Ninety minutes of braid testing.

The tree service folks canceled on me this morning because of a threat of rain.
The rain was over about over by 10:00 , except for a couple of sprinklers while I was fishing .
And I needed to be back home by noon .
I took three combos , figured thirty minutes each should give me an idea on how they would fish.
First up was the KastKing Kestrel combo . Kestrel reel and rod . I like the reel somewhat , the replacement, smooth winding with a nice carbon disc drag . Loaded with 6# KastKing yellow braid .
All three combos had a streamer hook/tungsten bead jig with a size 10 hook .
Casts with the Kestrel we’re in the 40-45’ range .
I started with a black Trout Magnet and it didn’t take long to catch a nice redbreast . I don’t know if it was the braid or the rod , but the redbreast felt double its size . I could feel every kick of its tail . Fun!
The Kestrel rod is rated as a featherlight finesse rod . It’s more of a regular five foot ultralight rod at best .
I caught a nice bluegill on the kestrel too , before switching rods .
Next up , 5’6” St Croix Avid ULF paired with a Soare XR 500spg , spooled with 7# Varivas pink tournament braid . It’s rated at 7# max , but it’s thinner than the KastKing braid and man will it cast . I’m guessing 60-70’ once the braid got wet .
This is easily one of my best casting combos. Even with a Bobby Garland Itty bit Swim’r , I was getting 15-20’ farther than the Kestrel/KastKing braid combo .
I caught four medium to small gills on the SC Avid/Soare combo .
A lot of fun in that combo even with smaller fish .
Last , was a 5’ St. Croix Triumph ULM , paired with a Piscifun Carbon X 500 reel, spooled with Daiwa J Braid X8 Grand in blue .
This was a surprise combo . It casts as far as the Avid . By this time , the fish had turned off , although the bites weren’t that hot to begin with.
I caught a good looking little warmouth on the Triumph/carbon X . The reel worked smooth too . I’d forgotten about this reel .
I apologize for being long but I tried to give the details in as short of a write up I could .
I like the Varivas braid the best , but the Daiwa grand is a close second .
I’ll be making myself fish braid for the next couple of weeks to give it a better shot of winning me over.

Nice catches

Good job and report on the braid. Nice catches

It was nice of you to color code the lines for easy identification of the different combos. It is greatly appreciated.rotfl

Oh and nice catches and nice writeup.

60-70 ft. :yikes:yikes. Thanks for your review. I like that blue color too.

Nice write up. I’m sure you know Varivas has some 0.2 PE line that breaks at 5.6 pounds. While Ive not done the test casting with braid…wore myself out doing that with nylon….it will cast a 1 gram naked jig head a long way. It’s pretty good stuff.


Regards


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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

Nice write up. I’m sure you know Varivas has some 0.2 PE line that breaks at 5.6 pounds. While Ive not done the test casting with braid…wore myself out doing that with nylon….it will cast a 1 gram naked jig head a long way. It’s pretty good stuff.


Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

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After you told me my 6# .11mm KastKing braid would probably test out around 11# , I figured the Varivas max 7# had to be thinner since it’s closer rated to actual pound test .
Braid diameters and breaking strength is all over the place . It’s had to decipher what is what sometimes.
The 7# was the cheapest I could find in the Varivas on Amazon .
I may try some of the smaller stuff later on , but I found a 3000 yard spool of Daiwa 6# J Braid X8 in 6# for less than $100 . That should stock me up for awhile. The 6# J Braid is 1.5# diameter . It’s dark green color but that’s ok , the chartreuse was over $250 !!!

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Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

60-70 ft. :yikes:yikes. Thanks for your review. I like that blue color too.

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There’s a small dock I fish off of that a good 60-70’ from the end of the big dock .
Until today my casts were around ten feet short of making it to the end of the dock . Today , I was dropping my jig right up next to the dock’s corner post . .

Thanks for all your time and effort. I kinda thought the pink would cast well for you. I bought my brother a spool of .175 in pink also, his first. Hope you get used to it and enjoy it like I do. I truly love the sensitivity. Nice looking fish too, by the way.

thanks for your study findings

dont give up! braid needs a break in period to loosen up... also while dry testing on a lawn, dress your line... i use wd40... wet a patch of it in a cloth or paper towel, make a long cast and then run your line thru it on retrieval. i do this once or twice a season on all my lines

Thanks for the tip .
I’ve just about settled on the Daiwa J braid x8 .
I’m getting about the same distance using it as I was 2# Floroclear.
I was worried about my knot connecting my leader holding up until last week when I landed a 23” largemouth.

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Originally Posted by slip sinker

thanks for your study findings

dont give up! braid needs a break in period to loosen up... also while dry testing on a lawn, dress your line... i use wd40... wet a patch of it in a cloth or paper towel, make a long cast and then run your line thru it on retrieval. i do this once or twice a season on all my lines

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Hmmmm. Always learning something new here on CDC. Dressing a line with WD40. Can't say I ever heard of that one. I'm probably the only ignoramus though.

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Originally Posted by UpstateSC_Bill

Hmmmm. Always learning something new here on CDC. Dressing a line with WD40. Can't say I ever heard of that one. I'm probably the only ignoramus though.

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I don’t care for the smell of WD-40 , so I doubt if I’ll be dressing my line with it .
WD-40 is supposed to help with arthritis too , but I’m not rubbing my hands down with it either .
I had a brother in law that used to spray his hands everyday at work , he swore it helped .

I've been using Eurotackle braid in 4#, and it's been great. I get the strength of 4# line with the handling and castability of lighter line. Not sure if anyone else has used that line before, but I'd be interested to see how it compares to the more mainstream braids.

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I haven’t tried any Eurotackle braid , yet . :)
I really like the Varivas braid , but it’s expensive $26-$40 per 75m spool .
The Daiwa J Braid x8 especially the Grand is a close second . And it’s more economical.
If you’re like me , and I hope nobody is , :) , if I find something I like , I have to switch over everything I own .
That means I feel like I have spool all of my reels now with braid . I know I’m crazy !
I found a 3000 meter spool of Daiwa J Braid 6# moss green , for $90 . Not the Grand but good casting braid . I can spool a lot of reels with that spool of braid . I only put about 100 yards on regular depth spools . I use SOS 2# line for backing and it keeps the braid from slipping.
That means I can load a reel with decent braid for about $3 per reel .
I have a few reels spooled with blue Daiwa Grand in 6# and it seems to be a little closer to the Varivas braid . I bought it in 300m spools for around $26 . I get two to three reels spooled with this one .
I’ll look into the Eurotackle braid and maybe check it out if it’s not too expensive.

This came with an ancient Shimano 1000 I got from oversea filled to the rim. Anyone know what it might be? It's of the multicolor variety and i know not many American brand braids are multicolor. I also know its probably expensive enough not to toss it out. It's a 0.1
and snapped off like a 3 or 4 lb line. BTW it casted great. Thanks for sharing your findings, Gill!
Attachment 465028

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I went back to McIntosh this morning and fished for a couple hours .
I took two rods , a 5’6” St Croix Premier ULF with a Daiwa Fuego LT 1000 loaded with chartreuse 7# Max Varivas braid , and a 5’ St Croix Avid ULF paired with a Daiwa Fuego LT 1000 , loaded with 6# blue Daiwa J Braid X8 Grand .
I wanted to compare the two lines head to head, sort of.
I fished the Premier first, with a micro spinner , but the wind picked up and I switched over to a size 0 jig spinner , Trout Magnet 1/64 jighead , and a Bobby Garland Itty Bit Swim’r .
Right away I was casting over twice as far and getting bit .
I fished one area until the shade was gone , about an hour , then switched to the Avid and moved to another area that’s lined with trees but is a shallow cove .
The six inch shorter rod with the Daiwa J braid was casting as good as the Varivas . I couldn’t tell any difference between the two , in casting , but when a small gill would hit the beetlespin style lure I could feel every little tap . The shorter Avid with the braid is more sensitive IMO and was more fun catching the small gills .
I caught seven crappies and a green sunfish on the Premier and seven gills and a tiny green sunfish on the Avid .
I found some morning glories growing down by the lake and some kind of yellow flower that in places grew out onto the water.

Glad you got out and found a few before roasting like tonight’s dinner. 108 heat index here today. It’s sounding like you’re enjoying the braid. A good deal. Sometime in your searches you might try some Sufix Nanobraid in two lb. I’ve got some and like it but haven’t done a head to head comparison with the Varivas. Tough stuff too.

spiderwire used to market a camo color that looked similar

my favorite braid has been spiderwire 6# 1#mono dia equivalent $13.00 on walmart shelves

Slip , happy that you found something that works for you .
I looked at Spiderwire 6# but its diameter is .005” and I wanted the thinnest for the money I could find to help me get the longest casts I could get .
Daiwa JBraid x8 and Grand are both .003” for the 6# test , almost half the diameter.
And if you buy it on the 300 yard spool , you get enough for two reels at about $26 . If you measured it out to 100 yards per reel you could get 3 reels use .

that daiwa j braid looks interesting.