Forum | Braided fishing line?

OutdoorFrontiers said:I probably get the tip wrapped once or twice a season, so I'd have to say it's both!  It is something that you need to live with, but if you're getting it more often than I am, you're probably doing something wrong!

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I dunno Steve… Fuji came out with the K-Frame to address this issue. For me I can wrap mono more than once/twice a season. Maybe the guides your rod has lessens the possibility/probability of experiencing guide wrap.

For me it is beyond the tip wrapping. Usually it's the tip or the guide closest to the reel or the 2nd/3rd from the top that has the most problems.

I'm not sure what someone could be doing wrong to promote/prevent guide wrap with braid line. You cast it out… work it back. Do you have any specific ideas/recommendations for preventing this from occuring? I'd sho'nuff be interested!

OutdoorFrontiers said:

andyfender said:

I am going to use the mono line presently on my reels as backing and add in Power Pro 10lb test.

1) After I attached the Braid to the mono do I need to use electric tape over the knot?

2) How many yards of braid should I put on?

Thanks,

Andy

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Andy,

If you've got mono backing, then you don't need to use the electrical tape.  I only use the tape because I fill the spool completely with PowerPro.

How many yards?  That's unknown because I don't know how large your reels are! 

One of the reasons I decided NOT to use backing was that I didn't want to fool around trying to guess how much line to put on.  If I put it ALL on, then I don't have to worry.

Besides, after a while you'll be casting down into the backing and then you have more things to worry about!  How good IS your knot connecting the backing to the main line?  How old was that backing in the first place?  What is the breaking strength of the backing?

A friend of mine used to do that all the time.  And he lost some good fish because of it!  He'd use a spool of FireLine and fill two reels.  Of course in order to do that, he'd have to use backing.  Well, sometimes he'd have fresh backing on, sometimes he was in a hurry and used the old stuff.  And sometimes it'd be backing line that was as strong as the main line, and sometimes it wasn't.  And we'd be fishing, he'd start casting down into the backing and that's when he'd hang a nice fish.  And that's when the backing would let go……

That makes total sense. Eventually you will run into issues and who needs that.  I backing line is pretty old around 8 years old or so……Stop Laughing! LOL Yeah I will respool the entire reel.

Andy

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I am going to use the mono line presently on my reels as backing and add in Power Pro 10lb test.

1) After I attached the Braid to the mono do I need to use electric tape over the knot?

2) How many yards of braid should I put on?

Thanks,

Andy

andyfender said:

Is 10 #lb to light to put on a spinning reel?

Andy Fender

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Nope! 10# is good to go on a spinnin' reel! Just pay attention to the hook eyes. Gamakatsu wire hooks sometimes… often… the hook eye isn't completely formed and as Steve said… You'll be suprised that the line will slip out – but it will!

OutdoorFrontiers said:

It might have been a bad batch, but it might have been too that you got some counterfeit line! There was a Chinese company that got in trouble for making a line that appeared to be PowerPro, and was duplicating PowerPro's packaging, selling it cut-rate as PowerPro. The only way you could tell was there were misspelled words on the package and the line was crap! 

I got the line at BPS. I never pulled the line from the spool. I just stopped tying a polamar knott for awhile then started tying it again and so for – no further problems.

One problem I do have with the lighter weight 8 and 10 pound is that some hooks don't have the eye loop closed tightly.  The line is so fine of diameter that it can pop through the gap!  So you have to watch how the knot lays on the eye.  I might try to secure the line to the eye with a dab of super glue and see if that corrects that little problem.

I forgot about that. My long time partner did use small diameter braid and experienced the same problem.

I'm "kind of" like you in that I'll use line for a couple years. I'll fill a reel completely with PowerPro, taping the line to the spool so that it doesn't slip on a hookset or when I'm putting a lot of pressure on a fish. But, once I've cut and retied enough that the line level is down, then I'll tie some mono line to the end of the used PowerPro and fill the spool. Because I have multiple reels of the same style and size, I'll go to my "oldest" reel or the one that needs new line and strip off all the old, then tie the mono onto the empty spool and crank it from one reel to the other. When doing this, as I'm filling the spool, I'm also reversing the line, getting twice as much use from one spool of line. Once this line is used up, then I'll chuck the whole mess, used up PowerPro and mono backing. I don't reuse backing line. I'll then put a full spool of PowerPro on the other, now empty reel. I try other brands of braid from time to time, but I still haven't found any other line that gives me the same service life as PowerPro and is as readily available too.

I don't reverse the line on braid because I put a sufficent mono backing on such that I can load two reels with one refill spool. It takes some spooling and unspooling to determine how much backing to install but once I get it right I mark the spool with a sharpie so if I ever have/want to install new backing I know how much to put back on. Fireline, on the other hand, will lose it's fusion and color after extended use at which time I will reverse it just to have "new" line on the business end.

I've noticed that as well, but it doesn't bother me and I try to keep an eye on it. I however DO use a lot of PowerPro on spinning tackle. I use 8 or 10 pound on spinning tackle. I do like the wide swing that the limp, fine diameter line gives to a Zoom SuperFluke and I like the sensitivity that I get for detecting light strikes when fishing finesse baits.

I use 14# fireline on my flukes. After the fireline gets broke in it behaves similar to braid.

PowerPro is a braided line. FireLine is a fused line; multiple filaments that are heat fused into one strand.  Rocks are hard on PowerPro, FireLine seems to be even less cut resistant to me.

You could be right. I don't use fireline in situations involving rocks. Not because of it's lack of ability in that area in-so-much as I just use heavier braid in those situations. Braid = Jig, c'rig, spook(on spinning reel). I seldom throw a t'rig opting instead for a jig where everyone else is chunking t'rigs.

LOL, that's an analogy I haven't heard before! Yeah, you really do need to wrap the line around something if you're trying to break it off, especially the heavier strengths. I know some guys that will wrap the line around a boat cleat, then use the boat's trolling motor to break the line. NEVER wrap it around your hand! Most times I can simply reel down as far as I can reach while pointing the rod at the snag. Then, keeping the rod pointed at the snag, grab the spool or double thumb it for a bait caster and just back up across the deck a little bit. Usually the hook pulls loose, the snag pulls loose or the line breaks.

It's OK to wrap the line around your hand… that is if you have determined you have no particular use for your index finger and little finger. I tried using the tolling motor trick. My experience is that an 82# thrust tolling motor does not have the "ump" to break 50# braid in most cases. In the winter when I'm wearing long sleeves I'll take the line and wrap it around my forearm to break it or pull it loose. In the summer I'll, at times, take a small towel and wrap that around my arm then break/pull loose the braid. Just gotta make sure the arm is fully protected.

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I use braid and fireline. But… not really qualified to respond for a couple of reasons. But a little history…

I first used braid in 1993. Can't recall the name of it but it was a cored braid by Berkely meaning it had a core of something… I just can't remember if it was straight stranded material or mono. What I do recall is it had no knott strength and would break without apparent cause.  It would be 3-4 years before I'd try braid again. Enter SpiderWire Spectrax.

In my opinion no one has made a braid to equal that. Wish I could still get it. 50# test 10# diameter. Everything on the market today is 50# test 12# diameter and is not woven as tightly as the early SpiderWire was – in my opinion. This may be because of improvements in mono where the same diameter that used to be 10# test is now 12# test – but I don't know that.

Today I use Power Pro but I don't really like it. It's "ok" but that's all. Next time I respool I'll give P-line braid a try.

I don't know if it was a bad batch or a bad section of Power Pro. But I was having knott failure on almost every hookset – never happened with SpiderWire. I ended up going to the Berkley braid knott to solve the problem and used that knott for 3-4 tournaments until I got tired of spending the time to tie it and went back to the Polamar and haven't had any failures recently.

Another reason I'm not qualified to answer your questions. When I spool up with braid it's there 2-3 years in most cases and sometimes longer. Several generations of product upgrades come and go while I'm still crusing along with 2-3 year old line. I back my spool with mono and when I start hitting the backing on long cast is the only reason for me to respool – or if I buy new reels. Which is the reason I loaded PowerPro last year.

I haven't had a lot of success with braid on a spinning reel. Most of my uses involving spinning gear also include some form of twitching the bait. For some reason when I use light twitches while retriving the bait the line wants to form a cone on the reel. Or, if you will, an inverse cone. With the base of the cone being at the reel face. Then when casting it pulls the base of the cone off and through the guides and pretty much eliminates fishing with that set up for that day. The effects can be minimized by making long cast and steady reeling back to the boat to straighen out the line every so often - but all ya' gotta do is forget to do it one time… Straight retrieve with spinning gear/braid isn't a problem.

Not a braid but not a mono is Fireline… I use it on Rat-L-traps, some top water and a few crank baits. I like it, it works well for me and cast like a dream. One bait I use it on, a Storm Chug bug, I've tried small dimeter braid and it seemed the braid was so liimp that the front hook on the chug bug was for ever grabbing the braid. The fireline isn't a lot better but it is better. Mono is the best for eliminating that as it's springy and when the bait moves forward it pushes the line out in front of it. But…. I can not work a chug bug like I like to work them on mono – waaaay to much stretch. Fireline is a bit stiff, OK real stiff, when first spooled up but after a single day of fishing it's right where it needs to be.

The issues with braids, for me, is it's a lot like a room full of beautiful women. Really not a bad pick in the lot. On the water I doubt you'd be able to come up with any discerable differences. And just like the room full of beautiful women… they all have a draw back or two. The will wrap around the guides at times requiring you to stop fishing while you unwrap'em. They are incredibly hard to break if you get hung up. I used to carry a piece of 2×2″ wood with me, take about six wraps around that with the braid and start walking towards the back of the boat.