I clearly am not a huge user of braid or I would not be asking this question. I have heard though on bait casters that braid will dig into the spool when setting the hook resulting in a backlash the next cast once the line reaches the point the line has dug in. A response I have heard to that is the heavier larger braid (maybe 50 lbs and up) will prevent this from happening as the braid is a thicker line keeping it from digging in.

Is this really an issue and do I have to have heavier braid to avoid it? Thoughts?

yep always does that...

If you put the line on tightly when you spool the reel, you should not have that problem.

Good question, I am about to strip all the 50lbs. P-Line X (which has a Teflon coating) off my crig setup because it feels like the line sticks when casting and backlashes severely. Maybe it is digging in.

I have heard this is also a potential solution. A friend told me he will put on the line then go tie one end to a tree and walk all the line off then reel it back on really tight. Will have to remember this for next time.

Doing a conventional hookset like you would with mono is going to be a problem to those who don't or haven't learned yet how to fish with braid.
It's non stretch and you don't need to rare back like you normally did, and almost flip the boat!
It's just a good way to break a good rod more than anything else!....Usually just a flick of the wrist and keeping pressure on the fish and letting the rod do it's work is all that is needed.

Most my rods with braid have 40# and line digging in isn't an issue unless I'm setting the hook on a tree stump.

Only while fishing a frog. 50# or 65# doesn't seem to matter. I set the hook trying to break the rod with the drag maxed out. The next cast I toss it out to open water until it "stops" pull a few feet off and ready to go.

Very true!

+1

The only time I have braid dig into itself is if I am hung up and I pull really hard on it to get loose. If it digs into itself it will not cause you to backlash. It will just hit that dig-in point & stop.

Only time I had braid dig in I was casting heavy weight and bait for catfish. I got a backlash and the force of hard throw with lots of weight caused the braid dug in almost all the way to the spool. This was with 65# braid.
That is the only time I have ever had to cut the line off my reel.

I try to never reel line in without some pressure one it so the wraps on reel are not loose.

Make sure you put mono backing on the reel first, this helps and the braid doesn't slip around the spool.

No problems with it digging in on the hookset, only when I have to straight line pull my bait out of the cover. I only fish 65# in heavy cover though.. no idea about the smaller stuff.

I fish 65lb braid on all of my setups. Sure when I'm trying to flip under docks I will get backlashes sometimes but thats because I haven't got the reel dialed in right. Now if I get a big snag on the bottom it will dig into the reel some but so does heavier mono when you pull on it till it breaks. If I get a snag I just recast a couple times reel in quickly just to remove any of the line that might have dug into the reel. I also use bigger spooled reels 200-250 so I can hold more line. Most standard reels 100 I can cast to the end of a full spool pretty easy.

To answer your question. No. If you set the hook hard enough or on a big fish it can dig in. But it will not cause a backlash on the next cast because it will just stop.