Distance-braid vs mono

[12VoltMan]

Braid for sure. As mono gets older (especially cheap mono) it gets stiffer and harder to cast. As braid gets older, it actually softens up a bit and casts and lays on the spool much better.

[peter]

I'm a mono guy myself and have been considering braided. I take it your not talking about the spider type lines? As I have heard stories of how it will rub grooves in you rod eyes. And impossible to break line. I fish fast flowing waters by boat,canoe or kayak. When you hang up you have to get back up stream as quickley as possible to try to retreive lure. If current to swift you need to be able to break line quickly as to miminize line lost. Thats why I haven't made the switch. Any imput. I to like Peter said deal with a lot of line twist and change line just about every time I go out. I fish with 6 lb. mono test.

Yeah. I tried some brade (that maybe on a rod) a long time ago fishing the turbines on the Ohio. Man was that a diaster with the swoft water and all the junk and rocks on the bottom. a three way swivel with a mono leader was not enough to keep the braid off the junk. Could not break it off and had one big tangled mess. Never tried it again.
This is for casting deep open water, not much chance of hang. I am a little worried about the zero stretch factor as it relates to pulling hooks out of fishes mouth but I'll be using lures with big hooks and hopefully adjustments can be made.

[peter]

one other thing, after a couple of months of hard fishing, turn it end to end, some of the braid on my reels is probably 3 or more years old, and still as strong as new. I hate fireline.

What dont you like about fire line.
Just curious--maybe some problem orcharastic to look out for.

Thanks

[nonamesleft47]

Yeah. I tried some brade (that maybe on a rod) a long time ago fishing the turbines on the Ohio. Man was that a diaster with the swoft water and all the junk and rocks on the bottom. a three way swivel with a mono leader was not enough to keep the braid off the junk. Could not break it off and had one big tangled mess. Never tried it again.
This is for casting deep open water, not much chance of hang. I am a little worried about the zero stretch factor as it relates to pulling hooks out of fishes mouth but I'll be using lures with big hooks and hopefully adjustments can be made.

I use Tuff Line XP on almost everything.
I use 50lb Tuff Line XP on my big cat rods and finish it with a 30 lb top shot of big game mono, usually about 20 ft if I'm hanging up like that. Normally I just tie the braid to a 3 way swivel and put 30lb mono on my hook line and 12-15lb on my sinker line then when the sinker hangs up you can break it off. I put a small float on my hook line to keep it out of the rocks. Let the sinker hang in the rocks and then reel up tight. A big cat will break the sinker line in that current.

On my small spinners I use smaller tuffline. No reason to use 20 lb on smaller outfits, use the 10 lb. It will still have a breaking strength of 12-15lbs. I almost always use 3 feet of florocarbon so if I hang up I can break the floro. You are better off with some sort of leader as the braid will break on rocks, clams, ect.

[kygorski]

I tried it when it first came, fished in wisc. and the northern pike would bite it off like butter. Then I noticed it started to fray, and lose color. They may have improved it since, but its also pricey.I like stealth from from spider wire, followed by power pro. yes you can set the hook right out of the fishes mouth, so my drag is set a little loose.

[coombro]

decisions ,decesions? Whats a guy to do? Hard to change your tactics to try somthing new when the way your fishing works? Everyone has made some good points here. The question was distance which I got off of, but appreciate the comments. Here's what I would like to know. 6' medium action rod, not concerned about long casts. Small diameter line I use 6lb test. What type braided line should I try? I'll use the use the mono leader of 3'. Don't want a swival I beleive less hardware the better. Tie the lines together with a surgens knot? I have been using trilene xl low-vis-green. The past few years I'm thinking they have cut corners some where as It doesn't seem to preform as well as in the past.

[apb]

Peter,

Sounds to me like you are jump fishing stripers at Cumberland with this. 14# fireline with a 15 or 20# floro leader is what I would recommend. Attach the leader with a uni-uni knot. At Cumberland I'll use a 6 foot leader. Down at the Hydros I'll use an 18 foot leader on 30# fireline. Fireline is tuff stuff, casts well, and low memory, however, it is not abrasion resistant like mono. If you are fishing around a lot of rocks, you'll need a leader. The leader is also useful if you need to grab the line to aid in landing the fish. You do NOT want to grab straight fireline with a fish on the end (will cut your hand easily). I use the leader on Cumberland since the water is so clear.

Andrew

[peter]

Peter,

Sounds to me like you are jump fishing stripers at Cumberland with this. 14# fireline with a 15 or 20# floro leader is what I would recommend. Attach the leader with a uni-uni knot. At Cumberland I'll use a 6 foot leader. Down at the Hydros I'll use an 18 foot leader on 30# fireline. Fireline is tuff stuff, casts well, and low memory, however, it is not abrasion resistant like mono. If you are fishing around a lot of rocks, you'll need a leader. The leader is also useful if you need to grab the line to aid in landing the fish. You do NOT want to grab straight fireline with a fish on the end (will cut your hand easily). I use the leader on Cumberland since the water is so clear.

Andrew

Thanks again everybody for the input.

Andrew--why use an eighteen foot mono leader at the hydros? It is only 20 feet deep at the deepest. Wouldn't that just about negate the benfits of the fireline? Seems like you would effectively be using mono all the time.

Thanks for re-emphasizing the mono leader again. I had my new 4000 spinning real spooled with 20 lb power pro Saturday evening and thought I would try out this distance improvement thing at the boat Ramp. Did not have a mono leader because I forgot to check howto tie a double uni knot.
Well three casts and "jolt" think i have a fish...no something attached to the bottom right at the end of the ramp. No breaking that stuff had to cut the line and lost quite a bit of line.

*Note--

Be a little cautious at the ramps at Cumberland. The lake was down slightly (foot or two)from 680 and that changes the ramps quite a bit from my two experiences last weekend. At rowena there are stumps and rocks a foot or two under the surface a foot from the ramp on the upstream side (at least). At state park I think I broke off my skaag backing in. I never raise my motor when pulling out or backing in because it is about 4-6" off the ground fully lowered. I remember the trailer dropping some unexpectedly and later that day I noticed my scaag was broken off. My vehicle was half on those square tiles that make up the end of the ramp.

The striper fishing -- no --I must mean--CATFISHING was OK last weeked. Something was suspended in many areas of the lake at 60'. All I caught was a catfish. Did not see or hear of many jumps..probably because the stripers know I can cast to them now with my braided line.

[goatee_guy]

10# fireline with a 3-6 foot mono leader tied with a uni-knot is all I use on my spinning reels, and I've landed a 15lb striper with that setup and a few 10-12 # musky. The fireline tends to get tiny frays up and down it, but it doesn't seem to hurt the strength or casting performance. There's nothing quite as smooth as that first cast on new braided line.

[olgreenboat]

I have been using fireline ever since it was introduced and love it. I have 50# power pro on my big catfish reels but for the rest it is fire line 14Lbs works for me and i have one 7" flipping stick with 20 on it..

I allways buy the 120 yard spools and use mono for a filler use big mono though like 30 pound test the reason is line wieght it takes alot less 30# to fill a spool then it does 10# this will give you more distance casting if you use the 1500" spools then all you need is about 10 yards of 10 pound test to keep it from slipping on your spool..
PS
I never use a mono leader.
Almost forgot if it does start fuzing up and turning gray just do like i do and use a red sharpie and repiant it it will also seal the line and before some say's it has a smell ( the smell goes away when dry) to it dont use it all i can say is smell one of those plastic worms you use and tell me how much it smells like a night crawler or minnow..

[apb]

....Andrew--why use an eighteen foot mono leader at the hydros? It is only 20 feet deep at the deepest. Wouldn't that just about negate the benfits of the fireline? Seems like you would effectively be using mono all the time.....

I'm using a surf rod, 10-11 foot and casting from the bank. The long leader also acts as a shock leader for casting heavier lures. In addition, the longer leader insures that the fireline will not come in contact with rocks and other obstructions that could cut the line. If you need to, you can also grab the leader to aid in landing a fish. I use the same set up surf fishing. In some of those areas I need to be able to lift a fish out of the water while on the top of a rock.

Andrew

[kyjake]

I use levelwinds 95% of the time ,use mostly mono but braid has it's place in my fishing equipment.After starting to using braid on a couple small low profile reels that I formally used 8 lb-10 lb. mono found one can get more distance casting small jigs down to 3/32 oz. with braid but the biggest help is being able to detect light bites from sauger and walleye.Also use braid on my reels I use for deep diving lures.
Jake