SteveoTheTiger wrote:Thanks for that Nick, you are right its pretty confusing. Especially when one type is rated by diameter and the others by strength.
Here is a question:
Do you guys always stick to braid these days or do you still use mono for certain situations?
Hi Steveo,
While braid is good to use mono absolutely has it's advantages and yes I still use mono for some of the tougher fishing situations (well I was and still would if I had been fishing lately, but that’s a whole new story).
Braid/Fused lines have only a tiny bit of stretch in them, so little that you can’t actually feel it when trying to stretch a metre of it, and it is very sensitive to the smallest bump or nibble on which the inexperienced braid fisho would normally strike if using a mono.
Many fish are lost because the fisho didn’t give the fish enough time to actually take the bait properly and have had the hooks pulled straight out of the fish’s mouths as well as a whole host of other issues that come with using braids and fused lines.
You won’t find many Big Game fisho’s using Braid/Fused lines as they don’t have anywhere near the amount of stretch needed to fight, sustain the fight and to tire the fish out and then land a big bill fish like a marlin. Fish like these aren’t small timid biters like a shut down sneaky bream or trout, these bugger will bite and charge off, basically hooking themselves and its up to you to keep them on and tire them out.
A line that can stretch and take the initial shock of being hit is you best friend in nearly all fishing. Even braid/fused line users do use some amount of mono/fluoro leader.
But back to the question in hand,
When fishing among rough snags area's like oyster leases and off rocks, mono wins hands down. Braid / Fused will let you down time and time again the moment it touches a sharpish object and the braid has any tension on it. Braids / Fused are very hard to break or cut especially when limp but put tension on it and all you have to do is stroke it against something sharp and bingo you have separation.
If I am snapper fishing out of a boat in PPB ( not the south end down towards the heads )then I normally use 2 bait rods that are loaded with approx 15-17lb mono and a 30lb leader. I do this because with so little current flow that the mono’s actually sink better in the water, where the braid/fused lines float and tend to tangle over each other.
Also sometimes I use a stained light brown mono line when fishing in the Yarra around rough/sharp areas.
When open flats fishing for Bream or Whiting here in PPB or down towards Lakes Entrance a thin mono or fluorocarbon are great to use as they have a better translucency / transparency and much harder for the fish to see than a braided or fused super line.
The braid/fused line instead of being translucent are actually solid colours in the water and will leave a shadow in daylight as well as standing out, that is were a long leader is needed or use just plain mono/fluoro
There are no Braid / Fused lines that are anywhere close to matching a fluorocarbon or good clear mono for its ability to blend into the water, as even the so called clear super lines line Fireline Crystal or Stren Microfuse are white lines.
( in fact, dyneema starts off as white and they are dyed to give the lines the colours that the fisho’s think they want, like various Greens or Yellows to the now more wanted Red & Orange colours because we as fisho’s love the marketing hype surrounding some of these new releases,)
I am sure there have been lots of us here that have had their braids lose colour and become white once again.
These days you can get some great mono’s that have just the right amount of stretch and much better abrasion resistance than the superlines.
In ending this long post, in conclusion yes mono is still used for many situations,
Tight lines,
Nick