What are you using in the way of pliers and cutting Spiderwire? I find my old pliers don't cut the line or perform acceptably cutting wire leader - I need an upgrade. I'm looking for a proven line cutter and serrated long nose - no split ring feature.

Would like to go below $50 but don't want to end up with junk if I need to spend more. On the other hand, the $1376.98 pair on eBay is not an option.

I don't use wire leaders but I do use superline. I carry swiss army knife. It has pliers, scissors and a file. Also the tooth pick can help to tie nail knots if you fly fish. Probably not what your looking for but it works for me.

I would highly recommend you get a Boomerang line cutter. I was skeptical of the claims for this thing, but I was tired of having to get the knife out each time I needed to cut braid. I have to say, the thing cuts braided spectra fiber type line faster than I can cut mono-filament line with a nail clippers. There are a few different models, one with a built in light if you do any low light fishing.

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I ordered one of the Boomerang cutters and will give them a try. Will add my old Leatherman tool with pliers, blade, and file to my kit - the tool hasn't been afield in a long time.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Sooner or later, my fishing pliers seem to wind up at the bottom of lakes.

Long ago when superbraids first came out I bought one of those little scissors for it. Picked up an 8 inch stainless needlenose pliers somewhere. Sewed together a scabbard from assorted webbing in the scrap drawer so you can wear it or hang it on something. Hanging from the side is a nail clipper, hook sharpener and jig eye buster all on a retractable key reel.





Being relatively unsophisticated I've been happy with that. Now I very much doubt those pliers would work well on leader wire, that stuff is hard and would require something like a hardened or carbide edged cutter. Leaders get made up at home with the Dremel and thin abrasive cutoff wheels and swapped out as needed.

That's a serious kit you made there. Seems to have every thing one would need short of the steel cutter and guessing you would add a cutter if you thought it necessary.

I ordered up a couple of spools of knot2kinky steel leader and will make up my leaders before heading out. Have been using the plastic coated braided steel wire from Hobby Lobby but it does kink, not as bad as the store leaders though.

For open water I mostly go with South Bend's Invisa-Leader in the lightest weight. They're easy to come by up here. We have lots of northerns in the Glacial Lakes and there's all kinds of hammer handles just waiting to bite you off. Sharp teeth, using superbraid doesn't help much. About the only time I don't use a leader is when finessing walleyes. They say a leader messes up the action when pulling plugs but I seem to do about as well as the other guys (the ones who know what they're doing).

Now for ice fishing I use the smallest diameter single strand they sell, get bitten off constantly without it. But when you do hook a northern you get a spring with all the twisting they do. Now I'll tie on a micro-jig for the rod in my hand but pulling up a tip-up to check bait and finding terminal tackle gone just makes me nuts. How long have I been fishing without even a hook?!?

Rapala makes a very nice pliers and scissors set. I bought mine separately but you can also find them together with a sheath that holds both. For serious wire leader cutting, look for a pliers with replaceable hardened cutters. You've just moved up a notch in cost, but if you need 'em, you need 'em. Oh, and make sure whatever you get has a lanyard ring so you can tie them to something.

I guess I missed the "cutting wire" portion of your thread.

Over they years I've tried various side cutters but when I started musky fishing I needed something that would cut the large hooks found on Musky lures in order to safely release the fish. I started with small bolt cutters, they worked but were hard to handle, especially when you have a Musky flopping around that doesn't like the idea of me coming at it with bolt cutters. So while talking to the folks at Thorn Brothers Musky shop in Blaine, MN they mentioned the Knipex (pronounced nip-x). It was a small hand held tool and I was skeptical, but shouldn't have been. Cutting large Musky hooks is easier than cutting paper with a scissors. While they're on the expensive side, in my experience nothing works better that is hand held for cutting wire. Highly recommended.



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Those look great. I have a simpler bolt cutter that I have carried for years and last year used to separate myself from a crankbait that a northern threw at me as I was reaching for him.