If I'm going to use straight braid on a spinning reel... 2025
pauldconyers reply :
....with no leader can I do a hi-vis braid or am I asking for trouble? Gonna mostly do finesse stuff, wacky rigs and some vertical jig spooning with it. Read a lot of past posts and opinions were all over the place.
MN Fisher reply :
1) For a finesse rig, I don't do braid. 8#mono is my choice for wacky, Ned, drop shot, etc.
2) If you DO do braid, use the thinnest you can get by with, 8# or 10# - 12# at the most. If the water you fish is stained to 4' visibility or less, then go with muted colors - PP Spectra green or Suffix 832 Camo - and you don't need a leader. If the water is clearer, then a clear leader of FC or Mono in 8#-10# is your best bet.
heavyduty reply :
I use the 8# and 10# power pro in both red and yellow for finesse; straight, no leader. Apprehensive at first but a gentleman that fishes crystal clear streams and small rivers in WV, whom I admire greatly for his smallmouth finesse fishing knowledge, uses it exclusively. His advice to me was presentation/match the forage trumps line color period. Obviously this is speaking of small diameter line, not anchor rope.
junyer357 reply :
I use 15# or 20# yellow power pro slick 8 on all my spinning rods. I just dye it black for a few feet with a sharpie. In the dirty coosa river water around here its no problem. I have used a flouro leader on some crystal clear spring fed ponds as well as just the blacked out line and saw no diffrence. It may be diffrent on your local lakes though.
Make sure you have a "braid ready spool" too, or use a few feet of mono backer. Its no fun when you set the hook on one, and it wont reel because the braid is slipping on the spool before drag kicks in.
BassWhole! reply :
I have not found LMB to be line shy regardless of water clarity. I'm sure you will catch if you fish straight bright braid. If you want, you can hit it with a green or black sharpie if you think it might help.
jbsoonerfan reply :
I fished straight yellow 40lb 832 on my casting reel when working a t-rig. Didn't notice any difference between me and my partner on bites.
Fishin' Fool reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 2:25 AM, pauldconyers said:....with no leader can I do a hi-vis braid or am I asking for trouble? Gonna mostly do finesse stuff, wacky rigs and some vertical jig spooning with it. Read a lot of past posts and opinions were all over the place.
The weakness of braid is that it actually cuts on rocks, zebra muscles and the like pretty easily. If you're not fishing that type of bottom you're probably okay otherwise throw on a 6 to 7' fluorocarbon leader.
WRB reply :
Hi Vis line the bass can follow the line. Down to the lure.
Tom
PhishLI reply :
My son in law's home lake is very clear most of the year. Last season he switched to straight PP 15lb green from clear mono. He fishes either a wacky rig, small jerk baits, or small spinner baits only on spinning gear. His catch rates didn't change from previous years. He logs every catch meticuloiusly. As usual, in this particular lake, he had several 15+ bass days. Line choice doesn't seem to matter much in this spot.
JackKlassen reply :
why not just learn to tie a leader not? Doesn't take very long just look up a Youtube video. I use the alberto knot.
jbsoonerfan reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 9:08 AM, JackKlassen said:why not just learn to tie a leader not? Doesn't take very long just look up a Youtube video. I use the alberto knot.
I agree, but my fishing partner refuses to learn one. Since I rarely out fish him when using a leader, I can't say that it makes much difference. The main difference his when we fish rocks and he gets frayed a lot and has to retie.
CrankFate reply :
Just put a 10lb fluoro leader on about 2’ long.
pauldconyers reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 10:13 AM, jbsoonerfan said:I agree, but my fishing partner refuses to learn one. Since I rarely out fish him when using a leader, I can't say that it makes much difference. The main difference his when we fish rocks and he gets frayed a lot and has to retie.
Main reason I do not want to is the time it takes. A lot of times I am fishing with my 2 kids I only have so much time to fish versus doing stuff for them. If I have to put on another lure each time, retie a leader here and there I will spend all my time doing that. No thanks.
jbsoonerfan reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 10:16 AM, pauldconyers said:Main reason I do not want to is the time it takes. A lot of times I am fishing with my 2 kids I only have so much time to fish versus doing stuff for them. If I have to put on another lure each time, retie a leader here and there I will spend all my time doing that. No thanks.
I don't think you will notice a difference in catch rate. In fact, I may have caught more when using the yellow because I could see it move so much better. Sometimes they don't always "hit" your bait, but they may inhale it and move a couple inches.
pauldconyers reply :
I guess I keep coming back to this - What has the higher likelihood? That I catch more fish because I MAY see subtle changes to my line more often that in turn MIGHT result in recognizing a soft bite or take on the NEEDLESS risk that a more "abnormal" line color could spook a fish?
Does a more visible line spook a fish? Who can say? At this point it just seems like I would be risking more than I would be gaining if I did this.
papajoe222 reply :
I introduce a lot of youngster to this great sport and when making the transition from bobber fishing to bottom fishing, I always hand them a combo with yellow 10lb. braid. They learn quickly to watch the line and I'm quick to point it out when the line moves because it's easy for me to see from the other end of the boat.
It also keeps them occupied, which can be a bit of a problem, even with some teens.
I haven't seen much difference in catch rates over the last few decades.
NOw ask me if I use a leader when fishing braid.
Bluebasser86 reply :
I think one of the main things you're missing with the leader isn't the visibility factor, but the sink rate. Light baits on straight braid has a parachute effect, which isn't a big deal on a really calm day, but it's never calm here. I use straight braid on spinning gear pretty often, even hi-vis yellow, and catch plenty of fish with it. I never use a leader with braid on casting gear.
LCG reply :
Another option that I am playing with this year is to color the braid with a sharpie or color the braid in alternating colors ie camouflage.
I prefer hi viz yellow braid myself. Leaders can be a pain sometimes, especially with micro guides.
I did an experiment last year and drop shotted at a pond with straight 10lb yellow braid, no issues catching bass at all.
haggard reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 1:13 PM, Bluebasser86 said:I think one of the main things you're missing with the leader isn't the visibility factor, but the sink rate. Light baits on straight braid has a parachute effect, which isn't a big deal on a really calm day, but it's never calm here. I use straight braid on spinning gear pretty often, even hi-vis yellow, and catch plenty of fish with it. I never use a leader with braid on casting gear.
Can you elaborate? What's the parachute effect and are you saying it's good or bad?
I've been trying for a long time now to settle on a spinning gear line setup for light lures, but getting nowhere. Not talking about top water lures, but more like ned rigs on the bottom, or small paddletails on light jig heads for mid column, and weightless worms.
I'm wondering if floaty straight braid would adversely affect the sink rate or feeling the bottom, so copoly might be better. Or if braid plus a leader, is that relatively short leader even going to make a difference in sink rate?
TBAG reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 9:43 PM, haggard said:Can you elaborate? What's the parachute effect and are you saying it's good or bad?
I've been trying for a long time now to settle on a spinning gear line setup for light lures, but getting nowhere. Not talking about top water lures, but more like ned rigs on the bottom, or small paddletails on light jig heads for mid column, and weightless worms.
I'm wondering if floaty straight braid would adversely affect the sink rate or feeling the bottom, so copoly might be better. Or if braid plus a leader, is that relatively short leader even going to make a difference in sink rate?
I too am in the same camp, I currently use Yo-zuri hybrid on both my spinning outfits, one for a Ned rig and one for weightless Senkos. I'm happy with the Yo-zuri so don't know why I want to switch other than I like hi-vis line.
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 9:43 PM, haggard said:Can you elaborate? What's the parachute effect and are you saying it's good or bad?
I've been trying for a long time now to settle on a spinning gear line setup for light lures, but getting nowhere. Not talking about top water lures, but more like ned rigs on the bottom, or small paddletails on light jig heads for mid column, and weightless worms.
I'm wondering if floaty straight braid would adversely affect the sink rate or feeling the bottom, so copoly might be better. Or if braid plus a leader, is that relatively short leader even going to make a difference in sink rate?
Braid is buoyant and requires more force to break it's surface tension, so lighter baits fall slower and the deeper you're fishing, the more it's going to effect it. Light baits might also not pull the line completely tight leaving a slight bow in the line, again which is more noticeable the lighter the weight and deeper you're fishing. It's not real extreme with most baits, but I'm fishing Ned rigs on 1/16oz heads, it can have a noticeable impact with baits that size.
haggard reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 9:50 PM, TBAG said:I currently use Yo-zuri hybrid on both my spinning outfits, one for a Ned rig and one for weightless Senkos. I'm happy with the Yo-zuri so don't know why I want to switch other than I like hi-vis line.
Which lb. rating are you using? I have a spool of 12 lb YZH that I'm going to try on the M/F baitcaster with 1/4 oz TX rigged plastics, but thinking that might be overkill for spinning gear with light plastics. But I have trouble tying knots with anything thinner than 6 lb mono so I'm wary of trying the lighter YZH lines.
TBAG reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 10:51 PM, haggard said:Which lb. rating are you using? I have a spool of 12 lb YZH that I'm going to try on the M/F baitcaster with 1/4 oz TX rigged plastics, but thinking that might be overkill for spinning gear with light plastics. But I have trouble tying knots with anything thinner than 6 lb mono so I'm wary of trying the lighter YZH lines.
6lb on both of my spinning reels, and yes it can be a little challenging sometimes tying knots.
fin reply :
The reason I use a leader is not so much because of visibility, it's because it will break off, saving the braid and prolonging re-spooling.
JLBBass reply :
my finesse rigs consist of a pair of Stradic Ci4+ 3000 reels, Avid X 6'9" MLXF rods, and 6lb Izorline XXX copolymer............ no braid or fluorocarbon
pauldconyers reply :
On 1/31/2019 at 11:30 PM, Hank. said:The reason I use a leader is not so much because of visibility, it's because it will break off, saving the braid and prolonging re-spooling.
Assuming you use under 5 feet of leader you are touting this as the way to go not for visibility concerns but for "saving" 5 feet of braid LOL?
fin reply :
On 2/1/2019 at 1:04 AM, pauldconyers said:Assuming you use under 5 feet of leader you are touting this as the way to go not for visibility concerns but for "saving" 5 feet of braid LOL?
I'm not that cheap. Not sure where you are getting the 5' of braid from, it could be any length and multiplied by dozens of snags per year.
The leader is mono, same weight, but it always breaks before the braid, and worst case, the leader knot would break before the braid.
BaitFinesse reply :
I use 20# high vis braid all the time with a few feet of 8# Big Game as a leader in water with 40 feet visibility. No problems. I fish it right along side flourocarbon and prefer the high vis braid for line watching when fishing docks with a ned rig. A lot of the strikes with the ned swimming it along side docks are when I discover that my line isn't where it is supposed to be. The high vis helps be to observe this more quickly.
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