Spinner baits are my favorite lure on any lake really. They produced most of the big fish at LV too. I have made my own spinners (#8 blade) for the next trip.
I have some secret colour combos I will be testing this year!
To tell you the truth, we didnt use leaders much that trip, didnt have any break offs luckily. But some of those fish were caught while going after walleye. I have started using leaders regularly since then, but at that time I rarely used them for pike, braided line has always held up.