# wire leader for kings



## wetaline (Oct 16, 2007)

I have always used single strand wire for king fishing, and always had good results, just the regular hassle of the wire getting kinked and mangled every so often. Wednesday I broke off two fish, both of them little, and I suspect that it was from a kink in the wire or just metal fatigue. then I tried some multi strand and it worked great, we caught four fish in a row and no kinks, no problems. 

My question is, can you haywire twist the multi strand wire and have it hold or do you have to use crimps? I used the crimps this time, but have tried twisting and it seems to hold, but I have not tried catching a fish that way, and don't want to loose one if it just isn't reliable. Any input is appreciated!


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## kingling (Apr 10, 2008)

yes 7 strand will hold 

what i use might be the haywire twist but idk

i make an overhand knot with the wire leader and sinch it down on the hook then wrap the tag end 7 or 8 times

ive never had the leader come undone 

also dont *EVER*use 40 lb sevenstrand use 60 at all times!


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

I would use a figure eight knot with the sevenstrand. Thats what I always use with it anyway butI still prefer singlestrand.


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

Tunapopper, that's interesting.

Do you use a piece of shrink tubing or a sleeve to smooth the tag? Do you use the figure-8 at both ends?


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## Nitzey (Oct 9, 2007)

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but I prefer single strand wire. Frankly, however, one good fish likely will mangle the wire. As you say, one kink, and the rig is very weak. The expensive parts of the rig are the hooks. So, I replace the wire and reuse the hooks and swivel. I do this so often, it takes little time. Before I learned to do my own, a lot of fish were lost to broken wire.


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## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

I have more confidence in single strand as I've wrapped or tied single stran for more than 40 years. Recently for the sake of time I have gone to multi strand and have not found a diminshed result on Kings or Wahoo. I take a single piece of multi strand and first tie my stinger using a knot somewhat like a snell, then do the same thing for the hook in the middle of the bait and finally one to use for the eyes or lips of the bait. At the end of the leader I add a sleeve and form a loop with two overhand knots and crimp the sleeve, this allows for one continuous leader and only one crimp and the over hand knots should hold w/o the assist of the crimp. But,either type of rig could easily be destroyed by one fish. The multi stran rig takes a minute to rigwhereas the single strandmaytake me almost 10 minutes to rig; therefore I've gone to the multi strand for kings. To add to the confusion, on large bait I stick with single strand, but I am thinking about trying multi stran this summer.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

> *fred (5/15/2009)*Tunapopper, that's interesting.
> 
> Do you use a piece of shrink tubing or a sleeve to smooth the tag? Do you use the figure-8 at both ends?


Nope, I just trim the tag end down a little to prevent snagging on my fingers and go from there. I wouldn't use heat shrink for king rigs because it will stiffen the rig too much and not allow the hooks to swing freely which is more ideal for kingfishing IMO. 

I've never had a problem using a figure eight knot.


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## Speckulator (Oct 3, 2007)

East of Mobile/DI we use 60# sevenstrand.......west we use 90#........Snell your stinger and nose hook and then a 

Figure 8 knot for the swivel like tunapopper says.....good for kings and hoos to 89#'s....Ymmv......

George


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