When it comes to choosing fishing lines and rigging, freshwater anglers have had it pretty easy for generations.

We spooled up with whatever strength and diameter nylon monofilament we preferred, threaded the line through our rods’ guides, and tied on our lures and hooks. It was pretty simple stuff. The line deep in our spools was the same stuff as the line at the business end.

But new techniques, line formulations and angler sophistication today serve up a wide array of options for those who want to tweak their presentations and up the odds in their favor.

While fly-fishers are thoroughly familiar with backing, main lines, leaders, and tippets, freshwater anglers just in the past decade have gone the combo route in their spinning and baitcasting outfits. Rigging was easy, considering we had no need to tie leaders.

For 30 years, I was satisfied with tying my lures directly to the main line on my reels, whether it was conventional monofilament or more recently high-strength, small-diameter fluorocarbon line. It worked well and I felt confident with but one knot to worry about on each rod.

On spinning tackle, of course, line twist can create management issues. We are all familiar with tangles that range from easy-to-fix loops to impossibly snarled birds’ nests, the only solution being to strip the line and respool.

Braided line, said the experts, minimized issues resulting from line twist – and they were right. I became a fan quickly after buying my first spool of braid.

Fishing with braid resulted in fewer line management problems, increased sensitivity, better hook-setting power, and, best of all, more fish in the boat. Braid, of course, is the main line. While you certainly can tie your lure directly to braid, you will realize far better results with a fluorocarbon leader.

The reason is simple: Fish can see braid pretty well, but fluorocarbon is nearly invisible in water.

When I first started experimenting with braided line on spinning gear, primarily in pursuit of Lake Erie smallmouth bass 15 or so years ago, I tried different tricks to add leaders to my braid-spooled spinning outfits. The recommended connection is a direct fluoro-to-braid knot, but the truth is I found tying the double-uni knot difficult, time-consuming, and unreliable.

So I tinkered with small barrel swivels, tying one end to the braid with a palomar knot and the other end to my leader, again with the palomar.

It worked great in all aspects except one: I could not reel the swivel through the rod-tip guide, so I had to cast with the entire length of the leader dangling from the end of the rod. It was pretty awkward, to say the least.

The remedy, of course, was to master the direct line-to-line double-uni. I rounded up illustrations and YouTube videos and practiced often. I finally got to the point where I could rig my spinning outfits on the deck of my boat in the garage and go to the lake with confidence in my leaders’ performance capabilities.

Lots of practice makes perfect. Today I am happy to report I rig all my spinning outfits with braided main lines. Whether I’m pitching Senkos to the weed lines at Mosquito and Pymatuning, dragging tubes or drop-shot rigs for Erie smallies, or pitching Ned rigs for Ohio River bronzebacks, I’m tying all of my braid-to-fluorocarbon leader connections with my trusty double-uni.

The results truly are worth the effort.

Jack Wollitz has been writing this fishing column since 1988. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.