Braid correct weight??!

[cammac]

Why do so many "anglers' use the thinness of braid to spool their outfits with heavier than necessary/rated braid?- puts more load on their gear and well i guess gives the fish less chance! (did i just answer my own question! :o) I thought the reason for braid was to pack more line for a given class than mono and the thinner diameter less spooking flexibility etc. I regularly see guys using braid on outfits way above whats necessary!! #what ever happened to the skills of angling?? #:( ::) :-[

Cam

[phatty]

im asuming that your talking about profile baitcasters for barra, and jack.

this is purely for abrasion sake for when fishing amongst sticks, and for the reason that poeple dont wanna lose a fish of a lifetime but being prepared for it, and its more than likely not that line that gives the fish less of a chance its the angler and the outfit he/she is using.

i use 30lb on mine but this is to get that little bit more line on my spool just incase, and i know i wont be about break it purely because of my drag can get up that much pressure.

[cammac]

Im talking about all types of fishing u might have a valid point about abrasion i guess using a long heavy mono leader helps in this regard. it depends where your fishing to a point. a mate of my gets big barra in on 4lb line over in the kimberleys but prob not many snags - that is going to the extreme. i agree about the better angler bit - the better the angler the lighter gear heor she should be able to fish with!!

[davez104]

There are times when ultra light tackle like that just won't cut it though. We used to fish Monduran a bit for Barra, right in close to some pretty mean looking timber. We new that when the hookups came, we were going to be in contact with timber. We used 30 and 50lb braid purely for this reason, and we still lost our fair share. I know our reels probably should not be used with this strength of line but I doubt it was ever fished near to its max potential. I think offshore game fishermen would like the braid because they could downsize the reel quite a bit to fish, say, 600M of 80lb line. They coud get away with a much smaller, lighter reel, easier to use and less fatigue at the end of the day.

Plus, with heavier than needed braid, you can really give em some.

Dave.

[Jeremy]

Most serious offshore game fishoes use IGFA rated mono. That is what they have to use for club points and for comps.

I agree completely with the original point here. Downsize your line class and put a bit more emphasis on your angling skills. When you get really serious about this, switch to pretest mono. It is alot of fun.

My best captures are a 19.8 kg longtail tuna on 6 kg line and an 8.8 kg snapper on 6 kg line. Flathead of 4.25 kg (weighed alive in net and released) on 1 kg line was a good one too.

Jeremy

[cammac]

I really cant see what the point is of putting heavier braid on an outfit than whats its rated for! except if you want to test the rod and reels breaking point( read plenty of these lately) i can see the point of putting the correct size braid or lighter to achieve more line capacity.
Im not saying fish with cotton but there is such a thing as overkill!

Cam

[davez104]

Yes there is such a thing as overkill. But I, and many others, like to use 50lb braid for Barra fishing. It's not fished to its limits all the time, but it offers a little more abrasion resistance than the light stuff, and in a last ditch attempt to stop a large fish the rod can be pointed at the fish and the spool thumbed to put some serious hurt on. Now you show me a rod and/or reel that can cast smallish barra lures, (terminators, 90mm scorpions etc), isn't too heavy AND is rated to fish 24kg line to the limit. Not sure I want to be seen Barra fishing with a Penn Senator and fully rollered standup stick ;D But thats just the way I choose to fish, I know my outfits not rated for 24kg and if I suffer breakages as a result of hard use, then I'm prepared to cop that. Each to their own I think the saying goes.

Dave.

[Captain_Starli]

this subject has always fascinated me as well..I understand the why, strength to thickness ratio thing. but how many really use it properly. lately we hear about an awful lot of broken rods, is it because they fish the line & not the rod. you can us 100lb braid, but if rod is only rated to 6kg that is all you can really fish.. i don't know what 14lb fireline breaks at, but i use it on my 6kg spin, because it is thinner than 6kg mono & casts further, but i still only fish it as a 6kg outfit..

so i think that this could be an explanation for a few broken rods. :-/

[JasonT]

I guess it depends what you're wanting to do.

I usually fish light as I find it the most fun. Sure, you get busted up and lose what probably would have been good fish, but what you lose here you more than make up for in strikes.
Plus, it's a bit more of an achievement to land a fish on light gear IMO!

JT

[phatty]

i can see where you coming from with the whole finesse aproach.

it can be really utlised through out fishing for the likes of flathead, bream, bass, and the likes of coastal and inshore jigging. This is great fun! :D :D

but just because someone puts 90m of 50lb on a low profile doesnt mean that your going to stuff you gear you purely because theres no low profile out there the can produce 50lb of drag. but if u get on to a big fish there the possiblilty that you could break you rod (lets so 8kg graphite), but this would only occur in the event of high sticking you rod to the point where the line and the tip of you rod goes past 90 degrees ( i may be wrong about the correct degrees). If you come tackled light and under gunned to most impoundments in queensland, theres a good chance that you going to loose alot of lures and fish! Unless you trolling in the open waters which would be alot of fun on lighter gear, but if you were casting you wouldnt really stand a chance with 4lb - 10lb line.

[cammac]

FYI Im going to Boorumba next week with a 2-4kg dropshot rod shimano 2000 reel loaded with 8lb mono i reckon more than adequate for the stoping the critters in there, but i could be wrong eh!? ::) also taking a overhead with 4.5lb for a little more of a challenge! :o


So some guys give the fish no chance , some guys give the fish a little chance and some guys give the fish a lot of chance -simple really!

I got to ask you heavy braid uses - what did you do before braid came on the scene? use the same weight mono with a bigger reel, same weight mono with the same reel or a lighter than the braid mono with the same reel?

[phatty]

didn't use the low profile reels.
was more into the medium to big abus with 15 - 30lb mono. Its mono was more robust so it doesnt get worn out like light braid and is thicker so there was no need to go all the way to 50lb. Hence the whole heavy braid. Its just monos isnt so good casting compared to braid.



So some guys give the fish no chance , some guys give the fish a little chance and some guys give the fish a lot of chance -simple really!


thats interesting. giving the fish no chance. like i sed before in impoundments we only fish with reels that can get only 4kg drags, and these are no small fish that we are dealing with, last weekends one went 126cm and took over 15mins to land. No chance would be gettin a Saltiga, and scul dragging them in.

[PlasticFantastic]

So by using 90lb Saltiga Braid on my Saltiga for jigging am I not giving the fish any chance, does that make me unsporting. Because I also use 4lb Fireline for Breaming and 16lb P.E. braid for catching Squire (yet to catch a Snapper ) and general bay use. Differnt lines for differnt situations.


PlasticFantastic

[davez104]

So by using 90lb Saltiga Braid on my Saltiga for jigging am I not giving the fish any chance, does that make me unsporting.

Only if you're jigging for Bass :o ;D ;D

Dave.