Respooled - Problem - knots

[CRFisher]

OK, respooled my cheap spinning reel with 30lb Suffix braid.  Used it before.  Have some mono on as backing.  I'm getting knots in the braid after a few casts.  Did I spool on too much braid or did I spool it on too loosely?  Or maybe screw something up alltogether?

That being said, between cutting out about 30 ft of expensive braid I got a nice two pounder, so even an aggravating hour out tonight was productive.

[Certified Public Angler]

I have 30lbs suffix on my spinning outfit also and I have experienced the same thing.  I also experienced it with PowerPro.

Here is my understanding of what happens, braid is very strong and very small diameter.  When you catch a fish and set the hook with braid it can dig into the line that is on your spool.  So after the fish is off and you cast hard enough to get that section out then it will knot up.

The remedy is supposed to be that you set your drag looser then you would fishing mono, because of the zero stretch in braid it won't effect your hookset but may help this problem.  Also you can use a lighter power rod or faster action with braid, and you don't need that bone jarring hookset anymore, just a stern flick of the wrist will put the hook through the fishes upper lip.

All that being said, it didn't work for me when I respooled with Suffix.  I still get those knots randomly and they are frustrating.  I can say that with the PowerPro that problem went away once the line got used more and got softer. I don't really know, I'll be looking for answers in this thread also.

[CRFisher]

I guess I'm just bringing my scissors with me when I go out on Wednesday.  It's casting awesome though, at least until I get a knot.

[Certified Public Angler]

yeah gotta have those scissors of a sharp knife

[Sam]

Get a dog's toe nail cutter to cut braid.  

[tyrius.]

What kind of knots are you talking about?  Is the line coming off the spool in large "tangles"?  This could be due to overspooling the line.  You want to stop putting line on before you get to the edge of the spool.  Otherwise as the line comes off the spool it will "grab" other loops and pull them off the top out of order leaving you with a huge mess.

Also, you want to make sure that your line isn't all twisted up.  If it's twisted it will jump off the spool too.  Braid usually isn't too bad about this, so this isn't the first thing that I would check.

[J Francho]

Are they wind knots?  Braid can twist, despite its inherent low memory, and wind knots can be a problem.