Maybe this has been covered before but I will bring it up again. It just dawned on me why, I think I had some trouble last week with 50lb. spectron digging in and the snapping on a cast. I was really tossing 4 oz jigs hard and I only used a 25" leader to a barrel swivel tied to the braid. So I guess my mistake was not using a mono shock leader tied with an albright and long enough to wrap the spool and cover it. Does this sound correct?

Oh ya, this is on a conv. reel. I never have problems like that with spinning reels.

Slipknot, I don't generally have any trouble with the Spectron digging in unless I break off after a snag. You may want to check and see if your line is spooled tightly enough if it is digging in on the cast.

Thanks Fishpart, are you using a long shock leader or just a short leader like I was? I thought I spooled it on tight enough, could be from retrieving line that it went back on looser I don't know. I may have to go back to mono.

As Fishpart mentioned , I never have trouble with spectron digging in unless its the first cast after breaking off from a bottom snag. A longer leader will help the snapping off part but won't cahnge the diggung in part. Are you sure its "digging in" or are you just getting an overrun from a momentary jerk in your casting action.?

Since you're nice enough to bring the grill :) , bring the reel Sat and I'll take a look at it and also do some casting with you to look and see what might be going wrong. If we have time I'll show you my Kamikaze Jigging technique too. You get lots of fish but risk losing lots of jigs. :)

Spectron will dig in unless you can clamp the spool absolutly motionless when you pull back to break off. Anticipate it happening on the next cast, and don't throw "balls-to-the-wall". If you're ready with the thumb, you may not even backlash. Since 50# Spectron is as thick as 80# Whiplash, I wonder what it really tests out at? I know 30# Big game leader breaks before 35# Spectron, and 30# mono tests out way over 30 pounds in actual breaking strength. certainly closer to 40 maybe even 50..

Braid is not too much of a problem on spinning gear, but it can cost you some gear on conventional, at least until you know your limits...or your reels. Unless you have a well educated thumb or have the reel's anti-backlash control set perfect an occassional backlash is likely. My experience with 30/6 spiderwire is that it's very likely you might loose what's on the business end if you backlash during a hard cast.

Ironic, because if you snag and wrap the line around a billy club (don't use your hands if you value them) and back the boat up using the trolling motor, it's damn hard to break the stuff and I'll bet it's breaking closer to 75lbs. Good advice on the feeling out the reel if you've had a backlash, go easy on the next cast.

While we are on the topic of spectron, how does it do on the Penn SS series? Also, the Cortland website says the 50 is equal to 12 lb test, what would the 35 be equal to? 8?

Thanks,