The Dreaded Braid Loop

[gottaflylee]

It seems that a lot of people are afraid of using braid. I think that comes from not understanding how it works and why it does the things it does, as well as not being able to untangle the loops of the line. Remember that it is loops of line over it's self, not knots...never pull it tight!!!



The loop that comes off the inter spool is one of the most common problems with braid and happens for 3 main reasons.

First having to much line on the spool or overloading the spool with line. I like to have at least 1/8 to 3/16" of spool showing...



Second, comes from closing the bail of the spinning reel with the handle instead of manually closing it with your hand and having line lay over the top of the spool, sorry no picture of that...

Third is putting lose line on the spool. This comes from a couple of things, The end of the cast with the slack line as the lure hits the water or casting into the wind and the line blowing back at you. If you are aware of what is happing to your line, most of this can be avoided.

Most of the time I see people grab the line above the reel and dumping line into the boat on top of more line, only to find that they wind up with more of a mess than they started with, or they will try to cast the loop off the real, only to have the loop grab the main line and tangle it more, in turn, they end up hating braid.

If you will place the rod into a rod holder, preferably on the down wind side of the boat and slowly pull the line off the rod tip,



placing the line into the water,



most of the time the loop will not grab the main line and get tangled more and the loop will come out easily. With the loose line in the water there is less chance that it will become tangled when putting it back on the reel...

Hope this helps you guys some, more tips with braid later...

[Backwater]

Those are some great tips. My son used one of my rods w/ power pro on it, got a loop and pulled until it was one big knot. It was at the end of a long cast and wasted the whole spool.

[clt_capt]

Very nice tip. Thanks

[SeaBiscuit]

Just yesterday Slip and I were discussing how braid has changed (for the better) the way we fish. I consider it the greatest advancement in bottom fishing since....reels?
there are unique problems with braid with the loops captain Lee spoke off one of the most difficult. Tight spooling a reel another. Extreme weakening of line by abrasion yet another.
However, there is no way that fishing is going back to mono, ever! I held a flounder rod with mono over the weekend and felt totally unable to "understand" the bait.

Good post captain Lee.

SeaBiscuit

[Bird Dog]

Good tip, Lee. When I first started using braid this seemed to happen a lot. One thing I try to do is close the bail (by hand) before the bait hits the water so it gives you that tension you need.

[btglenn]

To add to the info, I always have the most problem when Im really trying to finesse weary fish that arent hungry with small light baits. In this case wind knots are sometimes unavoidable and you just learn to get them out w/o breaking the line. But matching your reel size and rod with the baits you are throwing really helps me. It also helps with your casting distance. This seems like common sense but I see more people than not using huge tackle for what they are trying to accomplish.

Mono still has its advantages, all though few, if you have the time and $ to have mono and braid reels/spools. Mainly treble hook applications. A good smooth drag set a bit looser can do about the same thing though...

[shunt]

Capt Lee or others,

Have you found a good solution (knot/connection I guess) for using a heavier mono shock leader with braid. I am talking mainly spinning gear here as I don't use braid on my casting gear for thowing hard. Specfically the situations where you want a true shock leader long enough to have several wraps around the spool for casting purposes. An example would be boat bait fishing for tarpon or old drum where you want the shock leader for casting as well as for boat-side handling. I have tried several knots/connections (bimini to no-name, albertos, uni to uni, etc.), but inevitably, the when you leave an adequate length of tag end from the heavier mono shock leader for the knot to hold up, the mono tag will grab braid and pull it off of of the spool at times.

Scott

[gottaflylee]

Capt Lee or others,

Have you found a good solution (knot/connection I guess) for using a heavier mono shock leader with braid. I am talking mainly spinning gear here as I don't use braid on my casting gear for thowing hard. Specfically the situations where you want a true shock leader long enough to have several wraps around the spool for casting purposes. An example would be boat bait fishing for tarpon or old drum where you want the shock leader for casting as well as for boat-side handling. I have tried several knots/connections (bimini to no-name, albertos, uni to uni, etc.), but inevitably, the when you leave an adequate length of tag end from the heavier mono shock leader for the knot to hold up, the mono tag will grab braid and pull it off of of the spool at times.

Scott

One thing that I have learned about braid is, you can trim your knots a lot closer that you think when you tie a good knot... Try trimming some very close and give them a test, pull them tight before you do the trimming.
One more thing, only moisten the mono of the knot, not the braid...

[Squid]

Capt Lee or others,

Have you found a good solution (knot/connection I guess) for using a heavier mono shock leader with braid. I am talking mainly spinning gear here as I don't use braid on my casting gear for thowing hard. Specfically the situations where you want a true shock leader long enough to have several wraps around the spool for casting purposes. An example would be boat bait fishing for tarpon or old drum where you want the shock leader for casting as well as for boat-side handling. I have tried several knots/connections (bimini to no-name, albertos, uni to uni, etc.), but inevitably, the when you leave an adequate length of tag end from the heavier mono shock leader for the knot to hold up, the mono tag will grab braid and pull it off of of the spool at times.

Scott

Hey Scott,
Do a search on here for a thread I put up a while back called the "Sebile Knot". I think this will solve your problem. It's a VERY slim knot that you can easily tie braid to heavy mono/fluoro. If you have any questions after you watch my video, give me a shout.
Bryan