Question: Braided Line w/Fluorocarbon Leader

[Squints7]

I recently tried tying on some braided line to my Abu Garcia Revo Sx. I came away (while practicing in the yard) with a birds nest that nightmares are made of. Is braided line not a good idea on baitcasting reels? Should you only use them on spinning reels? Also, I tried tying an overhand knot on to the reel (with the same line) and I believe that's where this disaster really began. I don't think the knot held and I ended up with a mess.... . Bear in mind- I'm very new to fishing and I am just trying to learn...

[Jon G]

If you are using braid you need to use a mono backing or else the braid will slip on the spool

[Squints7]

5 minutes ago, Jon G said:

If you are using braid you need to use a mono backing or else the braid will slip on the spool

So I should only use mono to back it or will fluorocarbon work - I have mono- I was just wondering if that was the only thing that you use?

[fishnkamp]

Here is the way to do it. Go get a spool of good quality mono line. You can get a 300 yard spool of 14 pound Stren Clear Blue Original for around $8 or a 1200 yard spool of Bass Pro Excel for $11. Now these lines will allow you to tie a good tight arbor knot ( I recommend you watch a video of that knot on youtube), and it will not slip. Now spool 1/2 a spool of the Mono. Next using a uni to uni knot tie the mono to your braid and spool the braid on.

There are several good things about doing this. First the cost of mono is pennies compared to braid, so the $11 dollars for 1200 yards makes it cheap to half fill a reel.. Now using this method the typical 300 yard spool of braid will fill several reels, making it economical to use. Some high quality braids run nearly $30 for a 300 yard spool.  

Secondly if you have a major catastrophe or you use the braid for several years and want to replace it, you only to replace the first half of a spools worth.  Now if the circumstances require a leader, use the same uni to uni knot and tie the braid and leader material together. In fact your left over mono can make your leader also. I usually use the Excel for backing and I carry some P Line CXX in 6, 8, and 10 pound test for leader material. The 10 pound test is pretty nice for leader material and it really breaks at about 22 pounds so it is tough. I usually use a leader of about 3 foot. Doing this means I cut and tie my lures onto the leader and not my expensive braid.  I do the same thing if the main line on my reel is going to be Fluorocarbon. Fluoro makes good leader material as well, so I have the remains of several spools of Fluoro in my boat also.  I hope this makes sense. If I look at my Diawa Tatula reel it holds 150 yards of 12 pound mono line which is the same diameter as SpiderWire Stealth 30 pound braid. If I spooled 150 yards of braid it would cost $13.25.  To spool 1/2 of the spool with Stren it would cost $1.9 + 1/2 a spool of braid= $6.60 roughly, giving us a full spool of line for 8.50.  The rest of your mono and braid will fill some more reels. So the cheapest way to fill reels is with a 300 or 330 yard spool of mono (or a 1200 yd spool of Excel) and a 300 yard spool of braid.. Similarly it makes fluoro cheaper per fill up as well.  Some of the Fluorocarbon makes the braid look like a bargain. I do the same thing on my spinning reels as well. 

Make sure to stop filling your spool about 1/8 of an inch from the top of the spool and it help to use a tool fill your reels up. I use an old Berkley Line Spooling Station. I can do it by myself, and can control how smooth and tight the line goes on.

[Squints7]

Thanks man- I appreciate the advice - I'm going to try that when I get home. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to tie the arbor knot and I've used it before with monofilament. Apparently, I didn't understand that braided line "slips" if you tie it directly to the reel. Great information and thanks for taking the time to respond.

[fishnkamp]

Well I did not figure all of it out a once but I originally would fill less than a third but when braid and especially the better Fluoro came out I figured it out quick. When one fill up can cost $30 bucks it get expensive with 12 to 20 rods in y our arsenal.  The nice thing about braid is I have braid on some of my reels that is 5 years old and working fine. Here is a funny story. My wife is ADDICTED  to smallmouth. This April we drove 14 hours west to fish Dale Hollow Lake. While fishing we were catching a lot of smallies in the 5 to 7 pound category on Ned Rigs. These are small 1/10 ounce mushroom shaped jigheads that you attach a TRD Ned bodies (picture a 2.5 inch piece of Senco) made by ZMan.  We both fished them on G Loomis 6 foot light action rods. They rate 1/16 to 5/1/6. So we are about 15 foot off of a 30 foot rock bluff wall. The smallies are holding tight but suspended down about 15 feet. I notice, on the depth finder, a huge school of big fish directly under the boat and these are hanging tight to the bottom. I was sure they were catfish.  The next minute, as my wife was retrieving her lure back to make another cast, she was interrupted by a major jolt on the rod and it was on!!  She yelled to get the net that she had a huge smallie on ( this lake is he home of the world's largest smallie ever caught, a 11.15 pound smallie).  I reach up and loosen her drag so we do not break a $350 light action rod.  All I did was sit down at the console as she fought and landed a 6 1/2 pound catfish.  All the time, I was laughing and she was running from the front deck to the back deck and back up front again. That fish pulled drag and three times that uni to uni knot went out thru the guides. Here is a picture of the typical smallie we caught that week and the cat she caught. I love it when my wife smiles from ear to ear. We only dated for 10 years and only been married 28 years. It still gets me when she is smiling like that !!!

 

 

 

 

 

[Fisher-O-men]

Red head?  Brave man!

[Turkey sandwich]

@fishnkamp bingo on spooling with braid, and the awesome story!  That sounds like a hell of a trip. 

[rippin-lips]

On my reels with a shallow spool I will use 2 wraps of electrical tape on my spool first, and then tie on my braid with an arbor knot. I also tie an overhand knot on the tag end so it can't slip.  So far it hasn't ever been an issue.  I still do the mono backing on certain reels that have a more normal spool capacity.  Since you're new to fishing I would suggest learning first with a mono line in the #10-12 range. That way if you do get a birdsnest that results in having to cut your line off, you aren't out much money 

[blckshirt98]

I tried using electrical tape on a casting spool and the braid was slipping on the electrical tape!  This was by the time I was almost done spooling the reel so I had to unspool all of the braid, then went back to using mono backing.  One thing if you're using braid is to set the brakes pretty high at first and see where your threshold is where it starts to bird nest.  On zero break freespool my bird nest rate it close to 100% so just keep in mind you may need to have some brakes set.