Lake Champlain United - Forums

Aside from using 30# mono, Does anybody have any tricks to remove water fleas off fishing line?

If they aren't too bad, sometimes you can dip your rod tip into the water a foot or so and then rip it up out of the water several times. You have to do this before they get jammed up at the rod tip. This works great for spiny water fleas .... not so great for fishhook fleas, or whatever the persistent ones are called. I'll be adding a topshot of 100ft /40lb before the next trip to Converse.

I just run my line between my teeth. No, not really. Last year I stopped at Datillio’s on Rt. 7. The older gentleman at the counter told me to buy some 30lb test. But added, if you really don’t want to deal with them get the 40lb test. Make sure you run a good sized barrel swivel between the 40lb test and leader. Took his advice. It works great.

If it is on braid you can use the wet towel method cause braid will cut thru em pretty good..you can pinch em with a wet towel and cut them buy pulling both end of the line thru thru pinched towel on the line.

Works with fish n without slapping and pulling like crawfish said. If no fish on his method works best…

Fish on!

I tried 40lb a few years back. Major pia, incredible blow back.I'll stick the 25 or 30 and clean lines more frequently.

This doesn’t really help to remove them, but I am using 20lb mono drop line to a rudder and they aren’t too bad and mostly stay off the 8lb flouro leader from the rudder to the lure.

Thanks for the replies guys! I will try the relax method with a wet towel next time out. My struggle is them attaching to my braid line dipsy set ups. It was awfull last time out. It took me 10 minutes to get the line back in the water. Somebody need to invent a tool for this problem!

Zackle Box wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 1:10 pm Thanks for the replies guys! I will try the relax method with a wet towel next time out. My struggle is them attaching to my braid line dipsy set ups. It was awfull last time out. It took me 10 minutes to get the line back in the water. Somebody need to invent a tool for this problem!

Switch the braid out on your dipsey rods to stainless wire, and put twili tips on those rods. The fleas stick to the wire, but the wire just cuts right through them like a saw.

I'd put that stuff on our rigger rods too, but you can't put a loop and twist it all around a bunch of times when using the blacks/chamberlain style releases.

Hey guys just got back from Lake Ontario. The fleas were worse than lake Champlain. By far. After some experiments on the boat we found the absolute best way to remove the fleas quick and painlessly. The trick is to flick the line vertical. Bring about 30 ft of line out of the water, set the but of the rod down, hold the tip of the rod, pull the line down and flick- They come off quick- obviously this is better done with 2 people but can be accomplished solo. The trick is to not bunch them up either. (By the way The fishing was incredible out there, 8-10pound browns and 18-20 pound kings)

Hey guys just got back from Lake Ontario. The fleas were worse than lake Champlain. By far. After some experiments on the boat we found the absolute best way to remove the fleas quick and painlessly. The trick is to flick the line vertical. Bring about 30 ft of line out of the water, set the but of the rod down, hold the tip of the rod, pull the line down and flick- They come off quick- obviously this is better done with 2 people but can be accomplished solo. The trick is to not bunch them up either. (By the way The fishing was incredible out there, 8-10pound browns and 18-20 pound kings)

Great to hear of all the methods folks are using to remove fleas. On this subject, has anyone heard of any efforts or studies done by US F&W, VT F&W, or DEC to control them. I have not heard anything. Just Curious!