Braid on spinning reels

[Drowning A Worm]

Looking to get some braid for my dropshot/smallmouth setup. Most spools come in either 125 or 300 yards. 125 yards doesn't seem enough to completely spool my reel and 300 yards will cost you around 30$. Not going to be going through a lot if it because I'll have a leader so 300 yards isn't really necessary. 

Thoughts?

[lbriggs]

You shouldn't spool your reel completely with braid anyway, you should fill it up with a fair amount of mono and tie onto your braid. 125 yards will be fine, don't buy 300 yards right off the bat if you haven't tried braid on your spinning reel before. I personally love braid for my drop shots, shakey heads, and other finesse presentations. I think you'll like it a lot on your reel too, 10 lb powerpro will cast a mile and is very sensitive.

 

[MassYak85]

I would highly suggest you use backing (cheap mono before the braid) to save money. You can certainly use all braid but your wallet/bank account will thank you if you don't. A 125 yd spool will be more than enough if you do this, and depending on the size of the reel and braid you are putting it on you could even get another re-spool out of it. How much backing you use is going to depend how you plan to use the reel. You said dropshotting for smallies, is this a very light finesse setup where a 5lb smallie hooked in 50 feet of water could pull a serious amount of line on a run? Or are you fishing shallower with slightly heavier gear? 

[Drowning A Worm]

2 hours ago, lbriggs said:

You shouldn't spool your reel completely with braid anyway, you should fill it up with a fair amount of mono and tie onto your braid. 125 yards will be fine, don't buy 300 yards right off the bat if you haven't tried braid on your spinning reel before. I personally love braid for my drop shots, shakey heads, and other finesse presentations. I think you'll like it a lot on your reel too, 10 lb powerpro will cast a mile and is very sensitive.

Just now, Drowning A Worm said:

2 hours ago, lbriggs said:

You shouldn't spool your reel completely with braid anyway, you should fill it up with a fair amount of mono and tie onto your braid. 125 yards will be fine, don't buy 300 yards right off the bat if you haven't tried braid on your spinning reel before. I personally love braid for my drop shots, shakey heads, and other finesse presentations. I think you'll like it a lot on your reel too, 10 lb powerpro will cast a mile and is very sensitive.

The reel I have came with a braid spool so I was planning on bot using backing

2 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

I would highly suggest you use backing (cheap mono before the braid) to save money. You can certainly use all braid but your wallet/bank account will thank you if you don't. A 125 yd spool will be more than enough if you do this, and depending on the size of the reel and braid you are putting it on you could even get another re-spool out of it. How much backing you use is going to depend how you plan to use the reel. You said dropshotting for smallies, is this a very light finesse setup where a 5lb smallie hooked in 50 feet of water could pull a serious amount of line on a run? Or are you fishing shallower with slightly heavier gear? 

Deepest water is about 20 feet, creek/river. Also I have a braid spool so  I was planning on skipping the backing

[frosty]

The backing isn't so much to prevent the braid slipping as much as keeping you from having to buy 300 yards of braid. You won't realistically be casting 120 yards, so if you spool 120 yards of braid on top of cheap mono you'll be golden. I have about 100 yards on my spinning reel and I've never seen the mono. I use 20 pound test power pro, casts really nice. 

[Fishin' Fool]

Use backing. I switched to this setup this season and it works well. I used to use all fluorocarbon on my spinning reels. That is a very expensive route.

[MassYak85]

Yea use backing unless money is of no object. The braid spool is just there to help prevent the braid from slipping if you do end up using 100% braid. It's not like it helps you at all once you do end up spooling it, backing or not. 

[crypt]

5 hours ago, lbriggs said:

You shouldn't spool your reel completely with braid anyway, you should fill it up with a fair amount of mono and tie onto your braid. 125 yards will be fine, don't buy 300 yards right off the bat if you haven't tried braid on your spinning reel before. I personally love braid for my drop shots, shakey heads, and other finesse presentations. I think you'll like it a lot on your reel too, 10 lb powerpro will cast a mile and is very sensitive.

 

see above and apply………….

[Drowning A Worm]

3 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Yea use backing unless money is of no object. The braid spool is just there to help prevent the braid from slipping if you do end up using 100% braid. It's not like it helps you at all once you do end up spooling it, backing or not. 

I also was wondering if put backing on if will affect the sensitivity

[fishnkamp]

Consider this economically. I use Daiwa Tatulas, they are my favorite reels. A Tatula 100 series reel will hold 150 yards of 12 pound test.  That is one and a half times a football field.  It is 450 feet of line you would need to purchase to fill one reel.  Two of the most popular braided lines are Power Pro Spectra and Suffix 832. Power Pro Spectra from Tackle Warehouse ( I use them for comparison I realize we may find it cheaper on sale somewhere) costs $16 for a 150 yard spool. It is the same for 832 and about $14 for a similar size spool of Spiderwire Stealth.  This gets much worse when we spool with Fluorocarbon. P LIne Halo is about $20 for 200 yards, FC Sniper is almost $30 for a filler spool. Now lets see what mono costs, not junk but name brand good quality mono.  A 330 yard spool of Stren Clear Blue is $8.00, Berkley XL or XT costs the same $8.00 for 330 yards. The best deal going for this use is Bass Pro Shops Excel. 12 to 17 pound test will rin you $10.00 for a 1200 yard spool.

So if we spooled 75 yards of say Stren it would cost less than two and a half cents a yard or around $1.80. Add to that 75 yards of Sufix 832 for roughly $8.00 and the entire cost for spooling you one reel is $9.80. That is worth it. Now fish your braid for a while. Remove it turn it around and fish some more. Either way you have 75 yards of braid. Do you regularly cast that far?  If a fish runs hard and spools that 75 yards of line there is 75 yards of high quality say 14 pound test mono to be pulled  out. 

Remember too the mono measures .14 for 14 pound test ( I usually use 14 pound Stren myself.)  You will need more than 150 yards of pure braid because the reel is speced for normal mono and most 30 pound braid only measures about .011 which means the cost would go up.  Save your money. Use 14 pound test high quality mono for the first half and then top off with your main line. In ten years of bass and striper fishing I have only had one fish pull the knot, joining my lines together, out through the guides. It was a 18 pound blue catfish that ate a rattle trap intended for a striper.  

[MassYak85]

1 hour ago, Drowning A Worm said:

I also was wondering if put backing on if will affect the sensitivity

Not at all, think of it as just filler on the spool. The key is finding the right amount to put on so that you never go past your connection knot to your backing. Now maybe you hook a really good fish and it does get you past there on a good cast, just make sure the backing is not complete junk, don't use a bunch of 4lb 10 year old mono you had lying around. Use some that you would feel comfortable using but is still very cheap. 

[Bluebasser86]

I'll usually spool twice off a 150 yard spool of braid. Nowhere other than an alternate universe should I need more than 75 yards of braid to land even the largest bass swimming in my state. 

[WIGuide]

No reason to fill the full thing with braid. Sure it's got a braid ready spool, all that means is it's not smooth which allows braid to slip on it. Why spend more on line that you'll never see? Just use backing and save yourself some money, especially since that's why you started this post to begin with. 

[roadwarrior]

I like 24# Gliss with about 4' of fluorocarbon leader.

 

[fishwizzard]

I have never used any kind of backer, I just fish the braid down to about two casts worth left on the spool and then replace it.  Is there any reason, other then the possibility of hooking a monster catfish, to not fish with only say 100-150' of line on a reel?

 

[frosty]

31 minutes ago, Bunnielab said:

I have never used any kind of backer, I just fish the braid down to about two casts worth left on the spool and then replace it.  Is there any reason, other then the possibility of hooking a monster catfish, to not fish with only say 100-150' of line on a reel?

 

A spinning reel will cast much better with the spool filled about 1/8" from the edge of the spool. 

[Bluebasser86]

9 hours ago, Bunnielab said:

I have never used any kind of backer, I just fish the braid down to about two casts worth left on the spool and then replace it.  Is there any reason, other then the possibility of hooking a monster catfish, to not fish with only say 100-150' of line on a reel?

 

It saves a boatload of money for someone like myself that has a few dozen combos in the boat. Instead of having to buy a $20 spool of braid for every rod I use braid on, I buy a single spool and fill 2 reels with backing, then split the spool of braid between the 2. I do the same with expensive fluoro. It saves money and gives better performance because a full spool cast better and gives you the full effect of the reels retrieve speed. 

[fishwizzard]

Interesting, my most used spinning reels are a 500 and 1000 size, so there isn't much line on in the first place.  I am getting ready to reshuffle my spinnnig combos, so I will try some backing when I respool.