Couple of Q's while we talking about braid.

[SeaHunt]

I have 20 lb spider wire , I think it's called, (KMART crap) on a Shimano spinning reel attacked to a 6ft ugly stick. Anyway I was at Mud Island (Morton Bay) a couple of weeks ago and after 4 sharks and two fat catfish the braid is looking decidedly second hand. The outer coating seems to be peeling away.. Is the line still good ? The guy in the tackle shop told me I should be using Fireline , is that because it is the only one he sells or is it a lot better? or does a couple of solid fish draging it over your runners basically stuff it no matter what brand. Also I read about ppl using momo backing with braid, is that because they want 500 meters of line on their reel and can't afford that much braid or is there some other reason? [smiley=worried2.gif]

[SeaHunt]

That should be mono backing...... Fat fingers..

[mackmauler]

Thats a sign its on the way out, check your runners for cracks!

[JB]

Hrrmm, i wouldnt be too worried about it, depending on your brand braid has a tendency to "fluff up or fray", but should still retain most of its strength. I can say however that my mate was using spiderwire on his spin stick, and he recently gave it the ar#se and replaced with fireline, best thing he ever did he reckons, much better quality / performance. I use fireline, dont think u can go past it really.

[basserman]

fire line all the way
the resone we use mono backing is two fold
1; the mono give the braid something to bite into on the reel and helps prevent line slipage
2; with 125yards of braid their is not much resone to have any more so the backing just works as a filler but if your useing the braid on a reef rod in say 200+m i know blokes that will fill reels with braid only

[3Vs]

Is it Spiderwire fusion that you are talking about? It has an external coating over it that is pretty soft and breaks apart very easily. It shouldn't affect the line strength as all, but it can be hard to tell if it is just the coating or the core that is damaged when looking at it. Ditch it >

[SeaHunt]

Thanks Guys , yeah I ditched it. Got some fireline (20 lb) also from KMART, I hope it is the some quality stuff as the tackle shops have. I will have to stop looking in the big K for tackle , but when they have one of those 25% off days I just can't help myself. It seems impossible to buy a decent sized hook in there though, say over 4/0. I am going to put about 100 metres or so of Penn 10x 20 lb mono on as backing , what knot would you recommend, just in case I latch onto something that strips out that much line . (Yeah I know - dreaming).. [smiley=zzz.gif]

[beefaman]

I buy Fireline from BIG W when it is on special. Always a good price there [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[basserman]

double uni knot to join the backing

[bay_firey]

Ok so now I have got all the good gear, how do I join the braid to the mono leader ??

[basserman]

mark check out the bimin twist posts

i use the double uni knot to join all my lies from the backing to the leader and yet to have trouble while fighting a fish but other use other knots

[kingmad]

Ahhmm,

Do me favour next time you decide to throw a spool full of spider wire give me a call....
I will gladly dispose of it for you [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]
I have had the same spool full of spider wire on my bottom bashing reel for the last 2 years and it does #beutifully for the reefs down here. It to had looked old as soon as I put it on. Didn't make a bit of difference to the strenght.

[SeaHunt]

I havn't actually thrown it away yet, it was only 125 yards before I started using it so it's hardly a spool full. Actually I had it on a Alvey reel and used it for a week fishing for tailor in the surf at Fraser Island, then wound it onto my spinning reel the other way around so the fresh line was now at the business end of things. It is not really good in the surf, but I probably should have had a mono leader instead of just tying off to a swivel/wire trace. I had a surf sinker on the braid and it would wear the braid at the swivel and broke at the wrong time of course.