Line for various presentations

[jramsber]

I am looking at spooling up my reels in prep for the open water season and thought I would throw this question out there.  What line do you guys recommend for the setups below (mono, fleuro, braid, or co-poly)?  I haven't tried any co-poly yet but it sounds like YoZuri gets good reviews.  If you have a certain brand that you especially like, that would be great as well.  I have historically had some difficulty with fleuro for manageability with casting but haven't tried very many different brands.  Anyway, here are my current combos.  

1.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Mainly used for light plastics.

2.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Small crank baits at short distances.

3.  6ft MXF casting rod.  Small spinnerbaits

4.  7ft MHF casting rod.  Larger spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs

5.  7ft MHM casting rod.  Larger crankbaits.

I would be open to hearing if anyone has suggestions for switching around which setup is used for which presentation.  Thanks in advance for all the help.  

[bassfshin24]

1.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Mainly used for light plastics. - 8lbs Seaguar Invizx

2.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Small crank baits at short distances. - 8lbs Seaguar Invizx

3.  6ft MXF casting rod.  Small spinnerbaits - 12lbs Trilene Big Game Mono or 12lbs Seaguar Invizx

4.  7ft MHF casting rod.  Larger spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs - Can vary on this one. Jigs I typically use 17lbs Invizx, Paddle Tail Swimbaits like Keitechs I use 12lbs Invizx or 12lbs Trilene Big Game. Big spinnerbaits I think 15lbs Big Game would be good. 

5.  7ft MHM casting rod.  Larger crankbaits. 12lbs Seaguar Invizx 

[Craigums]

I'd probably do something like this:

1.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Mainly used for light plastics. --> 8# Seaguar Invizx

2.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Small crank baits at short distances. --> 8# Berkley Trilene XT (gives you more flexability for topwater)

3.  6ft MXF casting rod.  Small spinnerbaits --> 12# Berkley Trilene XT

4.  7ft MHF casting rod.  Larger spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs --> 35# PowerPro braid (now you can use for frogs/heavy cover)

5.  7ft MHM casting rod.  Larger crankbaits. --> 10-12# Berkley 100% Flouro (depending how big of cranks you're throwing)

[RK]

12 hours ago, jramsber said:

 

1.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Mainly used for light plastics.

2.  6ft MF spinning rod.  Small crank baits at short distances.

3.  6ft MXF casting rod.  Small spinnerbaits

4.  7ft MHF casting rod.  Larger spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs

5.  7ft MHM casting rod.  Larger crankbaits.

I would be open to hearing if anyone has suggestions for switching around which setup is used for which presentation.  Thanks in advance for all the help.  

1. 8# Sunline Sniper

2. I'm probably an outlier here, but I'd use braid with a fluoro or mono leader. With small cranks or jerkbaits, you have a lot more control and feel which you don't have with mono or fluro, and you have a little more durability. Most of my cranking is done with casting gear and fluoro, but for smaller cranks like shad raps, jerkbaits like Pointer 78s or X-raps, etc,, I do use braid. Might feel underpowered sort of, but braid can handle it.

3. 14# mono like Sufix Siege. Mono gives you the option of using topwaters or buzzbaits too. Fluoro + topwaters is no bueno.

4. 15# or so Fluoro - the best your wallet can handle. If you don't want to go the fluoro route, Yozuri Hybrid would be a good choice here.

5. 12# fluoro like Sniper, or, Yozuri Hybrid. Know a couple guys who love Youzuri for cranking.

[bassfshin24]

I agree with RK. I guess I should have said that on all my spinning gear I use 15lbs Power pro with 8lbs fluoro leader. Works amazing for jerkbaits!

[jramsber]

Thanks for all the great input. Would you guys suggest power pro for the first spinning setup as well as the second?  Thanks!

[RK]

3 hours ago, jramsber said:

Thanks for all the great input. Would you guys suggest power pro for the first spinning setup as well as the second?  Thanks!

Well... Other than jerkbaits and cranks I don't like braid on spinning personally, and I can't stand power pro - so no

Kidding aside, I still prefer fluoro or even mono over braid on anything where slack line bites happen, such as jigworms or plastics. You cannot feel them with braid, and they can be tough to see too if the line's either sitting on the water, or worse yet, blowing around. I've tried it several times on finesse rods, and every time I remember that I hated it and why, and go back to fluoro.

I know tons of guys do, so there's that, but I can't stand it.

[rascal23]

For the most part, I like braid on my bass spinning rods - 10 or 15 power pro - floro leader  or mono for topwater.   Braid for casting frog rod,  braid for thick weed, t-rigged pitboss.   Floro on main crank rod.  Trying floro on jig rod.   Trying floro on some multi purpose rods. I think I need to try floro on light weed and weedline jig for the better feel. I always thought braid would give better bite transmission, but sounds like floro is better especially on slack line. Is that right?  Also, is a heavy mono better than braid for froggin cause of the flotation. Also for what it's worth, all my rods are 7ft give or take.

[bassfshin24]

11 hours ago, RK said:

Well... Other than jerkbaits and cranks I don't like braid on spinning personally, and I can't stand power pro - so no

Kidding aside, I still prefer fluoro or even mono over braid on anything where slack line bites happen, such as jigworms or plastics. You cannot feel them with braid, and they can be tough to see too if the line's either sitting on the water, or worse yet, blowing around. I've tried it several times on finesse rods, and every time I remember that I hated it and why, and go back to fluoro.

I know tons of guys do, so there's that, but I can't stand it.

Really RK? That's interesting. I feel like I feel slack line bites way more with braid backing than straight fluoro or mono. I had braid on all my spinning gear last year and absolutely loved it for my jigworm and dropshot setup. I should have 1 of each with the same jigworm on and check it out. 

[Craigums]

OK, question for bassfshin24 and RK about braid mainline for jerkbaits. Why do you prefer it over straight flouro?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Craigums, you can get a better snap/action

[RK]

Yeah, to me at least I just don't think you can feel them as well. Maybe it's just that you feel them differently, and I'm a set-in-his-ways dinosaur, but especially for jigworms, etc., I just cannot get used to using braid for certain things. Kind of schizo about it because I like it vertical jigging walleyes... Plus for casting if I'm using light jigworms, I hate, hate, hate having braid blowing around on me bonkers.

Craigums - I use braid for small jerkbaits like Pointer78s, etc., mainly for smallies. I like it because I can cast a mile, but still have a lot of control even at the end of a cast. Even with fluoro, there's stretch, and it's hard to get consistent control on a long cast. With braid (actually, I use gelspun stuff on spinning gear - usually 10# Fireline now that I can't get Sufix Fuse anymore ) if I move my rodtip 6", that's pretty much how far the bait moves, whether it's 8' away or 80' away. Plus even at the end of a cast I can still set the hook when a smallie smokes it. The no stretch is a little bit of a double-edged sword with tiny hooks though, which is why I use a ML-XF spinning rod so I don't tear hooks out.

The other thing is small jerkbaits are kind of fussy about suspending, and fluoro will drag them down nose-first. Sometimes in cold water you  have to let the bait sit a long time, and I want it suspended not sinking. Braid floats but thin braid isn't buoyant enough to mess it up, and with a fluoro leader (which I do add) it's kind of a wash.

[bassfshin24]

Well my answer isn't as detailed as RK haha. I love how you noticed the small details in fishing RK. I need to pay attention a little more. I use braid mostly because I love how far it casts. Especially with the shadow raps. Those seem to be a little lighter weight than a lot of the other jerkbaits of that size. 

[jramsber]

RK brings up another question. I have used braid last season for jigging and rigging walleye. Anyone else?

[thatoneguy]

I will go on record the umpteenth time disagreeing with RK about the slack line bite Fluoro is great for feeling slack line bites, tis true. But I have no problem feeling them with Power Pro as well...in fact I think I feel them as well or better with braid.

[Craigums]

5 hours ago, RK said:

The other thing is small jerkbaits are kind of fussy about suspending, and fluoro will drag them down nose-first. Sometimes in cold water you  have to let the bait sit a long time, and I want it suspended not sinking. Braid floats but thin braid isn't buoyant enough to mess it up, and with a fluoro leader (which I do add) it's kind of a wash.

How much flouro leader are you running?

[RK]

2 hours ago, jramsber said:

RK brings up another question. I have used braid last season for jigging and rigging walleye. Anyone else?

Jigging yes, rigging no. I like it for vertical jigging because there's so little water resistance so it's easy to stay vertical. Rigging I've never liked it, just because I figure if I can feel them easily, they can feel me. That's probably illogical and all in my head, but... I'm not a big rigging fan as it is though (almost never use live bait for walleyes anymore). So my opinion likely isn't worth much   

43 minutes ago, Craigums said:

How much flouro leader are you running?

Whelp, I take my spool of leader material, or a reel I have in the boat if I can't find my spool (usually the case), and pull off a piece about as long as I can stretch my arms apart plus maybe a little more. I suppose that's 6 feet or so? I'm not too scientific about it.

I retie when it has been cut back to 3 feet or so.