#1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

TackleNut
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#1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by TackleNut » Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:40 am

Hi All,

I know that there are still many fisho's ( as well as charter boats ) out there that use mono for snapper fishing in a large part PPB as it is one place were we don't get strong tides and mono is the preferred line to use in these parts as it doesn't float around & get tangled with the other rods & lines when multiple bait rods are used out of the boat plus the cost of having 4 or more rods that are filled with braid does get initially prohibitive for many as price does come into factor for quite a number of fisho's.

And before some members jump up and down about how braid outlasts mono, yes we all know that it should but sometimes we put our braids in harms way and they are not all that abrasive resistant, not that there is all that much to rub against in the middle of the bay.
I used to know a number of charter operators that wouldn’t use braid on the outfits that they supplied, due to many reasons, with the main reasons being that they didn’t want or need any of their customers cutting themselves up on their fingers by having the braid rubbing against them and the other main reason was cost. In the past a number of charter operators had horror stories to tell about their clients getting cut up by the braid and all the tangles was just not worth it.

Is there a preferred colour that you use/used ?
My preference was a mix between 2 lines, one was called Berkley Premium which they later changed names to Berkley Sensation in a Hi Viz Gold that was photo chromic meaning that in that it was gold above the water so you could easily see it and then changes to clear when it was in the water, similar to the glasses that some people wear that darken when in the sunlight, as well as a red coloured line called, which was supposed to be the 1st colour to disappear under water., it used to be one of the most popular among the true snapper fisho’s. Then of course quite a few red lines come out due to this lines popularity.

When I was younger I also used clear & some darkish green lines but in bright light they were hard for me to see where I had cast them and I started to struggle to keep an eye out for them.
Funny how when I 1st started snapper fishing that I was told to use 30lb, or if you were a gambler and didn’t mind to lose a fish use 25lb line. Yes that’s how it was done and just shows how much we have progressed in our fishing
I can recall that nothing was lost due to line breakage of the 25lb or 30lb but the fish were much fewer.
20lb then became normal for many and brought in more & bigger fish than ever before and there it stopped for a while as that was the time that they were allowed to start scallop dredging the bay and just about killed it off, as the snapper and many other fish just didn’t come into the bay anymore as there was no food left for them.
Luckily the dredging was halted after a number of very poor fishing years and the bay slowly recovered and the fish came back over time.
When the snapper fishing returned to some normality, many of us felt that these new fish didn’t warrant as heavy a line and then started to use 17lb down to 14lb and that’s when the braided lines came on full bore and quickly pushed mono lines off many shelves and was touted as the bees knees of line.

But still today, mono is used by many older fisho & younger ones as well as they just wouldn’t change over to braids due to the price or had difficulty using it as it as it bellied up on the top of the water & tangled with other line, while many found that their knot’s slipped and gave way.
We had to learn how to tie these new gel spun superlines as they were just that slippery compared to the mono.

Personally I would still use mono, for many uses especially in slow water, but I have to admit that I became one of the braid nuts long before it became the trend.

So what’s your story/history with using these lines ???

Regards
Tacklenut

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#1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by sloth » Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:26 am

Hi TN - great post.

I'm a landbased fisho - started on fly and game (trout) in the UK. Only dabbled with a bit of spinning and float fishing but that was all mono - I can't even remember if braid was around then but as a kid it was more a case of fish with whatever you had :)

I only lure fish by the way so this all from that perspective.


After a looooong break picked up fishing again in the last year and specifically breaming and it's been braid and fluorocarbon all the way. Obviously I use the internet to source a lot of info and you're right - these days mono hardly gets a look in. When I researched what was going on these days it was braids, braid, braid and if not braid then it was straight through fluorocarbon in light (3 or 4lb) for finesse fishing.

As I only fish the estuaries I'm fishing lightish (8lb) braid. I could go lighter but 8lb is a nice sweet spot for me - not too thin and I can keep windknots to a minimum. As I get better at line management I may drop down a little.

I like the braid for the fact it's zero memory and for the sensitivity more than anything. I fish in 8 - 10m of water usually and working the bottom with braid I can feel a lot more than if I do with fluorocarbon (and if guess mono). The fluorocarbon I use for crankbaiting the shallows. Braid for deep water or soft plastics. Always an fluorocarbon leader with the braid.

I have little experience with mono but essentially no one really mentions it for breaming so it was never a consideration. On many sites/forums you don't often hear it being mentioned or recommended so as a relative newcomer to the sport again it just gets overlooked completely.

The two times I've got onto the pink ones by accident - braid. So I can definitely say for snapper fishing I have a 100% track record of braid and soft plastics :)
Last edited by sloth on Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by ducky » Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:31 am

Any ppb snapper fisho worth his salt uses mono. Somewhere around 6kg

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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by sloth » Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:34 am

In blaming the early morning and sleep deprivation in talking about bream :)

I'm interested to hear though the pros for mono though - as I've mentioned I've never heard it get much of a look in. Does it have any place in soft plastic or lure fishing or is it a benefit for bait fishing?

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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by ducky » Sun Jun 22, 2014 7:40 am

Bait fishing. Because you free line baits with little to no weight and lines constantly cross braid is an absolute nightmare to manage. This is one of the scenarios where mono dominates braid.

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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by cheaterparts » Sun Jun 22, 2014 8:07 am

I dont fish PPB much but for my PPB snapper I use my Westernport whiting gear which is cheap 10 lb braid on small $13 Ebay reels ( I'm upgrading the reels soon as they are 2 year old now )

I can float between plastics and bait with these - largest PPB snapper has been 5.4 Kg off Sunnyside in 16 meters and the 10 lb was more than enought to handle that

I use Mono in Westernport and that is normal 20 Lb and the largest has been 8.5 Kg out from coronet bay
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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by nafa » Sun Jun 22, 2014 9:08 am

I have been using mono for over 30 years and I guess that the old adage if it aint broke don't fix it comes into play. Have only recently got back into fishing after a long break and went back to the old methods that I had learnt from my father as they were a bit like a pair of old comfortable shoes they just seemed to fit right. I have had zero experience with braid but have heard that it does not resist abrasion well. I do a lot of my fishing of the rocks and are reluctant to try it for this very reason. Not to mention I was reluctant to have to learn new knots etc when I was starting up again when I was wanting to keep it as simple as I could. However never say never, since I have been on this forum I have noticed the popularity of braid so it must have something going for it.

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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by blacklab99 » Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:15 am

definitely a mono man thru and thru...................
around 6kg, I do have some gear with braid, but its interesting when I recently headed north to target kingies and I was told that I wouldn't have any success jigging unless I used braid !!!! coming from n.z where the kingies are as prolific as snapper in season out in the bay, even my explanation and my past experiences, 20 odd years chasing kings back home, biggest was a tad under 70 odd pound, the response was still " youll never successfully catch em on mono as you will on braid "
I have nothing against braid, it has its advantages, but if it aint broke, no need to fix it.
new technology will always come to us, and braid is one of them, for me, it just doesn't feel right, for a lot, that's all they've fished with.
good and bad with everything i guess.......

col

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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by DougieK » Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:14 pm

Other than what duckster has already talked about, what is the advantage to using a mono rather than a braid, particularly from a land based situation?

I fish 90% lures and use exclusively braid, but i'm getting more interested in bait fishing, especially at Martha and in the brighton area for snapper, is there an advantage to using mono?
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Re: #1 Snapper fishng line in PPB used to be mono in my time

Post by mazman » Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:20 pm

i had only used mono until earlier this year when I bought some braid and even now I only have it on my SP outfit and my surf spinning. other than that i still use mono for everything
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