solotripper wrote on Aug 1^st, 2011 at 10:17pm:

Quote: _ Looking for walleye and pikes, should I use a leader, or just some fluo after the braided? I use a Titanium leader when/if I fish intending on catching pike. As we all know NP seem to be most everywhere and many have lost costly lures when they bit thru the mono sans leader. I found that when fishing for Waldo/Lakers that I received some degree of protection from NP by using a leader made out of the 20# Braid I use on my heavy trolling rod. Not as good as a real dedicated leader, but way better than mono alone. I keep a eye on it if I'm catching the unintended NP, and at the first sign of fraying, I replace. 20# Power Pro is the equivalent of 4-6# mono, and has a very soft hand.

i've had the less expensive steel leaders from basspro fail 2 years in a row. last year it was the snaps, so i replaced them with upgraded snaps. This year a swivel broke on a 6# pike. That's no protection. After that incident all the leaders came off and had no prob with the 10# braid. If going with a leader, I'd  use a better quality one, or make your own with something like 20# powerpro as stated above (this is my path for next year).