Mono Vs. Braid
 

Well there was a thread where flouro was pit against mono, now how about braid Vs. mono for the main line. Or the hybrid lines. Which ones do you use?

Ande BackCountry.

I really tried to embrace braid but in the end I hated it.I found no redeeming qualities other than no stretch and that even to me isn't all that great a quality sometimes.A lot of folks love it for the distance gained in casting but if I need to cast more than a football field I'll get a boat.

#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& and Piemma started touting the BackCountry sometime back and I discovered why last season.Fantastic line.

I'm a big fan of the braid personally... 50# PP for me. I hate mono now :laughs: except for for leaders. My love affair with braid began because I used to fish the canal almost exclusively... hence the Canalman moniker. It's castabilty is far superior to any mono at least as far as a spinning outfit goes... I don;t do convench... too many bird's nests :err: . When I began to get heavy into the surf.. I used mono for a while and then I tried braid again... I'm a big fan of drifting live eels and plugs into the dropping current of river and inlet mouths... mono just does not work for this application. In the rocks, I have been cut off and lost a few real nice fish but then we started using 15' mono leaders... haven't had a breakoff since. The sensitivity is nice for eeling, great for jigging and you don;t have to work too hard to work a plug either. All around great line IMHO plus mono feels like a figgen elastic band... can't even feel the fish anymore :laughs:... now that I've used braid for so long.

-Dave

Basswipe- why do you like the backcountry?

LOW memory and excellent abrasion resistance.I also seem to get less line twist over time as compared to other mono lines.Those three qualities alone make it awesome on spinning reels.Its also less expensive than other mono lines.

Yo-Zuri hybrid is great too.But price makes it less desirable than the BackCountry.

There's no shortage of opinions on this subject matter and IMHO, there is no best answer. I only suggest you do what works best for you. Having said that, here's what I do.

Light tackle spinning (shoolies, weakfish, blues)-Braid is fine and I prefer it.

Conventional/Baitcasting (eels/plugs) and looking for Large in the rocks -I prefer Mono (Ande Backcounry)

Heavier spin when hunting the big girls (eels/plugs) -I prefer Mono (Ande Backcounry)

I fish the rocks a lot, so for me it's mono over braid under those conditions. If I fished Sandy beaches, I might reconsider.

Easy, off the surf 20lb Fireline....Off the boat 50lb Stren Superbraid or Suffix....

I haven't been fishing that long and last season I used 30 lb pp for the first time. I definitly lost a couple of decent fish by I think ripping the hook out of its mouth. Once I turned the drag to a bit looser I lost far fewer fish. I'm still on the fence if I will use it again this year. The castability is freakin awesome but I do like the stretch of the mono.

Most of my fishing is done on a flat with lots of mussels and rocks, I troll eels with an electric motor, mostly on conventional tackle, I used to have to change the mono once a week, during hot fishing every night! since I switched to 50lb PP, My problems are over, I'd be changeing the leaders often anyway so keeping the main line intact is HUGE.....