Thread: somebody post up

WB, you don't have to set the hook with crankbaits like you do spider rigging, I don't think the braid will be a problem. The fish usually hooks itself...

Good conversation guys. I switched my jiggin poles to Suffix Braid and love it. You can get 10lb or 20lb. I like it cause it is sooo sensitive, kinda like my ego when everybody outfishes me, but that's another story. I put on about half a reel of mono for filler, and finish up with the braid. Tangles on the tip of your rod a bit, but no other problem that I can see - yet. I might try it on my openfaced reels at my home pond as an experiment. I'll get back with ya'll on that.

if you use 20 lb text braid, it'll be the size of like a 4 lb test mono. I've got the 20 on my Striper rig and can throw that sucker with a popping cork up in Ross barnett to where the water comes out of the spillway. not sure how far, 40-50 yards maybe? Course that 2 oz weight tied on has nothing to do with it. LOL 2nd best tasting fish out there, Striped bass. YUMMMM

Dang, I keep hearing this, and it has me

I just tie a danged old Uni-knot (some folks call it Trilene knot)
on everything - mono, floro, powerpro, fireline and never had any
problems with it.

About the losing fish with it, yeah - that is a real concern. I've tried
longlining jigs with it in the Spring (shallow) and when a fish came up
on top and started head-shaking, I feel like I lost some fish because of it.
Every time they shook, it was like you could just feel their mouth tearing...

A loose drag or soft rod helps, but I still dunno about it. It takes a little
more fiddling with planer board clips too.

Dadgummit, now I'm gonna have to give ya'll an education and it really kind of ticks me off since I've already been helpful twice this week already and at that I was 50% over budget.

OK, so braid for all practical purposes has -0- stretch. As an example, when you set the hook on a fish with say 50' of line is out and move your rod tip 3' in my example, the end of the line will move almost exactly 3'. About the same as pulling on a wire rope. Mono, has a considerable amount of stretch on the other hand. In the same example, the other end of the line may only move 6". Now, some of that is due to it's stretch, some is due to it's properties of coiling/memory/sink rate etc. For those of you that have Bass fished, and will admit it here, you'll immediately know what I'm talking about and know how hard it is to set the hook with a worm on an extra long cast.

Now, the problem that I see with braid and crankbaits is more along the lines of what JWhite(bydang - love that handle over there J) is talking about. Once you get a fish in close, there is no shock absorption to cushion a flopping fish except that provided by the rod and to some degree the drag. With mono or high stretch line, the line provides some additional give when the fish shakes his head. Bass fishermen throwing cranks generally will throw those baits on Mono or something similar and forgo the braid even if they use it for everything else for this very reason. They also use very slow, parabolic action rods such as fiberglass rods to help cushion the blow. Generally, Crappie dudes have the rod actions right, but braid will cause you to loose a fish here and there that you could have gotten with the mono IMO.

That being said, there are other properties to braid that may outweigh this and I plan to use it. One being small diameter for deeper, truer runs on the baits and the other being pound test per diameter - I don't intend on loosing a lot of baits doing this. If you're gonna run braid, set your drags ridiculously light and you'll overcome some of what you're giving up.

There. I hope ya'll are happy. I'll have to post twice as much drivel for the rest of the week in the hopes of getting back on track.

Wannabe...

I used Power Pro 30/10 all last summer with Wally Marshall Tightline Rods and did not have any problems with hooks tearing out of their mouths. Once they come to the top just ski them to the boat. The long rod have enough flex so the braid is not a problem. I fish a clear water lake that the timber was not clear cut before it was flooded so without the braid you lose a lot of crankbaits.

WB - Torch, heck -- all ya'll, would it be feasable to use a short leader of flurocarbon or mono on braid to help with the 'feel' thing, or add a bit of stretch to eliminate the 'ocasional lost fish' syndrom???? or would that just revese the advantages of using braid? Just askin----

I must have been doing something wrong for the last 35-40 years. I always thought losing fish was part of crappie fishing, thus the name paper mouth.
I can see WB not losing many cause ya have to set the hook a lot to get a clear picture of the "losing" part.:p