Braid as a leader

[coraltrout68]

I was at the boat show on Friday and they had a speaker on talking about catching Barra in Dams.

He showed as a couple of the rods and rigs he used.

I was very interested in the use of braid as a leader.

Main line was Fireline 20 or 30 pounds with a 50 pound fireline leader (smoke colour).

Wondering if anyone else is using this type of set up?

How do you tie the two braids together?

I normally use an albright for fireline / mono leader - would this knot work?

Cheers

[Gutsy]

Even though fireline is strong, I would not recommend it as a leader material as it is not very abrasive resistant. I would have thought 20-50pd flourocarbon to be a better leader choice.

Cheers.

Marcel.

[mjc85]

Braid not abrasive resistant ? I though it was much more abrasive resistant that mono or am i wrong?

I thought the whole point of using mono was so the fish can't see the leader, so i would think that for dam fishing (usually merky water) you would get away with braid leader and he prob uses it because it has much less stretch which would result in better/higher rate of hookups ?

[tengals123]

mono is more resitant than braid for sure. Three point below are the main ones on why mono leaders are needed/recommended.
1. Braid is highly visable, mono is not.
2. Mono is way more abasive resitant.
3. Mono is easier to tie jigs to than braid.

cheers

[spinner]

I`ve been testing this out lately, fishing 30 and 50lb braid main line straight to the swivel on the front hook of a ganged hook rig for spanish macks.I used to always use a mono leader about 600mm. I`m sure some of them recognize that swivel about 600mm out from the bait as a danger. wish I could do without the swivel too.They dont seem to mind the braid though and this is top water fishing, not too many things to rub on.

Reggy

[basserman]

reggy join with a double uin knot reather than a swivel or if you do real real need on always use a black one so it doesn't shine

yep braid isn't good as a leader for a few resons the biggest one is it doesn't have abrasive resistance but secondly the low strech means more pulled hooks

[Fishinmishin]

Braid for Spanish :o. You must troll FAST or have 5 ganged hooks ;).
Cheers, Jay

[McCod]

mjc85... ya not wrong... Braid is more abrasive resistant per line diameter .... 1 mm diameter braid up against 1 mm diameter mono the braid is heaps stronger.... never used braid that thick and i guess it would be up around 200 lb strain ? Ever try to cut 50lb fireline? Fairly tuff stuff... not shore why ya would want to use it when fishing for impoudment Barra? Maybe to troll lures deeper? Trolling situations for barra it would be OK as you don't fish high drag settings... so the braid is harder to cut without high tensions. I think a heavy mono leader is more suitable as it gives a fair bit. And for cast & retrive at close quarters a rod length of heavy mono leader is a big help in absorbing the shock from the head shaking resulting with less hooks thrown... just my view ::)

Cheers Les

[damons33]

warren steptoe was the culprit!
hard to argue with warren seeing he is right 99% of the time.
it is more abrasion resistant, it dives deeper and is better for lure action.
damon

[spinner]

Jay
Use six hooks actually.only properly sharpen the last 2. I`ve found macks seem to take the rear half of a bait most times.sometimes just float baits out if theres a bit of run in water, just got to keep them coming once turned
Reggy

[hidden_agenda]

Braid not abrasive resistant ? I though it was much more abrasive resistant that mono or am i wrong?


For what it is worth braid is very resistant with a standard very sharp knife.
eg: Spectra gloves are made due to the anti cut properties when filleting..

Give the knife thing a try.. (without chopping yourself in half) :P

However a serated knife cuts braid with ease.

So if there is little in the way of structure or similar without serated edge then maybe braid has better durability in certain scenarios. eg: oysters, mussels, fish teef :)

Hence serated braid scissors are neccesary for cutting the product..

Fireline is a fused braid with a coating also. Maybe totally different in sructure to standard woven glespun spectra

[szopen]

I would also say that if you compare the diameter braid is more abrasion resistant, not quite fair to compare on line lb with braid being much thinner.

We should not forget that there are different types of braid and mono so what is correct for one might be wrong for another.

Braid to braid connection: as basserman said uni to uni knot.