Are marlin leader shy?

[Reelscreamer]

Hey man I use 400# mono for all my leaders and I don't seem to have a problem with it. If you want you can come over and see what I am doing because the day of that Derby I had to Marlins hit the exact same lure and it held up like a champ! Let me know!

Jeremy

[SERprise]

I just ordered the momoi 550# extra hard so I am gonna use that for the new lures I got....I just got an 18" williamson advocate in black/purple/silver 2 hawaiian lures that are 15" and a 13" williamson advocate in halloween. You gotta check out the big lure it is ridiculous we should throw it on your 14/0 and call it a day. I am going a lot next month so let me know if you want to go these are the days I am going....26Jun, possibly the 5th 6th 9th and 10th of July definetly the 23rd-27th of July

[Finnseeker]

Originally Posted by SERprise

I recently lost a pretty big blue marlin using a 400# ande leader the marlin bit through it almost instantly after the first run about 3 seconds. Could I use 480# galvanized aircraft cable that I have or are they leader shy? Would I be better off getting some heavier mono? I will be targeting only blue marlin with the hope of catching a big mahi as well.

Yup seen this several times with big blue marlin and learned that some lighter leaders can get cut/snipped cleanly by a big blue if the mono is tight in the jaw/corner of the blue's mouth there is a sharp edge there that will slice through mono up to 600lbs I have seen. Not seen it happen once we went above 600 lbs leader.
I have not seen a big blue fluro leader shy on live bait or trolling in fact I use black dacron over my mono on the big 1000lb blues in Brazil.