Mountain_Paddler wrote on Mar 16^th, 2011 at 3:14am:

Egad, do I have a lot to learn.  Right now my reel has 4-lb line and 1-lb leader on it.  I've never fished for anything that needs more than that.  Oh--except when I went in the ocean off California.  But my Colorado fishing uses pretty light stuff.

While that rigging would be OK for Colorado, you'll find that you won't be boating many fish in canoe country with that.  Its not so much that you can't work a fish to get them to the boat with 1 lb line.  Its just that most species up there have teeth, so you'll likely suffer numerous bite-offs.  So unless you are boating a small mouth bass, I'd not recommend you sticking your fingers in the fish's mouth (and gill plates on fish like pike can be like razor blades).

dd