May have to leave braid....

[surfdog]

i've never had a problem with braid. once i was hung up with a top/bottom rig and put so much pressure on 20# braid that the metal snap holding the 4/0 sinker bent and broke off. knot and braid held metal didnt. with lures i will add a fluro leader but thats it. check the braid and if u see frays cut off 10' and retie.

i've never lost a fish to the braid failing. why fish with a rubber band? i can feel every bump and tic my lure makes with braid

[DOGFISH]

I have not had problems with braid. I have had reels with the same braid for 5 years of so, without incident. I then reverse the braid and use the other end as new line. I do use fluorocarbon leader.

[JohnE]

Definitely a bunch of pros and cons to each. I like both and that's why extra spools are great. I do like braid overall, it cast great and lasts forever. My main complaints are the poor abrasion resistance and then wind knots when casting. I generally tie on a mono or fluoro leader with a uni to uni knot. I've got a couple of my larger reels that I use most often spooled with 50 lb power pro and couple smaller ones have 12 lb. The rest have trilene, stren, or big game, but Mono casts like crap.

I don't see much point in using lighter braid for saltwater anymore. 50 lb is easier to work with and costs about the same. If you're that worried about the abrasion resistance of braid and don't want to swap spools when fishing in areas where it might be a problem, just tie on a super long mono leader.

[surfdog]

I went to 50-65# PP on my surf rods but found casting distance was reduced.

[J.A. Veil]

I use Powerpro on all but two of my spinning rods. I use 20 lb on the medium light, medium, and medium heavy rods, and 10-lb on light and one ultralight rods. I also have two ultralight rods with 8-lb mono. For perch fishing in summer and fall and pickerel fishing in the winter, I use all three ultralights. I do not notice any difference in catch rate between the Powerpro and mono when fishing light lures in shallow water for those species. I am able to cast the ultralight rod with 10-lb Powerpro a bit farther than the ones spooled with mono. When targeting shad in the lower Susquehanna or at Fletchers, that few yards of extra casting distance does make a difference (thanks to MKF member Bignose for pointing that out to me).

Powerpro does lead to more wind knots, can make some nasty tangles, and can cut your skin if you try to grab a tight line. But overall I find it gives me improved performance under most conditions.

[bruce19365]

I dont think anyone can dispute that braid has very little abrasion resistance. The thing with the scissors is revealing...try cutting limp braid with scissors, or rub on a rock without pulling tight vs pulling tight and notice a big difference. The key is to use a fluoro or mono leader and to loosen your drag if a fish is running your braid around something. You have alot higher chance of pulling that fish out if you play it right. I remember hearing this on one of John Skinners videos and tried it myself and it works. The benefits of braid far outweigh the downsides IMHO.

That's it in a nutshell. I prefer fluorocarbon for leaders over mono, but that's strictly a personal preference. As for PowerPro, I've tried it because "everybody" loves it, but I don't like it at all (the regular stuff) as I find it very rough and stiff until you use it at least until the color comes out of it. I like Suffix, as others have mentioned. The issue of wind knots, can drive a person nutz, but I've found increasing the braid to 30# reduces that issue greatly.

As far as braid "doing nothing to enhance your fishing" - I have to disagree. The sensitivity of braid due to it's no stretch helps feel bottom characteristics and structure, casts much better than mono or fluoro because it has NO memory and that is particularly advantageous with spinning gear. As mentioned it may wear guides, particularly older, cheap ones but my rods have either zircon guide inserts or recoil guides (spinning) and I've used braid for several years with no damage to either. Braid is a love it or hate it line and it took me a while to embrace it but the new braids are a fantastic aid to fishing.

[OVERBOARD]

as a bit of a follow up here, I will continue to run braid on everything and just be sure to use a leader in the future, especially fishing near structure.. I have regular PP, super 8 slick PP, and sufix 832 all strung up on various rods. I'll test em out over the next season and see which one I like the most. Just going off the feeling of them, I like the 832 a lot. The regular PP is too rough and stiff, although probably good for jigging and bottom fishing. The Super slick is incredibly soft and castable but i fear it will not be quite as strong as the others. The 832 seems to bein between the two as far as softness but is supposed to incorporate a gore strand to help with abrasion and strength.. We will see...

[dsiekman]

i've never had a problem with braid. once i was hung up with a top/bottom rig and put so much pressure on 20# braid that the metal snap holding the 4/0 sinker bent and broke off. knot and braid held metal didnt.

Had the same thing happen this fall. It cut into my hand, but I got my rig back...we'll, part of it anyway.

I keep a couple spools filled with Vanish, the fluoro/mono mix. Like it for clear water fishing but usually use braid around here.