braided live vs. mono

geno123 · July 06, 2008, 08:03:04 AM

I am using numerous baitcasting reels using braided line. I see some people are using mono on there baitcasting reels. If I use mono will I be able to cast farther? What are the drawbacks of using mono? Also, what are good line choices for both mono and braided? Thanks!!!

OutdoorFrontiers · July 06, 2008, 09:09:17 AM

I've been using braided line on my reels, both spinning and baitcasting for well over a decade now. Recently, while attending the NBT Championships in South Carolina, I thought I'd try mono again due to the extreme water clarity of Lake Keowee, so I spooled two reels with mono, one Trilene XL and the other was some new hybrid copolymer line.

Yesterday I went fishing here near home in a clearwater lake and tried rods rigged with both types of line.

Here's my thoughts on mono vs. braid.

I noticed that my casting distance decreased due to the memory of the line. The line coiled and slapped the guides, reducing the casting distance I've gotten accustomed to with braid.

Braid has almost zero stretch, so it's ability to transmit "signals" up the line to the rod is far better than mono, resulting in increased sensitivity. With soft plastic lures and mono, I wasn't feeling bites, finding that the fish I was catching were hooked deeper.

In addition, when I did get a strike, I noticed a lot of line stretch and lost several fish because the hooks didn't get driven deep enough.

Mono has a larger diameter than braided line. This means if you're fishing in a current or windy situation, there's more surface area for the wind/water to push against. This means on a windy day, your lure can get swept out of position by the wind pushing a belly in the line. It also means that to fish deeper in current, you'll have to use heavier weight lures, which can result in fish dropping the lure if they're being picky. The small diameter of braid also means crankbaits can dive deeper than if you use mono.

Braid's disadvantages? It's not clear, so fish can see it, which so far hasn't seemed to create a problem for me. It floats, which can slow the fall rate of some soft plastic lures, which again hasn't seemed to make any problems for me either.

So, I'm going to be pulling the mono and hybrid copolymer line from the reels and respool with braid. I like fishing, but I like catching better!

Steve

Baron49 · July 06, 2008, 11:59:37 AM

If I could add something here. I fish in very clear waters and have tried a lot of different combinations of braid and mono. I also tried some of the older fluorocarbons and hated them.

Recently a good friend put me on to the new Berkley 100% fluorocarbon. I tried 15 and 17 lb test and found it to work great as a cross between the sensitivity of the braid and being clear like mono. Used the 15 lb for worms and the 17 lb for creatures and found it to work great. While fluoro, contray to popular opinion does stretch, it is very sensitive due to its dense structure and I was amazed at the durability around rocks and zebra muscles.

Just another thought based on personal trial and error. I have even tried using this new Berkley's fluoro as a leader on braid using a uni to uni knot and it performed well there too.

Creel Limit Zero · July 06, 2008, 04:43:26 PM

The only thing mono is good for is tying up your fences around your garden to keep the rabbits out.

Braid all the way except for crank baits, then I got with fluoro to get them deeper...

silversalmon · July 06, 2008, 07:11:44 PM

I think Creel summed that up

kickurbass · July 07, 2008, 12:11:10 PM

I grew up using mono.
I made the switch to Braid.
I am now experimenting with co-poly lines.

Braid is UNbeliveably sensitive. If you pull up to hard on a fish you can either loose it of RIP a HOLE in its mouth the size of a silver dollar!

I now use Mono for ALL topwater since it floats and has the stretch to act like a shock absorber so the trebel hooks dont get YANKED out of the fishes mouth as easily.
Braid I like for most applications but I STILL ENJOY a bit of stretch so I can throw my whole body into my hooksets!! It's sooo much more fun that way!

Lipripper · July 07, 2008, 12:27:28 PM

Was fishing some pads this weekend and my friend had some mono on his and I had braid . He hooked a Bass and down in the thick stuff he went well you guessed it his mono broke trying to get that Bass out. My braid cut right through all them pads.

coldfront · July 07, 2008, 01:53:30 PM

I personally still use a lot of mono (...Hello, my name is coldfront and I have a fishing problem...) and agree that it's not braid...BUT, braid doesn't flouresce under black light at night...and hook sets take a different approach...you just can't use the same set on mono as you do on braid...and vice versa...

I use braid in long cast applications (C-rig) and froggin'...it's an absolute necessity when fishing frogs of any type...I also have started 'sperimentin' with the Trilene Fluoro (flukes/senkos/ikas) and 'kind' of like it...but it's no 'night and day-world changer' either...but I can see where it can work advantageously...

Mono is a great line. Does a lot of things very well. Probably a better 'all-around' line than either braid or flouro...but won't do some/certain things as well as braid or fluoro...

Personally, when using mono, I use only Trilene XL in clear/flourescent blue (baitcasting) or Suffix Siege in green (spinning). But there are applications where braid or flouro can be an advantage.

Baron49 · July 07, 2008, 03:38:35 PM

I have to agree there are some things that mono is simply better at. Swimbaits in another one. I prefer to use Trilene XT on almost all my soft swimbaits except for the really heavy ones and then I use braid or braid with a mono/fluoro leader.

IMO the XT has just enough give to it for a fish to get a soft swimbait in it mouth before you actually get a hookset. On the hard swimbaits or wake baits that you do not want to sink very far like a Strike King, King Shad, the XT seems to give just enough so as not to tear the hooks out of the Bass's mouth.

kickurbass · July 07, 2008, 03:42:26 PM

I thought this topic would be boring already but I still find myself interested in reading everyones comments. Good Stuff.

bmyers12 · July 07, 2008, 04:10:19 PM

I've heard many good things about braided line and I've tried it a couple times on my baitcasters but it doesn't seem to come off the reel as smooth as mono and I've even had a little trouble with it digging in my reel when I put tension on it. I don't know if this is just a problem I'm having or if anyone else has this problem but i would like to use braided line especially for pitching and flipping so if anyone has any suggestions or help i would appreciate it.

OutdoorFrontiers · July 07, 2008, 08:10:41 PM

Quote from: bmyers12 on July 07, 2008, 04:10:19 PM
I've heard many good things about braided line and I've tried it a couple times on my baitcasters but it doesn't seem to come off the reel as smooth as mono and I've even had a little trouble with it digging in my reel when I put tension on it. I don't know if this is just a problem I'm having or if anyone else has this problem but i would like to use braided line especially for pitching and flipping so if anyone has any suggestions or help i would appreciate it.

When I see someone make the complaints I hear from you, it makes me think two things. (A) The line you're using is too light of a pound test, thus too small of a diameter. And (B) The line is not spooled tight enough. Or a combination of A + B.

You don't say what pound test you're using but you have to remember that braided line is much smaller in diameter than its monofilament equivilent. If you normally use 17 pound mono, you should be spooling with 50 lb. (12 lb. equivilent) or 65 lb. (15 lb. equivilent) to get the diameter closer to what you're used to using. This will reduce the number of "cut ins" that you're experiencing. I use nothing less than 30 pound PowerPro on my baitcasters, and most of my Curado and Chronarch 200 reels have 50 pound spooled up. Some of my other reels have 65, 80 or 100 pound test PowerPro depending on what the application is or what species I'm targeting.

Secondly, when you spool the line, simply running it through your fingers to keep tension isn't going to cut it for braided line. Now that you've got the line spooled up, take it out in the driveway and tie one end to something solid. Put the reel in freespool and back up until you've got all the line off the spool. Now, crank the drag down tight and keeping a good bend in the rod, wind the line back on the spool. Doing this will insure that you've packed the line on the spool tight enough. I do this once or twice a season and I don't have any of these problems any longer.

Steve

coldfront · July 07, 2008, 08:37:22 PM

Quote from: OutdoorFrontiers on July 07, 2008, 08:10:41 PM
Secondly, when you spool the line, simply running it through your fingers to keep tension isn't going to cut it for braided line. Now that you've got the line spooled up, take it out in the driveway and tie one end to something solid. Put the reel in freespool and back up until you've got all the line off the spool. Now, crank the drag down tight and keeping a good bend in the rod, wind the line back on the spool. Doing this will insure that you've packed the line on the spool tight enough. I do this once or twice a season and I don't have any of these problems any longer.

Steve

thought you were the guy that wrote this a while back...thanks again Steve...have to go out and 're-set' my braid reels...

Baron49 · July 07, 2008, 08:49:50 PM

I agree about the re-setting with braid, but since switching to Power Pro and going with the right diameter to match the kind of fishing I am doing I do not have to re-set my bait casters hardly at all now. With the Fireline on my spinning reels a long cast and just holding the line tight in my fingers seems to spool it back on perfectly.

kickurbass · July 08, 2008, 08:58:49 AM

Quote from: OutdoorFrontiers on July 07, 2008, 08:10:41 PM
When I see someone make the complaints I hear from you, it makes me think two things. (A) The line you're using is too light of a pound test, thus too small of a diameter. And (B) The line is not spooled tight enough. Or a combination of A + B.

You don't say what pound test you're using but you have to remember that braided line is much smaller in diameter than its monofilament equivilent. If you normally use 17 pound mono, you should be spooling with 50 lb. (12 lb. equivilent) or 65 lb. (15 lb. equivilent) to get the diameter closer to what you're used to using. This will reduce the number of "cut ins" that you're experiencing. I use nothing less than 30 pound PowerPro on my baitcasters, and most of my Curado and Chronarch 200 reels have 50 pound spooled up. Some of my other reels have 65, 80 or 100 pound test PowerPro depending on what the application is or what species I'm targeting.

Secondly, when you spool the line, simply running it through your fingers to keep tension isn't going to cut it for braided line. Now that you've got the line spooled up, take it out in the driveway and tie one end to something solid. Put the reel in freespool and back up until you've got all the line off the spool. Now, crank the drag down tight and keeping a good bend in the rod, wind the line back on the spool. Doing this will insure that you've packed the line on the spool tight enough. I do this once or twice a season and I don't have any of these problems any longer.

Steve

X2 !!!

Pferox · July 15, 2008, 08:34:32 AM

Man can I tell you stuff about mono vs. braids. Here is just one little story that will probably look like war and peace.

Three of us went snook fishin over in Sebastian inlet one day. At the time my bud Mark was tried and true to his Red Garcia Reels, no breaks, and 20lb Big Game. My bud John, was a snook fishin fool, he swore by his Quantum screemer reels, and 20lb Stren. I was usin Yankee Baitcasters, or spinnin gear, because of thumb problems. I had two identical Penn combos, one with 20lb Berkley Big Game, and the other had Cabella's Braid with the Dacron Tracer in it.

I was in the middle of the boat, so all casts were overhand, and I was castin between the other two guys. You think bein in the back of the boat sux.

We were throwin 1/4 oz DOA shrimp and the bite was slow, but the ones we did catch all ended up with break offs.

Finally, John said that he has a killer jig, but it is 1/8th oz and he couldn't cast it with his rig. Mark and I tied up a little white and red marabou crappie jig and of course I outcasted the bait caster, but it wasn't anything spectacular. Well I finally got fed up with another break off and said I was going to heavier line.

Man did I get laughed at, because that little jig was barely goin anywhere with 20lb. Man I tied that little jig on to that braid and it flew, casting distance was longer than when I was throwin that shrimp on mono.

On that day bringing one fish to the boat was better than anybody else, but I had no breakoffs, and a whole lot less missed fish. I can't say that the line was everything to save a day, but Mark was throwing the same bait on mono and not gettin the hookups I was, which is still something I used to bring up on my bad days, which were many.

That was the day that just about all my gear went to braids, and many are still usin the same line althogh there are a few yards or so less on the spools.