Line preference

[Mike fossum]

Hi I am getting new line and wanted to know what pound braid, flour carbon, and mono do you guys use for:

soft plastics

crankbaits

top water

Jigs 

[roadwarrior]

6 minutes ago, Mike fossum said:

Hi I am getting new line and wanted to know what pound braid, flour carbon, and mono do you guys use for:

soft plastics  #6 Tatsu or #15 Smackdown with 6' of #6 Gold Label leader

crankbaits     #11 Sunline Shooter Defier Armilo

top water       #11 Armilo

Jigs                  #12 or #15 Tatsu or #30 Smackdown with 6' Gold Label #15

 

[T-Billy]

23 minutes ago, Mike fossum said:

Hi I am getting new line and wanted to know what pound braid, flour carbon, and mono do you guys use for:

soft plastics

crankbaits

top water

Jigs 

Not specific enough for a detailed answer IMO. I think if you're new enough to the sport to be asking this question, I recommend keeping it simple. 40# Sufix 832 for heavy cover and 6# to 15# Trilene Big Game for everything else. BG is cheap enough for you to experiment and find what works for YOU without breaking the bank, and it's good strong mono that handles pretty well and won't let you down.

[Woody B]

12 to 17 pound stren.

[Nelson Delaney]

Go get yourself a bulk spool of 12 lb berkley trilene xl.  Will cover all your needs 

[Jar11591]

Depends on application, I’ll use anything from 6lb hybrid to 50lb braid for soft plastics. 
 

Jigs usually get thrown on 40lb braid for me, and treble-hook topwater always gets thrown on 8lb monofilament. 

[Boomstick]

7 hours ago, Mike fossum said:

Hi I am getting new line and wanted to know what pound braid, flour carbon, and mono do you guys use for:

soft plastics

crankbaits

top water

Jigs 

 

Soft plastics is pretty generic. For "Finesse" soft plastics, I throw them on spinning reels with 12# braid (Sunline SX1) and will use anywhere from a 6-8# fluorocarbon leader (usually around .230mm but sometimes as low as .185mm). I'm not too terribly picky about the brand here. I've used Seaguar Blue Label and Sunline Shooter FC in the past, this year I added a spool of Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai. For larger soft plastics like Senkos, I will use sometimes use the same setup, but I usually use 12# fluorocarbon and sometimes 16#. Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai is my preferred brand, it handles really well.

 

Crankbaits:
10-12# fluorocarbon 95% of the time. If might step it up as far as 16# occasionally if there is a lot of grass. Currently, I am using Berkley Trilene fluorocarbon in 10# which is pretty close to 12# in other brands that do not run thick. It's decent line but not the most abrasion resistant but I bought the spools for something like $6 each on Bass Pro's springtime sale, and it's solid for it.

 

Top water: 12# Sufix Advance or Siege.

 

Jigs: 16# fluorocarbon (Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai again) for most of my jigs. I will use 50-65# braid (whichever I have available) for flipping (on a flipping stick).

 

If you are new to bass fishing, I would suggest keeping it fairly simple. You can cover most of the above (minus finesse) with a two rod setup:

    #1) A medium power, fast action rod with 12# mono. Sufix Siege or Advance is my choice here, but Berkley Big Game isn't bad if you need to save some money.

    #2) A medium heavy power rod with 16# Sunline Shooter FC for jigs and weighted soft plastics. If you prefer braid, you could go with 30-40# braid and maybe a 12-16# leader as well. I generally only use braid on casting gear with flipping, pitching and frogging.