Some Tips For Fishing Braided Line
Some Tips For Fishing Braided Line
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You don’t need a lot of braid on a flipping stick. If saving money is an issue for you spool the reel about half full of mono first and then attach the braid to it with back to back uniknots.
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Braid will slip on the spool if tied directly to the spool with an arbor knot. I prefer to spool a little mono back on and then connect the braid to it, but you can also wrap a singler layer of duct tape around the spool and let the braid dig into it. Either method works just fine.
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If you aren’t used to casting such heavy line be careful. You can break it easily under some circumstances. Don’t cinch the drag down to a dead stop and figure the line will handle anything. If you do that and set the hook on a stump you will probably break the line. Also you will tear the hook completely out of the fish while fighting it if you get a skin hook. Set the drag to slip on the hookset on about a 2lb fish. That seems to work for me.
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If flipping with braid use Daiichi X-Point HD hooks. You want the heavier hooks becuase you will striaghten out lighter hooks on snags and stuff. Once you bend a hook of any brand you should throw it away and tie on a new one because bending it loses most of its temper. You sure don’t want it straightening out on the fish of a lifetime.
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Tie your hook to the braid with a super improved clinch knot. Trilene Knot or a braid knot. A palomar works ok and won’t slip, but it is not as strong a knot in my opinion. If using the Trilene knot cinch it down by pulling the tag end down smoothly and firmly after wetting the entire knot with saliva. Then leave 1/4 to 3/8 of tag hanging off the knot. Sometimes it will cinch down a little tighter the first time you set the hook. The knot can slip a tiny bit when that happens.
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Even though your are fishing braid check your line regularly and retie periodically. You don’t need to do it as often as fishing mono, but you still need to do it. All things in use experience wear. Since I usually fish braid in pretty adverse conditions I cut 10-20 feet off when I retie.
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Never ever wrap braid line around your hand or any body part to pull it out of the brush when you get hung up. Include a “stump puller” in your gear. I use a piece of 1″ oak dowel wrapped in the middle with a couple wraps of duct tape. Its for when that irressistable force meets that immovable object. Basically when you bury a hook in a snag that won’t move and your only choice is to break the line. You can wrap the line around the strump puller several times and then you have a good solid safe handle to pull on it until it breaks or tears loose. NEVER wrap brad around your hand or arm. It will cut you bad. If you don’t have a stump puller you can loop the braid around a boat cleat and back off the boat, but my experience is that it breaks at the cleat instead of at the hook or bait most of the time. This wastes line and leaves a hazard in the water for outboard and trolling motor shaft seals.