Thread: What is the best calibre.........braid

Righto.....can of worms question.
Going over to the dark side and going to load up a couple of reels with braid. River/lake fishing only flicking soft baits and tassies. Quick look through TM and varies from bloody cheap to bloody expensive.
Any reconmendations of what/where to get, and what to stay away from.
Got some on my salmon reel, but can't remember what and where it came from.

Go.......

I like nice smooth limp 8 strand braids, usually the cheaper ones are 4 strand and while just as strong are not as limp and can be very coarse threw the guides.
Generally a cheaper one will be coarser and thicker for the same weight.
I go to local tackle shop and get spooled up, cheaper and better and you get exactly how much to fill your reel.

Saw the cheap was 4 strand, but others didn't say how many. Got some on my overhead reel as a trial and works well..no bird nests, and doesn't seem to over run and jam between spool and body.
I'm thinking $30ish to spool up should get a pretty good quality line

I just got some 8 strand for surf casting , but have decided to keep nylon for the river
just seems easier to manage to me, my excuse is I'm still coming to grips with knots on the braid.

Yeah.. Still not convinced yet, but since I've got a couple to load up, thought I'd give it a crack. They're a small reel, so just thought having a few more meters on will give me more piece of mind when ol' man salmon takes me downstream.

I always found that there wasn't a fish I couldn't catch with the .303!

Just brought a reel, and said you might as well fire some braid on it. $175 later........

And that was at a rather good discount. .......


Braid is the way to go though.
Small stuff - use a double uni knot to join onto nylon. A bit lumpy though the guides, but easy and quick to tie. A bit of a trade off really.
Big stuff, I've gone hollow core, and have left it to the shop to splice it.

Originally Posted by Beaker

Just brought a reel, and said you might as well fire some braid on it. $175 later........

And that was at a rather good discount. .......


Braid is the way to go though.
Small stuff - use a double uni knot to join onto nylon. A bit lumpy though the guides, but easy and quick to tie. A bit of a trade off really.
Big stuff, I've gone hollow core, and have left it to the shop to splice it.

FG knot for all my salt gear....its the strongest smoothest knot and is easy to remember how to tie.

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Originally Posted by oraki

Going over to the dark side and going to load up a couple of reels with braid
O_O:

I don't reckon you'll go back !!

I used a mates rod the other day with nylon, I had totally forgotten how much stretch it has. Reckon i would have had more luck setting the hook with a bloody bungy rope

Won't take you long to sus the knots.

One thing i have come to prefer is... the high vis colours as it makes it real easy to see where the line is. (handy when surfcasting)

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Berkley Fireline in a light grey, I've used it for a few years on a light carbon river rod. 6lb has about the same diameter as 4lb in nylon and you can flick light weight gear a reasonable distance. Have used the same line but 20lb on my salmon rod as well, which is great for feedback when bouncing the bottom of the river with your zeddy.

Are you Guys still catching salmon? I thought they were extinct. What rivers are you fishing?

Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

Are you Guys still catching salmon? I thought they were extinct. What rivers are you fishing?

Mainly the Opihi. Since the dam went in, the river has never stopped flowing, so some get through every year to spawn. Pre dam the river dryed up and they had to rescue fish almost every year. Most people conveniently forget that when cursing the farmers for taking all the water

Originally Posted by oraki

Righto.....can of worms question.
Going over to the dark side and going to load up a couple of reels with braid. River/lake fishing only flicking soft baits and tassies. Quick look through TM and varies from bloody cheap to bloody expensive.
Any reconmendations of what/where to get, and what to stay away from.
Got some on my salmon reel, but can't remember what and where it came from.

Go.......

Some reels don't like and are not made to handle braid. The difference is that a 'braid reel' will lay the line in much wider loops going up and down the spool far more than a mono reel. Those wide crossing loops stop the braid pulling down into its self and getting tangled up. If your reel will take braid but you are in doubt about brand buy some 'spiderwire' 15 lb or even 20lb and you wont go wrong.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Some reels don't like and are not made to handle braid. The difference is that a 'braid reel' will lay the line in much wider loops going up and down the spool far more than a mono reel. Those wide crossing loops stop the braid pulling down into its self and getting tangled up. If your reel will take braid but you are in doubt about brand buy some 'spiderwire' 15 lb or even 20lb and you wont go wrong.

Not anymore mate....they even make then with super slow oscillation now to increase casting distance specifically for braid.

I brought a new rod / reel combo 4 weeks back for Trout and Salmon . For softbaiting mainly and throwing the odd lure.
I went for 6lb Diawa JX8 I think it's called. 8 strand in a dark green. It was around 30 bucks for 150 yrds.
Don't forget you don't spool your whole reel in braid but have mono as a backing . Reason for this is Braid directly onto the spool can in some case's slip so the mono goes down first .
Braid also breaks generally a lot higher than it's breaking strain on the packet, 3 x higher in most cases.
Ive done alot of softbaiting both salt and fresh water and it's the way to go as you feel every touch.
In the last 4 weeks Ive caught 18 Salmon at Lake Hawera , new rod / reel has paid for itself.