braid bad to use on every setup?

[Raul]

11 hours ago, Further North said:

Why?  Use what you want and enjoy.

I agree with all above who say it's personal preference.

I run braid on everything, use mono and fluorocarbon and hybrid leaders as needed (and sometimes tieable wire leaders).

Braid lasts close to nothing when you fish something like this:

 

[DubyaDee]

It all depends on where you fish and what you're fishing for. 

I run braid on all of my rods, most of the time with a flouro leader. Most of my fishing is in open water with zebra muscles and pike/musky present. This is where the flouro leader comes in, 6-15#. Learning to tie good knots is key too. I have less break offs with a flouro leader/san diego jam not, than I do with a braid/palomar knot. This could be because of the knot strength with that specific line or the toothy fish that like my perch jerkbait.

It's important to match up the line with the action of your rod too. I wouldn't throw a treble hook lure with straight brad and a med x fast rod. The flouro leader gives you a little stretch which is nice. 

Every time I hear a pro on TV talk about flourocarbon line they say no stretch. I just don't get it. I know flouro doesn't stretch as much as mono, but in no way it is no stretch. 

A braid with flouro leader is great for me, but it may not be for you and your style of fishing. 

[Raul]

1 hour ago, DubyaDee said:

Every time I hear a pro on TV talk about flourocarbon line they say no stretch. I just don't get it. I know flouro doesn't stretch as much as mono, but in no way it is no stretch. 

Besides, when FC stretches it stretches forever ( and therefore thins out ) not like nylon that returns to it´s original length and diameter once the load is gone.

[0119]

2 hours ago, DubyaDee said:

 Learning to tie good knots is key too.

 

Yes but even what is a good knot is up for debate too. Many so called good knots have been unimpressive in fancy Nancy tests and for that matter in my experience. Along with that goes age of the tyer. To me a good knot is simple, fast, instinctive and capable of being tied in the dark with no light, heavy winds or a pitching boat. The best knot of all is no knot because a knot will always be a weak link. Braid causes more knots and that's a big negative.

[Josh Smith]

On 3/2/2016 at 0:09 PM, 0119 said:

That's where I find braid at its weakest. Unable to with stand the gillplates of bycatch or cope with the slightest touch of a zebrafish mussel or marl rock.

We have radically different environments, it looks like.  Most of my heavy cover fishing consists of vegetation; weeds, downed trees, and the like. 

The rock I fish is mostly limestone, and I personally haven't seen a zebra mussel, though I understand they are here.

I do often run leaders.  For example, my jerkbait rod gets a 6' (or so) fluorocarbon leader.  I also use a clinch knot (not improved or anything like that) doubled through the eye so that I do have to break it off, it breaks at the terminal knot and not at the Albright knot.  I rarely have to break it off, though.  Just check and retie.  The rocks are generally smoothed by the river current, and so I don't get abraded much.  I can run and have ran straight braid in that area without problems; my jig setup I use in heavy vegetation also nets me good sized fish from in the rocks.  (Smallies love crawdads! :D)   I do sometimes use a 17lb mono leader on the river with the jigs, but not overly often.

Regards,

Josh

 

[Further North]

8 hours ago, 0119 said:

I don't know for him but for me there are so many negatives it proved impossible to fish with.  I fish very clear water and braid lowered my catch rate, no matter what "professional academic experts" say about that being impossible and bass being too stupid to notice. Worse for every bass I catch I get more hits from by catch like tarpon, snook or jacks. Braid has absolutely zero, ziltch, nada abrasion resistance forcing me to use at a minimum, 20# hard mono leader, many 40# if I'm using an expensive lure!  More knots and no wonder knot has an exceptional record tying big thick mono to thin braid in the real world.  Those thick knots with a hard mono tag end are murder going through your guides.  My shorelines are solid marl rock full of exposed ancient coral and shell.  Zebra Mussels coat most submerged structure.  Braid just doesn't last a trip. Yeah I could wrench my drag down, lose all the salty fish, not enjoy the fight by dragging fish in like a flw/bass pro and not experience true fishing, but what fun is that?  I could change my personal requirement of having reels last me a generation and let the braid ruin my gear with the drag wrenched to the max but I don't want to.  I also need the stretch of mono as I fish treble hooked lures 99% of the time. My catch rate increases from the degree of forgiveness that compensates for my sometimes being too jealous in fighting a big fish.

None of these ideals or causes could affect anyone else in the world. Your right that its all personal preference.  But what gets me is 99% of forum users tell folks your nuts for using anything but braid but know nothing about the conditions of which the person is fishing or what they want to get out of their fishing experience. Everyone thinks they have to fish like a pro and be equipped like a pro.  Dragging a dink along the top of the waters surface isn't fishing, its imitating a t.v. personality.  Nobody seems to have any idea how to really fight a fish let alone enjoy the battle. BPS isles now have a 4 foot section of none braided lines and 50 feet of double sided isle of nothing but braid.  Less choice is always bad. The industry is thrilled that consumers buy braid at ever increasing prices. They are thrilled that it has negative effects on rods and reels when it is used the popular and improper way, they use that to get you to buy that next generation reel.

Thanks - good info.

One thing: I use an FG knot to tie on leaders...it's not thick and lacks that hat mono tag end.

...I don't understand anyone who says (or thinks) other fishermen are nuts for not using what they use.  That's just dumb.  I can learn something from anyone, and most of those things make me a better fisherman...even if it's just something to not do.

5 hours ago, Raul said:

Braid lasts close to nothing when you fish something like this:

 

Thanks - that looks similar to a lot of the Canadian water I fish, which is why I use leaders.