tech with invisibility.  I used this for the first time with success on Brest Bay last winter catching walleye.  What you get is a hi-vis line in the daylight, down to about 2 ft in the water (gold or red).  From there it takes back all the qualities of an invisible fluorocarbon line.  I tried the 8 lb last year and landed a nice fat 22″ eye through the ice first time out.  It stayed straight in the water and held up again some pretty cold temps and wind.