[Mr. Sandman]

IMO Not all spin reels are braid friendly. IMO the slower the motion of the spool (up and down) on retrieve the better for braid.

I have it on most of my spinners now (up from last year when it was on just my higher end gear) and I suffered my first PP blow up last night but have a 2nd spool of mono too.. So far this is how I rate them:

Shimano Stella's: *very* braid friendly, **never** have an a problem with it. (and I use the 6000 almost every day)

Shimono Baitruners 4500 and 3500: fair to OK, They work but you will have the sluffing off and the digging in now and agian..I do not advise braid on these but you can get buy with it.

Penn live liners. Actaully these seem to work better with braid then the Shimano baitrunners (for me anyway) I have it on 2 reels the small one (3500? ) and the large one (4700?) (cant reall the numbers). ANyway, this is not a perfect set up but these work ok. I only wish the reel was better. I have caught 30#+ bass on the little 3500 with 30# braid on a 8' st croix (17# class). This little set up casts a jig like a bullet!

I just pick up two Shimano Thunnus baitrunners and put PP on them....we well see the story is still out as I have only used for a
short time them one trip so far. (so far so good) Nice reel though!

I also tried braid once on a penn 550 or 650 (can't recall). It did not turn out so great and went back mono.

Conventionals all seem fine with braid. Penn 975's the AvetSX and several larger penns all seem to work fine.


I plan to try the new stren braid on the Shimano baitrunners I am having a little trouble with.

I have a couple of okumas but they just have mono and are mainly rods my kids use for small fish. (scup/blues/school bass ect)


I hate to say this but so far I think the most expensive reels seem to work better with braid. Like I said I really think the stella which has an ultra slow spool motion designed for braid stacks the line neatly (like rope on a spool), so when you cast it comes off nice and evenly. Faster spool motions tend to wrap the line on the spool and not stack it, as the line traverses up and down the spool quickly, so when you cast the slippery line is having trouble comming off the spool in an orderly manner. This is the best way I can explain it.

I hear it works well with the VS as well.

These are just my oberservations. Your milage may (will) vary with reel and line. You need to experiement and talk to others you trust.

I was asked...why not just use mono? I do use mono on certain reels but The connection and solid feel, thin dia is so wonderful that the good out weighs the bad 10:1. For example,I was 3-waying with a buddy the other night. (fishing...not sex) anyay, he had mono, I had braid, he needed 8 oz and was having troulbe holding bottom. I had 4 and was fishing almost straight down...more then enough. I could have fished 3 oz.
The feeling when a big bass hits on braid has to be felt and not described, it nearly pulls the rod right from your hand.

good luck