Braid - New use

[CamG]

Over the last two weeks I've come to have a very found love of braid. Two weeks ago I went on a smallmouth trip. We were faced with some pretty stiff wind that positioned the smallies up ON the rocks. The first day I found a pattern that involved casting a spinnerbait up into a couple inches of water and rolling it off the edge of the rock. The smallies were absolutely stacked waiting for shad, but I was only hooking 1 out of every 5-6. Not good.

After getting off the water on the first day it just hit me. I should have really tried braid. So, I respooled my spinnerbait rod with 50 lb. braid overnight. I headed out in the morning and the wind had picked up a little more from the previous day. While I'm not a huge fan of fishing in 3-4' rollers standing on the front of boat, I had to give it a try. On my first cast of the morning, I hooked (and landed) a 3+. I was simply amazed that I it worked. I went on to land over 30 smallies over the next three hours, and only lost two.

Yesterday I went back. Faced with the same strong south wind, I started and ended my day with the braid, and it worked fantastic. At one time we were catching a smallmouth or a hybrid white bass (one over 8 lbs.) on every cast. An absolute blast. Had I not switched to braid I don't think I would have hooked nearly as many. As a matter of fact, the guy I fished with lost 5 or more before he landed his first one. He switched over to a reel spooled with braid, and joined in on the fun. I will probably stick with braid from here on out on my spinnerbait rod.

If you are going to try braid, I do have a couple suggestions. First, let up on the drag. Second, if you have the option, switch to a little lighter spined rod.