A few questions about braided line

[Bass_Akwards]

1. I fish lots of slop, but I also fish lots of buzzbaits, cranks, soft plastics, jerkbaits etc etc. Should I pretty much always be using braided line, since I fish lots of different cover, and never know where I'll be fishing from hour to hour?

2. I'm getting new reels soon. What open faced reels are great for casting 20-30 pound braid smoothly, with good distance?

3. Can I fish soft plastics with braid with great success, or is the braid to easily seen by the bass when fishing a slower bait?

4. Is there a "Best" braid that all you gurus love, or are there several that are great?

T

[ABC123]

1) If you want to. Florocarbon is also very good in the area of abrasion resistance. I use braid with a floro leader.

2) Pflueger Supremes in either the 30 or 35 size, depending on your preference.

3) Don't know, I almost alway's use a leader with braid.

4) Suffix seems to be a favorite, I like Stren and Spiderwire, with a slight perference for Spiderwire in the junk, and Stren for casting distance and accuracy. I will be trying Suffix next spring.

[Bass_Akwards]

Do most anglers use leader with braided line?

[surfer]

1. I think alot of the guys on here have multiple rods set up with diferent lines among other qualities so they can quickly grab a diferent set up when the situation calls for it.

2. :-X

3. Visibility is believed by most to be a key factor in slow fishing. Braid is the most visible line. Tie on a leader or have a diferent set up for soft plastics.

4. My favorite is Suffix.

5. I use Florocarbon leader always

[lubina]

4.  My favorite is Suffix.

5.  I use Florocarbon leader always

Same here

[Bass XL]

1) It wouldnt hurt to try it....I always have one rod/reel rigged with braid...The only lures i use with braid are: Jigs, Plastics, and topwaters....I never use braid on cranks, spinnerbaits, or jerkbaits etc...

2) couldnt tell ya

3) I fish them with braid a lot, but not all the time. I'm usually flippin and pitchin.

4) my fav. braid is power pro..

***the only time i use a leader is on a carolina rig.

***if you are fishing at night, you shouldnt have to worry about line visibility.

[Marty]

1. I fish lots of slop, but I also fish lots of buzzbaits, cranks, soft plastics, jerkbaits etc etc.  Should I pretty much always be using braided line, since I fish lots of different cover, and never know where I'll be fishing from hour to hour?

2. I'm getting new reels soon.  What open faced reels are great for casting 20-30 pound braid smoothly, with good distance?

3.  Can I fish soft plastics with braid with great success, or is the braid to easily seen by the bass when fishing a slower bait?

4.  Is there a "Best" braid that all you gurus love, or are there several that are great?

T

1. I fish a wide variety of baits with braid and have no problems that I can detect.

2. My answer would apply to any line. Get a relatively large spool diameter. The larger the spool, the longer the cast because the line makes fewer revolutions coming off the spool than a smaller spool for a given distance.

3. Braid is good for soft plastics. Visibility is not something everyone agrees on. I don't think it affects my bite and I don't use a leader.

4. There's no "best" anything. I can recommend Power Pro and de-recommend Tuf-Line XP.

[ABC123]

Do most anglers use leader with braided line?

I don't know the answer to that. You could start a poll and find out what the percentage of users are, on this forum. I would venture to guess it would be close to 50/50, but that is just a guess.

[Long Mike]

I used to use braid with a fluorocarbon leader.  Nowadays Berkeley has a new Fireline braid called Crystal.  It's snow white.  I placed a short length of both fluoro and Crystal in a gallon bucket of water and could see very little difference in line visibility.  Bear in mind that I was above the water, not in it, so the test was hardly scientific.  Anywho, I've spooled up a couple of my reels with crystal, just to see if it performs better than the fluoro.  I'm sold on braid, but having to use a leader has always made me uneasy.  One more know to worry about.

[ww2farmer]

If you fish water with even moderate weed growth braid is the only way to go. The thicker the weeds the more it excels. It's green color blends in with the weeds, and even clear water in/around weeds tend to be darker with shading etc...., so visability is a non issue, and it "slices" through weeds like no other line. The senstivity and hooksetting ability of braid is unmatched, you can expect much better hooksets on longer cast's and in deeper water with braid. Braid is also the only line I would use as my main line on a c-rig, weeds or not. Also, going against popular opinion, I use braid on crankbaits when weeds are around, in fact letting the bait hang in the weeds and ripping it free triggers alot of strikes for me.

[Guest avid]

Like most things related to bass fishing, whether to use a leader with braided line is most likely a confidence factor.

some guys will swear it has cut their bites alot.

Other guys will swear it makes no difference.

Personally I think they are both right.

My preference is to use braid without a leader, but I often do.

I will use a mono leader when fishing topwaters except baits that will go right into the slop like hollow body frogs.

I never use a leader with jigs.  Rarely with worms or senko's.

It's like this.....If I think the water is real clear and the bait is real slow I'll use a leader.

If the bait is moving or in the weeds or the water is well stained, then I won't.

I don't know if it matters or not, because I have had great days and lousy days with either leader or no leader.

[Catt]

Only my jig rod has braided line every thing else is Berkley Big Game 15# test; I do not use a leader. Think about it most types of vegetation grows in long thin strands which bass can not distinguish from your line.

Berkley Crystal, now that's funny right there; braided lines started out white and every one complained. So we went through a menagerie of colors only to end up at white again.

[surfer]

I used to use braid with a fluorocarbon leader. Nowadays Berkeley has a new Fireline braid called Crystal. It's snow white. I placed a short length of both fluoro and Crystal in a gallon bucket of water and could see very little difference in line visibility. Bear in mind that I was above the water, not in it, so the test was hardly scientific. Anywho, I've spooled up a couple of my reels with crystal, just to see if it performs better than the fluoro. I'm sold on braid, but having to use a leader has always made me uneasy. One more know to worry about.

Long,

Can you repeat this experiment with a black plate in the bottom of the bucket?  I am curious if you used a white bucket and white braid if it was just camouflage with its white background.

I agree completly that braid would be even beter if I didn't have to tie a leader on.

[Laurentino]

One point I haven't seen made in this string is when working with spinning gear, braided line greatly reduces the line twist problem.  This is a very nice feature.  I have been using the long fluorocarbon leader as recommended by Gary Yamamoto.  He uses a 20-25 foot fluorocarbon leader for a couple of reasons.  First by using the long leader the knot is on the reel when you have the fish along side the boat trying to land it.  This avoids having to be concerned about the leader-to-braid connection during that important time.  Second by using a long leader you will have no risk of braid coming in contact with a rock or shell and cutting the line.  Fluorocarbon is much more abrasion resistant than braid.  Of course you also get the low line visibility of fluorocarbon near your bait and the sensitivity and low stretch of braid.  We are talking about relatively light braid here, something in the 10 to 20 pound test range.   One concern I had in trying this was whether the braid-to-leader knot would go smoothly through the guides during casts.  It doesn't seem to be a problem.  I'm using this combination more and more.

[smallfry]

1.  I have braid or fireline on every rod except for one or two dedicated for "clear water" cranks or swimbaits.

2.  For 20-30 lb. braid I'd probably go with a 4 (40, 4000) size spinning reel.  However, for almost all spinning applications I find 10 lb. fireline to be plenty.  That fishes well on a any size spinning reel.

3.  For a long time I never used a leader and had great success fishing plastics with braid.  However, these days if the water isn't muddy I generally do use a flouro leader unless it is a reaction bait.

4.  On spinning reels, I find Fireline to be the best.  

[Tin]

1. Just have a couple rods rigged up with the braid for the slop and for your buzzbait and soft plastics. As for rods that you throw cranks and jerbaits on, stick to flouro or mono.

2. As 20-30 pound braid, it usually only has 6-8 pound diameter, and I have never really found a braid that doesnt cast smooth. So truthfully, pretty much any reel that holds a good amount of 6-8 pound test will be ok.

3. Once again it isnt so much how slow the bait is moving as as much as it comes down to water clarity. If it is really clear water you could always go too braid that has 2-4 lbs diameter which is about 1-15 pound test.

4. I'm usually a die hard power pro guy, but I recently tried Stren Suffix, it is thinner and casts better in my opinion. So I might be going over to it.

[.dsaavedra.]

1. i use braid on all my rigs...but never in clear water (thers none around me  :)

2. for 20-30 pound braid i would definitley go with a 30 size reel. 20-30lb braid is usually 6-8lb diameter, so it will handle it well...heck, i use 50lb braid on a 30 size reel.

3. ive never used a leader before for fear of losing fish/bait/sensitivity (braid is very sensitive alone and im not sure about w/ a leader.) one tip you can do to limit the visibility of your braid (or any line) is to take a sharpie (i use brown) and color the first few feet of line in little 1/2" segments spaced 1/2" apart (roughly) believe it or not it does make a diference.

4. Alot of people like suffix and im sure its good, but its too expensive for me right now so i stick with power pro. very good at a very reasonable price.

[Long Mike]

Surfer, I used a red bucket for my test.  If you want me to perform further tetsing on your behalf, the price will be $75 per hour, three hour minimum, payable in advance. ;D ;D ;D

[surfer]

no kidding!  a red bucket!  this Crystal stuff sounds interesting.  i may have to give it a try.  

no further testing thanks.   ;D