Let's talk about line choices.

[Capt. Quicksteel]

I put 80 lb 832 on a couple of my musky reels. This weekend I spent a little while on the dock with a practice plug making sure everything was working. I was amazed to see the 832 was running green colors. There were drops of green water on the stuff and I looked like I had been finger dipping the guacamole! It casts nicely and I'm not giving up on it but it's strange that they put out a line like that, especially at that price!

[pureinsanity]

Ive had that happen too. Now i wrap it around a shirt or towel in my hand

[simple1]

After reading this entire thread, it points to something I have been thinking about for a long time. People have caught huge fish on mono, and IMO, it has more positives than power pro. Down south, the most common catfish rig for blues are big rods with 30lb mono. I read this forum and how everyone seams to be using 80lb braid for flats and 65lb for pike. I must say that I easily just caught a 39 inch, 15lb pike on 14lb mono with no fear of a break. Sometimes I think we just believe the hype, myself included. New isn't always better my friends.

Simple1

[Boker001]

On the river when your horsing a big flathead out of heavy cover and also against current, it puts enormous strain on the line. The chances of the line not breaking using lighter line that the fish weighs would be IMO almost impossible. I've caught 30 pounders that just laid on the bottom below my boat with my MH 7' Musky rod bent over at a 150 degree angle for minutes on a sandy snag free bottom. When a 30 can do that, then what would a state record do? I'll stick with my 80 lb test spiderwire. I'm out there to catch anything but wouldn't want a PB to bite and have my line break. If it's something I can prevent then why not prevent it?

[TruthWalleyes]

After reading this entire thread, it points to something I have been thinking about for a long time. People have caught huge fish on mono, and IMO, it has more positives than power pro. Down south, the most common catfish rig for blues are big rods with 30lb mono. I read this forum and how everyone seams to be using 80lb braid for flats and 65lb for pike. I must say that I easily just caught a 39 inch, 15lb pike on 14lb mono with no fear of a break. Sometimes I think we just believe the hype, myself included. New isn't always better my friends.

Simple1

When you must pull the fish from a log pile, there is no time for 30# mono.

[Slabasaurus]

Alright, so the one thing I haven't seen in this thread is:

On spinning reels, is there a difference in how suffix vs power pro performs?

And... do you use any backing or do you tie the braid direct?

[DTro]

Some new spools (both spinning and baitcasting) have a tie off spot for tying direct, however with the cost of superbraids, I would always recommend cheap mono filler/backer. I try to use 100yrds or less of braid on my cattin reels.

[Slabasaurus]

I'd assume the same test mono as whatever the equivalent size braid i'd be using then?

So if using 50lb braid, whatever that "mono equivalent" would be?

That's the logic I use on my lighter rods for Fluro and Fireline anyway, seems to work alright

Thanks for the help... and nice flatty by the way!

[DTro]

Actually IMO it really doesn't matter what size mono. Whatever I have laying around or is in the cheap bin at Wal-Mart. I think I used 20lb. Something big enough that for some odd reason I get spooled I have at least a fighting chance.

[mrklean]

thats what i have done with all my reels i have 4-12 pound mono as backing on all of them, on my cat and musky reels i just pray i never get spooled or else im in trouble

[hanson]

I guess lb test size of the backing really isn't that big of an issue. Good knot for line to line connection is the uni-to-uni knot and you can tie that with different diameters pretty easily. A thicker diameter line will fill the spool with less line so that will save a few pennies. I think a fun poll would be how many cat guys have been spooled into their backing, wouldn't be too many people raising their hands.

[Slabasaurus]

Perfect. yeah.. have all sorts of mono layin around. Never had an issue with any other uni-uni not connections... never used line over 14lb test though

thanks for the tips y'all.

[pureinsanity]

Put a piece of duct tape or black tape. Braid digs in and doesn't slip. Heck power pro even comes with sticky foam pieces to put on your spool.

[slipperybob]

I started with spinning reels and still use them, especially with floats. Just a little backing that's good enough to hold the line is what I do.