Braid, There I said it!

[Don]

Th

I have braid on all of my rods. I will never go back to mono as I have discovered how many fish I didn’t even know were there when fishing mono/floro. I have 20lb braid on all my freshwater striper rods. 40 or 50 is way overkill unless you think your going to pull in a hundred pounds of weeds with the fish. I wouldn’t go over 30. I use a mono leader just for stealth reasons. I don’t know if it matters or not but it makes me feel better about it. I use whatever braid I can get for the cheapest. I look for the sales. I have every brand made which is why I say braid is braid. i Don’t like spider wire because it’s to stiff.

So why the braid if your last 2’ is mono or fluro?

I won’t use 2’. More like 6’. And of course it Can be for sacrificial purposes to save your braid or it can be for invisibility in the case of trout. I rarely fish without a leader of some sort.

 

[Don]

so Boot, what reels do you like 30 lb braid on. The reason for the 30, 40 or 50 lb is for when punching into brush and logs I want to be able to rip free, bend wire hooks open. I want to be able to feel it well when casting with a bait caster. Don’t really know what I’m talking about…just repeating what I’ve been reading over the months.

 

[Bootfoot]

I have stripers that break hooks and straighten split rings. Why would you use a hook that will bend???? Sounds like a sure way to lose every good fish you hook to me. I like Penn Slammers 4500 for my reels.

I don’t fish for striped bass in lakes but I know they prefer rocks to weeds in rivers and oceans. I wouldn’t worry about punching through weeds. I would worry about landing the fish I hook over getting out of snags.

 

[Don]

I can’t take it anymore. Who wants to bend hooks open with me?
40lb. 13$

 

[A-5]

Um I use a lure saver. Don’t need braid to get my lures back.

 

[Don]

Who, TC?
First one landed tonight:

 

[Bootfoot]

Who, TC?
First one landed tonight:

Looks like you needed all 40 lbs to get that in the boat. Seriously though, way to go!

 

[Don]

It’s very dark. But heading in. Two very nice crappy.

 

[Don]

Okay I put this to rest. Installed the 40 lb Suffix braid onto the royal Legend Reel and it is now my Bass flipping and Punching rig. It is what I'll use for Stripers as well.
Boot I use light wire hooks in Stump fields and shallow weedy Pocono lakes. Never lost a bas due to having used lighter hooks But I have bent many a hook open while retrieving from stumps. For Striper I've been using 2/0 Octopus or Dropshot hook for live Alewives and not light wire hooks. And I'm new to fishing so you can chime in on your preferences. I'm a learner. Secrets please....

 

[Solitario Lupo]

What's wrong with my advice you go from panfish to regular bass. Now your going for something that's 30 times bigger of course you need to step up the weight. I wouldn't tell you 6lb weight if your going for a 30lb fish. Haha.

 

[Solitario Lupo]

Okay I put this to rest. Installed the 40 lb Suffix braid onto the royal Legend Reel and it is now my Bass flipping and Punching rig. It is what I'll use for Stripers as well.
Boot I use light wire hooks in Stump fields and shallow weedy Pocono lakes. Never lost a bas due to having used lighter hooks But I have bent many a hook open while retrieving from stumps. For Striper I've been using 2/0 Octopus or Dropshot hook for live Alewives and not light wire hooks. And I'm new to fishing so you can chime in on your preferences. I'm a learner. Secrets please....

Don't run any leaders unless you know your spooking the fish. Tie straight to the line.

 

[Don]

Don't run any leaders unless you know your spooking the fish. Tie straight to the line.

I didn't want your advice on line test because I was sure you'd say to use 80-120lb wire braid. lol
Okay on the leader for open lake fishing , but I'm fond of leaders when in stumps and whenever I'm casting to shore from out on a boat. I tangle too much with woody plants and so forth so I use 2' of floro for now.....almost out.

 

[Bootfoot]

You haven’t caught a big striped bass then. Last thing you want is a light wire hook that bends. Light wire hooks are fine for SMB and LMB but if you want to catch stripers your gonna have to do with hook that’s don’t straighten because believe me they will straighten a hook and be gone. I talking big stripers over 35” not the 15 inchers.

 

[Don]

Precisely what I said above. Lite wire for stumps and 2/0 octopus or drop shot for stripers.

 

[Don]

Have you or anyone used original fire line?

 

[truecrimson]

I did before. It was alright, but ultimately I just went back to all Mono. Times when I needed to break off I couldn't.

 

[Bootfoot]

Precisely what I said above. Lite wire for stumps and 2/0 octopus or drop shot for stripers.

Sorry, I intially read it as stripers in stump fields. How big are the alewives? 2/0 hook sounds way to small. Again, I don’t fish for lake stripers so I don’t know their average size or anything about them or how people fish for them. I strictly fish for the saltwater type. When I used live bait or chunks I fished 8/0. Heck I use 5/0 for catfishing. I do use 2/0 VMC treble hooks on my plugs but there’s not big hunks of bait filling up the hook gap.

and yes I tried the original fire line a decade or longer ago when it first came out Don’t like it one bit. Never bought it again but Would if there was absolutely no other line available.

 

[Don]

I was on Stripersonline and It appears from 100's of members that the Penn 710z specifically does not like standard braid but will handle the original fireline fine. Its a ways off anyway and for now Big game is working.
Thanks for the hook info. over the last two years I've been reworking how I think about hooks and need that type of feedback.

 

[Solitario Lupo]

I didn't want your advice on line test because I was sure you'd say to use 80-120lb wire braid. lol
Okay on the leader for open lake fishing , but I'm fond of leaders when in stumps and whenever I'm casting to shore from out on a boat. I tangle too much with woody plants and so forth so I use 2' of floro for now.....almost out.

Lol nothing wrong with 80lb braid haha. There's a reason for that. And that is the current I fish in is very strong. Plus the lures I throw. If fishing lakes and not very strong currents I have 35 lb braid on it.

 

[Solitario Lupo]

Another thing about bigger hooks are they should be sharpened.