Braid fishing

[Pondboss16]

Can I fish any types of baits with braid? I've heard it dosent work well with crank baits and stuff.

[Scott F]

I use it for everything. 

[Darren.]

I used to use straight braid for everything I fished.

No longer. Now-a-days I always tie on a leader.
Saves me more $$ in the long run as I don't use
as much braid cutting and retying during the day.

[ww2farmer]

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

I use it for everything. 

 

1 hour ago, Darren. said:

I used to use straight braid for everything I fished.

No longer. Now-a-days I always tie on a leader.
Saves me more $$ in the long run as I don't use
as much braid cutting and retying during the day.

Sums it up for me, I use straight braid when the water is dirty, and add a leader when it's clear, or I need extra abrasion resistance.

[A fisher]

How long of a leader do you use?

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Leader length and type varies with application. 18" is about as short as I find useful. 

[FloridaFishinFool]

I agree with Scott F. Braid for everything. I never use a leader. No need to. In my opinion a leader can be a weak link in the chain...

One of my local fishing buddies swears he needs them. But when he loses a fish, guess where the break usually is? The "link" I leave out.

I have yet to see or experience a fish fleeing in fear because of a braid line in the water. On the contrary I have seen small baby bass in the 6 to 8 inch range peck at it like it was something to eat. So I have seen braid line actually attract fish to it rather than be scared away by it.

Abrasion resistance is another reason I have seen some fishermen justify using a leader as though the only line to ever touch anything that could damage the line was only within the leader length range. Yeah right!

When I first started using braid line I listened to all those in favor of leaders and I quickly learned to just go with braid from reel to hook and I have never looked back and don't regret it either. And I don't lose fish like some people I know around here who swear by them! 

[BaitMonkey1984]

When I fished excuslively spinning reels. I used PP super slick 8  8lb-12 lb for everything. I didn't fish creature baits back then and not a whole lot of vegetation/thick stuff in my home lakes.

 

I made the switch to bait casters 2-years ago. Initially, I tried braid because I heard it was easier to manage on bait casters. Maybe I was using too light line, but I was getting backlashes more often than not. So I bought a bulk spool of P-Line CX to keep costs down when I was learning on my bait casters. Got the handle of thumbing a bait caster and quite honestly have yet to think about throwing braid on any bait caster except my frogging/pitching rod. I have broken off more fish in the past two years, and some good ones this year really hurt. But I think that was operator error and I should have slowed down and played the fish more. 

I prefer the little bit of stretch in co-poly on my bait casters because I feel it is more forgiving then braid.

I would recommend you try all lines out on all applications. I would stay with braid for frogging/flipping heavy mats, mono for topwater (it floats, other lines don't and that can negatively effect the bait) and fluorocarbon for deep cranking or finesse applications (floor is almost invisible under water so alb floor is great on a drop shot rod). Hope this helps. 

[hawgenvy]

I think I get a lot more bites with fluorocarbon. Especially in "finesse" type situations, like with a weightless Senko or fluke or dropshot. But most the time I end up fishing with braid anyway, because I'm usually fishing thick cover where braid is more reliable because it is much stronger.

[rippin-lips]

Braid and leader for me. Braid is a great mainline but it does have some downfalls. If you fish waters with toothy fish they'll cut it like nothing. If you have zebra mussels or sharp rocks. It'll cut through it too.  When fishing things like poppers or spooks it can easily foul up your hooks.  On a totally slack line its sensitivity is less than a quality fluorocarbon. It's also nice to have some shock resistance when using treble hook  baits.  

[hawgenvy]

Bass anglers tend to get fixed in their ways, and are superstitious too. But there may be techniques that bring in great fish that they haven't tried, or they tried once or twice and it didn't work and now it's never going to be tried again. It is true that it's daunting, all the possible ways to fish for bass, all the types of lures, lines, rods, techniques. You just cant try everything, but it is important to break away from the tried and true every once in a while to have a go at something completely different. That's the beauty of fishing with (if you can on occasion) a guy who has more or different experience than you do, like a local professional guide. It can be a real eye opener to see new techniques that produce fish. Also, tournament fishing gives you the opportunity  to compare your skills with many others' and see what worked better than your technique that day. Although I am still somewhat of a novice, I try to get experience with a great variety of lures, just so I can become, to varying degrees, proficient in each one. Who knows? Any lure I'll learn to use now could some day bring home my big mama, or bring in the right five for a local tournament win.

[Paul Roberts]

Standard for me is braid -used straight or with a leader of mono or FC. But, I use all three: mono, FC, and braid. I have extra spools for my spinning reels. My CB reels have mono; other casting reels have braid.

-Braid has no stretch and is soft, light, and buoyant. It casts far and is very sensitive but only when under tension. Drawbacks are having wind blow it around, it digs into wood, frays around rock, and it tangles in terrestrial brush and branches -a hassle at times for skipping and bank-fishing.

-Mono has some stretch and is buoyant, advantageous for CB's, topwaters, and shallow (and very slow) presentations.

-FC is denser than the other two lines which provides strike detection on deeper presentations and also operates better in wind both above and on the water's surface.

Again, braid is standard for me as I can use a mono or FC leader. But I also have dedicated spools for straight mono and FC.

[the reel ess]

You'll get both answers. But try it. If you're comfy with it, do it. I still like mono for topwaters and lipless cranks mostly. And I have a cheap combo I filled with 15# mono because I didn't want to waste good line on it. I like mono where you like a lure to float and when you need some stretch. But you can overcome that with a more moderate rod tip.

I tried braid in a pinch once with topwaters and I got a hook thru the braid. I mean I had to push the braid together to open up the hole the hook got into and back it out. But I've been told that's rare. I know a lot of guys are using braid fro walking baits. But I use the same rod for lipless cranks and all other topwaters.

I should also note one reason I like mono for topwaters is I kayak fish. That puts me at an angle that makes walking baits dive. I need all the buoyancy I can get from a line.