Braid Vs. Fluorocarbon Question

[BDawg23]

I have watched a lot of Elite Series shows over the past couple of years and it often seems like the pros use heavy fluorocarbon when flipping and pitching. I typically use braid for this type of fishing. What are your thoughts and what do you use? I use fluoro on my other rods and was just curious to get input and see if fluoro will get me more bites. Any thoughts?

[adamr]

Ive personally seen flour out fish braid on jigs 10 to 1 it helps smaller jigs get to the bottom.

[RK]

I have pitching set-ups for both, but I use fluoro if I think I can at all get away with it. I do think I get more bites in clear water with fluoro than braid, although I also think that evens out as cover gets heavier. What I do like about fluorocarbon too though is you can feel slack line bites, which you can't with braid.

If I'm really in the thick stuff like heavy rushes or rice or cane, I use braid. But if I'm in more open water around docks, along the edges of rush beds, etc...it's fluoro. I use 17 or 20#...

Cheers,

RK

[Ray Esboldt]

I am right with RK on this. If I can use fluoro, I use it. I still like braid around dirty docks, but will use even 8lb fluoro around clean docks.

20 lb. fluoro works well for flipping reeds and the edge of pads. Even pitching milfoil can be done with it.

[bassfshin24]

Got a question for you guys...if you only had 1 rod/reel set up...what would you put on it for line? I have a friend that is going to buy his first baitcasting setup and wanted to know what to put on it for line. I was thinking braid is a great all around line and if water is clear he could just put a fluorocarbon leader on it. What do you guys think?

[slopmaster]

I have one rod with 20lb fluoro for docks, sparse grass, and for edges of reeds and cattails. Braid for pitchin or flippin anything else.

Bassfshin24- depends on what lakes and techniques he will be using, but personally I'd spool up some 50lb braid and tie on a fluoro leader when needed. Braid and a leader can do anything straight fluoro can do, but straight fluoro can't do everything braid can do. Ok techniquly it can, but you get my point lol. That's Just my opinion though.

[RK]

Hiya -

So you're talking about one rod to do everything from jigs to spinnerbaits to plastics to...whatever?

Actually, if I had to go that route I'd probably go with a high quality mono, or a copolymer like Sunline Defier in 17# test. You can get away with it in heavy cover (landed a lot of bass out of the wild rice and rushes with 17 or 20# XT before superlines came along), it'll give you better feel for bottom contact and slack line stuff like jigs or plastics, and be perfect for reaction baits like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, etc.

If you went the braid route (a lot of people would I think), you can put a leader on when it makes sense to do so. For pitching, before I got a rod just for fluorocarbon, I'd just "top shot" my reel with 25 or so yards of fluoro rather than using a shorter leader. Less chance of a knot failing on a gorilla hookset, and no knot to catch in the guides and throw your accuracy off when you're pitching to a target. When I wanted to go back to braid, I'd just wind the fluoro back on the spool. Best of both worlds for pitching at least.

My $.02

RK

[Cecil]

You could make a case for using any of the 3 main types of lines and make a case against any of them

[CAMAN]

For a beginner with a baitcaster I would spool up some 16-20lb mono, just for the cost aspect. The chances of him having a few "professional overruns" and needing to replace a bunch of line are pretty great, and it won't hurt the pocketbook nearly as bad if he needs to cut everything off and respool. Once he gets used to controlling the spool move him up to 20-30lb PowerPro.

[Aaron Carrell]

For a beginner with a baitcaster I would spool up some 16-20lb mono, just for the cost aspect. The chances of him having a few "professional overruns" and needing to replace a bunch of line are pretty great, and it won't hurt the pocketbook nearly as bad if he needs to cut everything off and respool. Once he gets used to controlling the spool move him up to 20-30lb PowerPro.

+1 on this suggestion, though personally I'll never tell anyone to go less than 30lb PP on a baitcaster. I've seen some seriously mean dug-in line after fighting fish with that small stuff, and thats really no fun for a beginner getting used to casting a baitcaster either.

[CAMAN]

+1 on this suggestion, though personally I'll never tell anyone to go less than 30lb PP on a baitcaster. I've seen some seriously mean dug-in line after fighting fish with that small stuff, and thats really no fun for a beginner getting used to casting a baitcaster either.

Jeez, how tight are you setting your drag? I've got half dozen rods with 20-30lb spooled on and never had it dug in far enough to make it impossible to dig out, usually I just have to make a quick cast and hand feed it out a few arm lengths to get the dug-in line loose. Really I've found it no different than my 50-80lb rigged on my slop sticks after pulling in a fish.

The only thing I can think you may not be doing is putting tension on the line if there is slack. Say I'm casting into the wind and the lure falls shorter than the spool goes, or I need to pull a little extra line off the spool because its slightly dug in, I always pinch the line with my thumb and pointer finger on my rod hand while reeling until the line tightens up with lure, to keep the line on the spool tight and packed together.

[Aaron Carrell]

Oh I don't personally have the problem with line digging in, though the lightest I use is 30lb (65lb on slop rod), its more 2 of my friends that have it happen all the time and they're using 15 & 20lb. I'm not sure if its how they're using it, but not everyone has the patience(or memory) either to throw out a short dummy cast after catching a fish to fix the line on the reel. I just see far less dig-in with the heavier stuff, thats all.

[bucketmouth64]

Big Game fishing line is popular in TX instead of using fluorocarbon because of the cost.