Braided line and recommended line tests for rods

[dave]

Most rod specs do not spec out to fish with 50# and 65# braid.  I know about backing off of the drag.  The warranty issue concerns me.   I'm guessing that rod companies will always say,  "sorry the rod wasn't designed to handle braid."  So,  NO WARRANTY!  Is it just a chance we take?

[SimonSays]

I'm not sure if they can really tell or not if it snapped because you were using braid on your UL set up and caught a 40lb striper and locked the drag down vs it snapping due to other things.

[Grey Wolf]

Never heard of that issue before. Even if it were true , how would they know it snapped because you were using 50 lb. braid ?

[dave]

Honesty.

[Fish Chris]

I've used nothing but braided line, for close to 14 years now. I did snap one rod right after I started using braid, and I was still trying to treat it like mono. Set the hook into Northern California, with my drag too tight.

Haven't had any problems since. You definately should run your drag a bit lighter, and learn to not swing for the fences on your hook sets. It's simply not needed. You can get the same pressure at the hook point, with 1/10th the swing that some guys do with mono.

I typically use 2/10 braid on a rod rated for 1 to 4 lb mono. 8/30 on a rod rated for 8 to 15 lb mono. And 12/50 on a rod rated for 15 to 25 lb mono. Works great for me.

Peace,

Fish

PS, As for voiding your warranty, to be quite honest, I don't think most reputable rod companies would even bother to ask you what type of line you were using....... Unless you started to break "lots" of rods, over and over. Therefore, you shouldn't have to lie about it.

[Grey Wolf]

Honesty.

Meaning?????????????????????

[dave]

Just like the story LBH told about the stereo amplifier.  If I'm asked,  I'll say what I was using.  I once slipped and fell and broke a rod in half.  I explained exactly what happened to the owner of the rod company.  He sold me a rod for half the price of new.  The owner was Trey Kistler.

I had used braid for a long time as well.  Been using Yozuri Hybrid for awhile now.  Thinking about a rod or two going back to braid.

[The Next KVD]

A friend of mine builds custom rods on St. Croix blanks and he says the warranty will cover the braids.  U see the pros using 50-80lb braid all the time on some of there rods so why not use it.

[RoLo]

Most rod specs do not spec out to fish with 50# and 65# braid. I know about backing off of the drag. The warranty issue concerns me. I'm guessing that rod companies will always say, "sorry the rod wasn't designed to handle braid." So, NO WARRANTY! Is it just a chance we take?

I didn't wake up to braided line as soon as Fish Chris (wish I had), but now that I've discovered braid,

no rod warranty in the world will affect my line choice.

Realistically, if an angler is dealing with a cheap rod, the blank obviously consists of low-modulus graphite,

and they enjoy the lowest failure rates of all (e.g. ugly stick). If the angler is dealing with a high-end rod

with a high-modulus blank (brittle), it most likely comes with a no-questions, replacement warranty that is built into the sticker price.

Roger