old elbows and new technology don't always mix well do they! Too much flyfishing with 6 weight fly rod just about did my elbow in for good a couple of years back. I had to switch to lighter gear and fish less but after about eight months it was back to almost normal. I still can't take but about four hours at a time of hard fishing before it will start to remind me of how old I'm getting

Best advice given in this thread .
I use fireline almost exclusively and THE first thing you should do after making the swithch from mono to braid is let up the pressure on your drag .

For fishing brushpiles with a minnow straight down I haven't found anything close to 14 lb. test fireline. Sensitivity is great and you can straighten out hook enough to get it unhung.

, about the line snapping .. now that you say that and i think of him and when i went fishing with him one time .. i thought i was bad at that kind of stuff till i went with him.. this guy tied a treble hook on with a knot that u tie your shoes with and then stuck a minnow on the treble hook.. i couldnt help my self but to laugh, ive seen some people do some inexperianced things but for the way he talks you would think he was bill dance, He prolly did tie some stupid knot on there..

I've spent the last 15 years or so fishing with Spiderwire and love the stuff. I have spent the majority of the time in saltwater where you have to use a leader if you plan on catching anything and hanging on to it.

I think the biggest thing people fail to remember with breaded line is it doesn't stretch. I add a mono leader usually about 2-3ft. The leader also gives you the ability to break if off it does get hung-up.

I have tried various other types of lines and like them as well. I might change it out to something esle when the time comes around but for now this stuff works very well.

I'm a nub to the forums, but I have to ask a stupid question "exactly how do you break a rod with the line"?

BigGunFish,

You Ask..."exactly how do you break a rod with the line"?

Well the easiest way if you are using braid to break a rod, (Like I am sure the guides that spoke of their customers having trouble)all it takes it getting the line wrapped around the tip and then a fish or snag gets on and the guy pulls and the tip breaks. Actually pretty easy to do even if I have never done it I do know people that have.

I have been using power pro for about 6-9 months and dont have any problems other than the line slipping on the reel, which was easily fixed with a little piece of tape, and bending my hooks on lures. But I would rather bend a hook than lose a lure. 20 or 30 lb test is what i usually use when fishing lmb and for crappie i like 10 lb test.

I us fireline and love it the directions tell u to use certain knots to keep knots from failing and the palomar knot is the best one.
I use 6 pound test for crappie & sandbass and have never lost a jig in brush or on big fish
have caught up to 5 pound bass on it.I have never had any problems with it tangling-up
but if u do try to stretch the line out I do this if its been on the reel awhile.

Hey BigGunfish, here is one way to break a rod with braid. Link up your new two piece light action graphite fishing rod into one forgetting you reeled in just a bit extra when you took it apart. Its amazing just how strong 8 pound spiderwire is

Hook'emHill_21 the best way to keep your line from slipping is to leave some mono on as backing. Then just leave enough space on your reel to add 50 yards of Power Pro on and it will not slip and you use less braid so it's cheaper too.

The best way to joining the 2 lines is using a Uni knot or just use that tape over your mono to tie the braid to. I use to to the tape, but since I learned to use the Uni Knot to join lines that is how I do it now.

Great thread everyone. Good tip there Skip. I was advised to use Braid by a guide in Fla this past winter while fishing the ICW on the gulf for trout/reds/blues/pompano, etc. I was also sold flourocarbon leader material. The braid was 6lb diameter and 20lb test. Flourocarbon leader of 25lb test. Strong? YES...stretch...NONE. Good for sea trout? Well, if you have a rod with a forgiving tip, yes. Otherwise, as mentioned above, lighten your drag.

The only downside I saw was it is a necessity to manually close the bail and give a short pull against the drag pressure. This ensures NO loose coils of line to ball up. Believe me, you DO NOT want a birds next of braid to attempt to untangle. The other downside, for me, anyway, was joining the leader material with the smaller and more limp braid. Instructions said to twist an additional couple of loops before drawing the lines together and in dim light or windy days it was MAX EFFORT to get a good knot together.

Do any of you know of a post with step by step knot prep? I have seen them on this site and even burned copies of which I have carefully filed away, never to be located again! ha

Thnx for you interest and again, great thread.

Well, never thought this thread would get this much interest, but glad to see everyone's opinions. Again, the main reason that I took it off my customer's sticks was that if you're not use to braid, or for that matter, not use to fishing (which some of my customers aren't), complicating matters with a line that is very none forgiving is just something that I don't want to do. The limpness of the line, and it's tendency to wrap the tip of the rod, is not something that I want them to have to cope with, not to mention having to remind them to 'not' grab the line and pull when hung up. Otherwise, it's a great line for an experienced fisherman, and there is simply nothing on the market that is more sensitive.

BassnRoun I am not totally sure what you are looking for about knots, but here are some links for knots.
Hope these help!

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