What type of braid?

[quenston]

I am about to switch a couple of my rods over to braid and was wandering what the best braid was to use??

[Bender]

I think with mono you would get 100 different answers, but with braid you will only get 2 or 3 different types listed on here. PowerPro will be #1 by a mile.
I've tried others from the Stren Microfuse, Fireline Crystal, etc. and they all fall short of PowerPro on how soft they are, how round they are, and how far they cast.

[bamabassman]

powere pro.

[zooker]

calcutta ultra...

i have used power pro me and it don't get along..


zooker

[BigBassin144]

Sufix Performance braid is by far my favorite, with power pro second. I'd buy a spool of each and see which you like better.

BB

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by zooker

i have used power pro me and it don't get along..

me too. late one night before a tournament the next day on grand, i decided i should switch my line to braid because i was going to flip and pitch heavy cover all day. well wal-mart didn't have any power pro (which was my second to last choice) but they did have spider wire stealth (which was my last choice). against my better judgment i bought the stealth and have yet to have any problems. i know there are a lot of guys who hate spider wire but i really can't complain as of yet. in fact i had pretty much given up on finding a braid that i liked and settled on flourocarbon on my flipping stick but when i made this last minute change because of the conditions i was going to be facing the stealth actually made me decide not to write braid off yet. i am not suggesting spider wire braid, i am just saying that i haven't experienced any problems yet.

[quenston]

Well I have decided to get power pro and spider wire camo and will make my decision from there so we shall see what happens thanks for everyones help!!!!

[wareagledc]

shakespear ugly braid is the worst i have used so stay away. it digs in and will cause the line to catch mid cast and you will either hit yourself with your lure or watch it fly off into the water never to be seen again. anyone else used this stuff?

[bamabassman]

i heard that too ----eagle (lol). that is why i never used it before. bigbassin144 and a few others turned me on to powerpro.

[woody]

I'm also a big fan of Power Pro braid. At first I tried using their Moss Green color and found it to be a strain on my eyes while watching it on stained water, so now I'm now usng their Phantom Red color and have increased my hookup %.

[JB]

it'll be sweet pulling lunker lips in with power pro here in a few months huh

[BigBassin144]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

i heard that too ----eagle (lol). that is why i never used it before. bigbassin144 and a few others turned me on to powerpro.

Is that so, I woulda though you had used braid all along.

Anyone tried Stren braid, I wanted to until I felt it at the store, it feels like frayed rope... Sufix Performance braid is the smoothed braid I've used, with PP right behind. Also, anyone tried the P-Line Spectrex braid made of the same stuff as PP, but cheaper...

BB

[Jim80]

power pro


Jim

[flfireman]

Gotta say Power Pro. I use the 20# on almost everything.

[pig n jig]

I prefer to use Tuf line XP braid.I have used other braid brands, spiderwire was my least favorite braid brand but I am not always right.Ivan

[dodgeguy]

i have to say powerpro with sufix 2nd.powerpro is not as smooth but the color doesn't run all over like sufix does when new.powerpro is also a better buy price wise.

[Fishnngolfn]

Powerpro used to be my braid of choice. Now it is Suffix. I made the switch because of the following reasons.

1. I have never had a tip snag with Suffix. I have had several tip snags with Powerpro and tip snags are very irritating, especially if you are fishing at dawn or dusk and visibility is limited.
2. Suffix is a 6 strand braid and Powerpro is a 4 strand braid. There is less of that whirring noise with Suffix when reeling it in.
3. The bright neon colors for Suffix are more readily available at Walmart, Academy, and BPS in my area than the neon colors for Powerpro. If I want the neon yellow in Powerpro, I have to order it online. If I am able, I prefer to purchase my fishing stuff at stores instead of the internet.
4. Suffix is less expensive.


Powerpro is a very good braid. I just prefer Suffix now.

[The Doc]

I tried powerpro before. I have spiderwire ultracast invisi-braid on my reels now and I've never had a problem with it, but I might go back to powerpro this year when I re-spool all my stuff for the upcoming tourney season after seeing all the recommendations here.

[islandbass]

Originally Posted by wareagledc

shakespear ugly braid is the worst i have used so stay away. it digs in and will cause the line to catch mid cast and you will either hit yourself with your lure or watch it fly off into the water never to be seen again. anyone else used this stuff?

Yeah, that sucks for sure, but that can happen with any braid, especially the thinner in diameter you go.

[Joel]

I'm a 100% braid fisherman, both finesse and on baitcasters. Fishngolfn pretty much summed it up. I've been slowly switching over from Power Pro to Sufix Preformance Braid. It's 6 strand, not 4 strand, which makes it rounder, tip wrap is almost a thing of the past. The moss green color does bleed out quicker, but I really don't care about that issue. Braid lasts for years and years, then just reverse it on another spool and get more years out of it. Hence, the long conversion process.

You will need to use a leader for most applications for abrasive issues.

[Lilmoosecountry]

I pretty much don't like braid at all. The stuff tares up reels. I mean when a guy puts 65lb braid on a reel that really designed for 25 max. You deserve what happens to that reel when you use a larger line than the reel calls for.

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by Lilmoosecountry

I pretty much don't like braid at all. The stuff tares up reels. I mean when a guy puts 65lb braid on a reel that really designed for 25 max. You deserve what happens to that reel when you use a larger line than the reel calls for.

if you place mono backing on the reel and loosen the drag to where it slips with a fair amount of pressure then you won't have to worry so much about ripping the guts out of reels. this is however assuming that it is a reel with a quality drag.

you are right though and a lot of guys don't think about rods either but very few rods are rated for the kind of pressure braid can cause. even though most higher end rods have guides that will handle braid doesn't mean the rod blank itself will take that abuse, so again a loose drag is important or not over doing a hookset or pulling to hard when hung up.

[Joel]

Originally Posted by carolina-rig-01

if you place mono backing on the reel and loosen the drag to where it slips with a fair amount of pressure then you won't have to worry so much about ripping the guts out of reels. this is however assuming that it is a reel with a quality drag.

you are right though and a lot of guys don't think about rods either but very few rods are rated for the kind of pressure braid can cause. even though most higher end rods have guides that will handle braid doesn't mean the rod blank itself will take that abuse, so again a loose drag is important or not over doing a hookset or pulling to hard when hung up.

Excellent post.

Many of your points I've learned the hard way as I became a braid only user. Traditionally, we learned to set a drag using Mono which has the most amount of give of any class of line. Reels and Rods are rated still by the use of Mono, certainly not braid.

Braid has absolutely no give period. So as Carolina -Rig-01 said, you need to fish with a looser drag then you would normally use, but not that much more. I vary my drag settings based on the technique I'm using.

The only exception is when I'm jigging into some really nasty stuff. I still use some drag, but I don't lock it all the way down. Also use a rod with plenty of backbone and a stiff tip.

As for reels, I always use a mono backing, but that's so the braid doesn't slip on the spool. It also take up the bottom 1/3 of the spool, as I never get down that far. And it usually lets me get two reels spooled out of one spool of braid. Two spools with 75 yards of braid is more then enough. And even if I do get down to the mono backing which is always 10 lb mono in my case, it can handle the fish till I retrieve enough line.

[Fishnngolfn]

I have my drag set at around 10 pounds when I use 20# braid with 15# fluoro leader.

[The Doc]

I've never had any issues with braid tearing my rods or reels up, but then again, I'm OCD when it comes to maintenance and taking care of my gear.