Help! I'm losing too many quality fish on braid.

I just recently spooled up my flipping stick with braid and I have not landed anything over 3 lbs since. I'm not sure if I can handle seeing another big girl spit my jig. What can I do to help me keep them on, and into the boat? Other than go back to mono.

I'm curious, why do you think it's your braid?

Have you backed off your drag? Mono will stretch quite a bit and will give if you have the drag cranked down. There is NO stretch on braid. If your drag is cranked down with braid you might be ripping a huge hole that allows the fish to spit it.

Fluorocarbon is another option for you but you will sill have to back off the drag.

Spot on here. Either back off the drag or use mono....just my .02

^^This, or go down in rod power.

I have noticed that 25lb and under test on braid would break real easy. I do not know what lb test you are using but when I upped it to 50lb I had no more breakoffs.

Agree
Back off the drag a bit, especially if you have Trokar hooks on the jigs. Tight drag + braid + Trokar hook = hole

you might like a 6ft copoly or fluoro leader on the braid--adds some forgiveness to the set up.

I didn't back off my drag. I'll give that a try and see what happens next time I'm on the water. Thank you for the quick responses.

Hooks might not be stiff enough and they might be flexing and tearing holes.

Rod action if the is falling out or opening up. Re rig with a softer tip rod , you are tearing a slot with the hook

+1 on this

Most people, after going through the braid and fluoro craze eventually migrate back to Big Game Mono for close quarters fishing, even if they won't admit it.

Exactly, people watch and read silly stuff. I use braid for one thing. Other than that. 20 lb and 15 lb big game. Flouro sucks too. Carry on with overcomplication and over spending on line.

Or the person is horsing the fish in and tearing a slot.

I have been 100% braid for 15 years now.

....but you will go back to big game mono. Eventually.....c'mon.....admit it.

I haven't used mono line in years. Don't plan on using it either.

Two good points. Loosen the drag and use a lower powered rod.

I did not want to get rid of my flipping stick so I got used to not trying to follow through when setting the hook and I've not lost any more fish due to the string. Just shorten up your set and it will do just as good as when you socked it to the fish.

Greg Hackney has a youtube video on this very topic, how not to loose fish on a jig while using braid. He is one of the best at fishing a jig.

I use either 20 pound Invizx or 17 pound P Line CXX for pitching jigs.

My favorite rod for jig fishing is a Power Tackle PG 104. Fantastic jig rod.

No way

Absolutely not

This ^^^

Greg Hackney wrote a great article on using the correct rod for flipping with braid. You need to drop down in rod power with the no stretch braid.

Just wondering, do you guys flip docks with braid? If your doing it right and getting all the way to the very back of a dock when you flip, and I'm not talking about between the boat in the slip and the dock, I'm talking about under a dock edge that's only 6" above the water line, then there's no way your using braid because you will get backlashes at times even if your an expert at it and braid is not user friendly with backlashes.

Like others have said, if you are dropping fish regularly on braid it is because you are using too light of a wire hook or that you are tearing a hole in their mouth from setting the hook too hard. Another thing is that you may be setting the hook too soon. you may not be letting them get the bait deep enough into their mouth and hooking them in their lips.

i haven't used mono for anything other than topwater baits for the last 18 years. Everything else is briad or fluoro. I don't think i am going back.

Ya ok.....

Are u flipping the jig or casting it? That really makes a difference in where you are hooking the fish. How are u setting the hook? All my jig and t-rig fishing up shallow in cover is done with braid and I usually put the hook right through the top of there head and don't have any issues loosing fish.

The reason people use braid and Floro is because they are better in 90% of applications than mono. People just do not adjust their sets up properly so they think it's the lines fault.

They all have their applications best suited for.

Mono for topwaters, spinnerbaits and traps because it floats and stretches.

Fluoro for the crankbaits, leaders, weightless and plastics where the cover is not too thick because its smaller diameter and it sinks. Better sensitivity.

Braid for c-rigs and anything in heavy cover because for the diameter it's almost indestructible. And it lasts a long time and much more sensitive.

There are some nuances with braid, the other day i set the hook on a bass and somehow yanked a half hitch around the tip of the rod, had to well rope him in, lol. When it gets tangled in anything it can be a booger bear to get it back out, it is also hard on equipment, I use medium heavy rods for most of my braid applications, i think a heavy action can cause some problems, especially if you do not back off the drag some.

I use a broomstick with 65 lb braid and a Trokar flipping hook and have yet to see this. I do send small fish flying over my head quite a bit (still hooked BTW) but no holes with the hook falling out.

Something else is going on, IMO.

Keep the braid and get a good quality flippin hook and youtube how to tie a snail knott and problems solved.

I just read your title and it's all I need to know.

You need a softer more parabolic action flipping rod.
There you go- good luck and your gonna catch em now.

This ^^^ is exactly where I am after 20 years of fishing. It's good to keep it this simple. The only difference would be braid for hollow body frogs.

Funny... This is how I do it too.

Here it is. Great read from a Flippin Master

http://bassblaster.bassgold.com/greg-hackneys-braid-flipping-system#sthash.Uft7tOkq.dpbs

I started loosing fish on braid in heavy cover, I made a switch to heavier trokar hooks and almost eliminated my problem.

Haha.....been there and done it. Had to get in the boat TWICE! Poor fish.

I have used braid before to skip docks and it's easier skip with than fluorocarbon. To me, braid doesn't backlash as bad as fluorocarbon.

If you don't want to replace your rod, lighten your drag, or use a leader, then synchronize your wrist, elbow, and thumb drag.

Easier hooksets might help.

just a thought..... we notice when we were strapping your reels down on the deck of the boat over and over during the day, we notice the strap material was wearing and rubbing the braid when primarily in the same area. The strap material was rubber /elastic at the time. we changed it and hadn't had anymore issues with line breaking.

this

Yeah I never have that trouble either. So are the fish just getting off, or is the line breaking? One thing that hasn't been mentioned much, if at all, is your knot. When I switched to braid, I had to switch to the Palomar knot so it wouldn't come untied. Since then, no more knot problems.

Just flipped docks this past weekend with my setup, water was low but still many tight places I tried to get my bait under. No issues.

I not longer use broom sticks... heavy action with a fast tip is what I use.