Lb test of your braid ??

[Bill K]

Just wondering what is the most popular test of braid used by you
people.. I fish mostly 30lb, but than again I probably do not fish as
heavy of cover as most of you do in the delta, etc. Thank you for
information. Bill K

[Rich_Thiel]

Bill,

In Braid I use all Power Pro. I use 30lb with a flouracarbon 4ft leader attached, a senko or I may texas Rig it. This I use on a spinning Rod.

50lb> Frog on Open water > Baitcaster
Jig or Texas Rig > Baitcaster

65lb> Frog on Cheese or behind thick tules> Baitcaster
Texas Rig Full One oz wt. - Jig 3/4oz for cheese, thick tules,
grass, hyicnth.

50 and 65lb I use on either a frog rod or a flippin stick. On my Pitchin rods I use either Big Game or flouracarbon for normal cover.

Hope this Help Ya!!!!!!

Rich Thiel

[rickd]

The weakest link is the 4' leader right? Why would you use braid with that setup? You have the knot and the floro as weak points? What is your reasoning behind this setup?

I would just go with the floro from end to end it only makes sense to me?

[Rich_Thiel]

Main reason is that I've had clients that have had no experience with levelwinds. They've tried learning, but gave up. Although I've found situations where the braid and the floro combination did well over straight Mono or floro> Situation: Heavy grass, or low tide situations on the edge of grass using longer cast (Clear water) They can I think see the Braid.

Their's alot of guys on the delta that use this set-up on levelwinds. I don't, but then again under certain situations in presenting a bait I do. Normally floro or mono will do the job. The above rig is set-up on a Loomis GLX Spinning rod built for Senko's

All I can tell you is that it works for me and I have enough confidence in it to stay with it. Until I loose fish because of the knot or a client loosing fish then I'll figure somethingelse out. Probably go back to straight Mono.

With 4ft of floro or mono you don't have much if any stretch that I've noticed. Just check for nicks I can tell you one thing tho. Power Pro in a Long cast in the grass fishing holes and then hooking a fish makes salad out of the grass.

On my levelwinds, I don't use a leader because of the short cast situations and the depth that I fish. Most hits are reaction strikes because of where Im throwing and they don't have time to look at it.

Rich Thiel

[Fish Chris]

(with the one small exception of 4 lb mono for Crappie at Clear Lk)

I use nothing but TUF-Line by Western Filament.

2/12 (2 lb mono equivalent diameter, but 12 lb test) on my micro light rods. This stuff is as thin as thread, and handles amazingly great ! I would probably only put about as much pressure on it though, as say 6 lb mono, because of the non-stretch factor, and ultra thin-ness, in case it should bump something.

30 lb test for most of my medium weight gear.

50 lb on my heavy action rods for swimbaits.

80 lb test on my Sturgeon rod (although I just bought the most crazy UL action baitcaster I have ever found. Plan to load up a low pro-file Okuma baitcaster with the 2/12 braid, and go stick a big ol' Sturgy on it soon

BTW fishatano, I totally agree with Rich Theil. I use a fluorocarbon leader with all of my braided lines. I agree with you to some point, about eliminating weak links. But the fluoro leader adds SO many advantages, that with a 'close to' 100% knot (I use a blood knot.... some guys prefer a uni to uni) used to connect your braided main line, with your fluoro leader, its absolutely worth it.
A fluoro leader will 1) provide you with a bit of a shock absorber when used in conjuction with your virtually non-stretch braid. 2) is more abrasion resistant around rocks, and scraping against a big bass teeth. 3) (for whatever its worth) is less visable to fish than braid. Even in murky water, the fish 'might' see braid by the time its close enough to suck in a bait. 4) fluoro leader material is much less likely to foul up and tangle with your lure.

Oh, and one more thing I do, which hardly any other freshwater guys do (that I'm aware of) is I use 'white'. The reason is, this is much more visible to me on my end. Much easier to keep control of things. I sometimes mark the last several feet with green and brown indelible markers, but the 2 to 4 ft of fluorocarbon at the fishes end, probably makes this not too important.

Peace,
Fish

[rickd]

I’ll use floro to back my froggin and buzz bait rods and top it off with 50 lbs Power Pro and use the uni knot. I understand that floro is better for viz or lack there of, just never tried it. It still doesn’t make sense in my head to use braid with that leader! I think I’ll stick with my 15 lbs P-Line on my flipping and pitching sticks. When I loose a toad cuz my line breaks then It'll be time to give it a try.

I’ve tried a bunch of different types of braid and found that Power Pro handles the best but still wouldn’t want to use it as much as you guys do. I don’t like to donkey with the braid wrapping around my tip and that type of thing, drives me nutz.

And by the way, Sturgeon’s don’t exist; they were made up by a few twisted fishermen