Anyone use straight braid for Football Jigs?

I don't but I've been thinking about it. I use 20# floro; the good stuff.

This happened to me the other day and I have been thinking about it every since. I was fishing about 15',
Dragging a football jig, I felt a real subtle bite, then my line went limp, when this has happened before I have set the hook on some big ones. So I set the hook and thought holy [censored] this is a huge fish, I kept tension on the line, was looking to make sure I had the net out because I was by myself and about the time I tried to turn the fish the line broke.

It wasn't the knot, when I got the line back, it was frayed and looked to me like the teeth of the fish may have cut the line. Seems kind of crazy but big fish have some sharp teeth so idk for sure what to think. It was really strange.

I used 20lb braid to 17 or 15lb fluro leader

Slade - I fish football jigs almost exclusively this time of year and have seen the same issue you experienced. I check my line for frays frequently and re-tie a lot. This eliminated the problem (until now, probably just jinxed myself). I'm also using 20lb fluorocarbon of high quality.

Most of the time when a really big fish takes a jig or soft plastic bait, it goes to the back or their throat. This leaves your line to rake back & forth across their teeth. It acts like a fingernail file and will most definitely cut your line as you put a lot of pressure on them. Had it happen MANY times especially when pitching a jig up close. When you set the hook on a big one up close your line is closer to a 90 degree angle to the fish than when casting out. This made it worse.

Back in Fork's heyday when the hydrilla was growing out to 15' one of the most productive methods for numbers of good quality fish was to follow the deep edge of the grass on your graph while making short pitches out in front of the boat. We would keep the boat slowly moving down the outside edge of the grass with the troll motor while pitching a 3/4 oz jig and letting it fall to the bottom - one or 2 hops and reel it back then repeat over & over.

The fish would congregate in the irregularities in the grass line, little cuts or points would hold small schools of similar sized fish, many times 5-6 pounds. Mark Stevenson and Bruce Benedict taught me how to do this. I caught one of my biggest fish at Fork, an 11.61 in August directly under the troll motor doing this.

Even 20# fluorocarbon will not stand up to this many times. This is why you hear about the giant that broke the line at the boat, as it made one last run so many times. Try 50# braid. You may sacrifice a few bites but it will end the break off problems due to their teeth cutting it. That's why when we go to CB we only use 65 braid.

Especially fluoro. Braid would be far better, even heavy mono like Big Game would be better.

By the way I have caught a bunch of fish at Fork using 50 braid tied straight to the jig. Do I feel like it costs me bites, Maybe but give it a shot and let me know what you think. Rig a rod up with braid and a jig. The next time you are out and get bit on your fluoro, throw out there with the same jig on braid and see what happens. I think when you catch a fish off a deep spot it excites the others nearby. The next thing that falls into their path is going to get bit regardless of what line is tied to it.

Agreed mono does have more stretch than fluoro and is more forgiving. The only issue I have with mono is that it doesn't transmit as well as fluoro. You drag the same bait across the bottom with mono and fluoro you can tell a distinct diff. You can feel it even better on braid but braid has its own set of problems.

I love it & I hate it.

Most of the time I use 50# braid with 20# fluoro leader. I have had instances in the past when fishing rocky areas where the sharper edges of the rocks with cut the braid. 20# Fluoro seems to hold up better around the rocks. With a good uni-uni knot it will handle big fish. I have caught a couple of flatheads around 25lbs on a football head jig so I know the leader will hold.

Ken, you bring up a good point.

Why not just tie on a short heavy mono leader to your braid mainline? The transmission of feel is only an issue the longer a line is; so, having just 3 to 6 feet of mono wouldn't cost much there in terms of loss of sensitivity.

It seems most people don't use high quality monofilaments as short leaders much, if they ever did, and it might solve some issues in certain circumstances.

Brad

I've never had much of an issue with straight braid.

Slade, that sounds like it could have been a bowfin! I have lost a jig to bowfin in the past and it happened the same way. I know that it was a bowfin because I ended up catching him soon after.

Never understood the point of fishing braid with a leader. most breakoffs happen at the knot or right above it so wouldn't this still be a problem? not to mention you're adding one more knot on there to weaken the line even more.

If water clarity lets me, I use braid. I think the jig for me is mostly a reaction bite. They hit it on the fall or after the first hop or movement. If I can't use braid, I use 20# Hi-Seas Grand Slam Select co-poly. In my experience, it has less stretch than mono but more abrasion resistance than fluro.

You will get fewer bites with braid. Stick with 20-25lb fluoro unless flipping into heavy vegetation, then use braid.

You need a solid hook set with a football jig, so I can see braid being an advantage if the water isn't too clear. Hell, I broke off 3 big fish at Falcon this past weekend. I bet I could've gotten away with braid and landed those fish. The way I see it, if a fish will hit a giant ball of wires with 5 baits on it, why would they not hit a football jig attached to braid?