Fayette County, Thursday, July 2nd

Couldn't get a pattern figured out. My sonar doesn't have GPS (Lowrance Elite 5x), so I didn't have any Navionics waypoints to target, so I stuck with working deeper trees and creek beds. Right off the bat, first cast broke off one right at the boat that looked 4.5-5 lbs. Then caught the rest throughout the day on topwater & squarebill crankbaits and CR worms and Zeros. One of my last fish, I broke off my C-rig, re-rigged, threw out again, and boated the same fish that I broke off on; my previous rig was in his mouth, the line broken off above the knot. I'm getting a lot of breakoffs like this on Cabela's X50 fluorocarbon which is made by Seaguar. I have even gone to lining the inside of my sinkers with shrink tubing and it still happens. In all, I lost 3 due to breakoffs and boated 6. All were nice ones, but they seem to look a lot leaner than a month ago. I guess the fatter ones are down deeper in schools, feeding on shad. Still, any day I get to fish is an awesome one.

Nice fish. What knot are you using? I used to have a lot of break-offs with fluorocarbon and polymer knot. Switched to reverse cinch and have been having a lot fewer.

I've always tied improved clinch since I was old enough to tie a knot, but I've been experimenting with palomar, san diego jam knot, the one that leaves 3 tag ends, etc.
But in this case, none of the 3 knots in my CR rig failed, it broke above the knot, leaving an inch or two of line above the knot. So the line failed before the knot.

If you happen to be using a glass bead with your CR rig, I've seen the weight chip the bead creating rough edges and ultimately damaging the line.

That occurred to me also. So on this trip I used nothing but Vike Force Beads, which are made from some kind of magnetic composite. I also tried using steel sinkers for my C-Rigs, since they aren't as hard as tungsten, but neither the beads or sinkers kept my line from breaking off. I had previously been using Cabela's cheaper fluoro, which I believe they call No-Vis, but I didn't like the way it looked; after a while it took on a whitish, opaque appearance, but I didn't have nearly as many breakoffs as I'm having now.

Inserts will fray fluorocarbon line. Use smooth bore Tungsten weights. I would also recommend using braid as your main line with a fluorocarbon leader.
Nice fish!

If you are breaking off above the knot, then I would suspect that it is due to not wetting the line enough prior to pulling the knot tight. You need to have the line good and lubricated or the friction will weaken the line as the knot slides over it.

My normal method is to get a bunch of spit on the end of my tongue, then set the loose knot on top of it to wet it before pulling it down. I always try to pull it smoothly between the tag end and the main line and check to make sure there's no line burn on the main line end of the knot. The broken off rig I pulled out of Mr. Bass's mouth had about an inch of line above the knot. The breakoff also look frayed. At the time, I was using an unlined steel bullet sinker with a Vikes bead.

I think I'll be giving this a try for my C-Rig rod. For stained water 8-25 ft. would 30 lb. braid be sufficient?

I have tried a few lines, to me, Berkly Big Game has been the best. 15 lb. test line and go with it. I have had issues with everything else, so I've decided to stick with what has worked for so many years. But good fishing report. This time of the year the fish will hold tight on deep structure. 20 plus feet and there will be some cooler water pockets. Fayette has not been great to me though, a good day here and there, but nothing like she use to be. But it will change, it will be supper awesome again.

For me, 50lb power pro for my main line and then usually 15 to 20 lb floro leader.

Agree.