Super lines

[AnthonyN]

I want to try out a braid but I am not sure which to try Whiplash looks like a good place to start but I was curious about the diameter lets say I pick up 80lb whiplash how thick would it be compared to mono????? I looked on berkleys site and it doesn't say the ratio to mono in diameter.I want a line with the same DIA. as 12lb test maybe up to 17lb.

Thanks

[Slipknot]

Anthony, I don't know what kind of reel you're using but that does matter, especially with the whiplash. I would suggest Fireline is a good line to start with. It actually isn't a braid but it doesn't stretch either. Fireline seems to be more friendly to the Penn reels. Whiplash tends to get alot of line twist unless you have a big and very freespinning line roller. If you are using it on conventional reels then the whiplash is good but hard to pick out backlashes. I use Cortland Spectron on my conv. like Saltheart and it seems ok to me. I use 65lb whiplash on a 7500 Neptune spinnning reel. and I use 14lb. Fireline on a Nautil 6500 spinning reel. I tie on my barrel swivels with a palomar knot.
Good Luck

[AnthonyN]

Damn i forgot about those!! I mess up from time to time and they show up. So i am gonna need a super line that is backlash friendly!! I am gonna put it on a shimano Corsair 400. So now I am looking for a backlash friendly 12 to 17lb DIA. 50 or 60lb actual strength line.

[JohnR]

Anthony, I don't do the super lines yet but I'm going to try the Cortland this year based on recomenddations. But I will say, if you are thinking about buying the Corsair, don't do it. If you just bought it and haven't fished it, return it for something different. All of the silver Corsairs SUCK. The mixed Gold/Silver I've heard are a lot better but the originals SUCK badly. I have a 300 which is awfull and I know a few people's 400s that did not survive active schoolie fishing let alone real big gals... You are much better off with a 6500 ABU with a couple tweaks then a Corsair reel, certainly the old style Corsair. It is not a cheaper cousin to the Calcutta. It'a complete imposter.... There are other reels worth considering in that price range too... Hell, some of us may even be selling some stuff this winter....

[Bob Senior]

I have Magibraid Spectra, 45#, on my Sealine-X 30 conv., and it's great stuff. It's flat, very greasy feeling, and a lot less prone to nasty backlashes than either Fireline or Spiderwire. I love Fireline in spinning reels; Spiderwire's coating comes off and gets messy looking, although there is no noticeable loss in strength.

What I like best about the braid and braid-like lines is the lack of stretch and small diameter. Some people hate it for the lack of stretch. The comparative value I've been advised to use is that braids average about the same diameter as a 60%-as-strong mono. Therefore, a 20# braid would be about the diameter of a 12# mono. But the different brands of braid seem to advertise somewhat different comparative size relationships with mono.

But all of them are hell to deal with when you get a knot, because your only choice is to cut it off and restring. The worst, IMHO, is when you create a wind knot with braid on a spinning reel, at the end of a long cast, that wraps around the outgoing line during the next cast.

Oh, and a braid backlash on a conv. will have you tossing an otherwise perfect Calcutta into the briny deep in a fit of pique.

Good luck.

[Bob Senior]

If the 60% rule applies to 80# Whiplash, then it would have the diameter of 48# mono. A braid with diameter similar to 17# mono would be around 28-30# braid. My best luck overall has been with 20# Fireline on spinning reels (SS4400 & 4500, Sustain 4000); Riptide 12# on Prion 1800; 45# Magibraid on conv. But that's me.

I use uni knots all around, and uni-to-uni to join any two lines together, whether it's mono to braid, braid to braid, or mono to mono.

[AnthonyN]

John you should have told me that two years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have only used it about 10 times because I bought it for no reason other than I had too much cash on me in the tackle shop. I used it twice this year pluggin for blues. On the second day I had a bad birds nest I fixed it casted out and all of a sudden when i would reel it would stop reeling like the drag would go on with almost no weight its hard to explain like when i was retriving my lure it would skip and not reel the lure as if the spool disconnects or something. But when there is no resistance its fine only with slight presure like retriving a 2oz kastmaster it got so bad that i lost my kastmaster in the rocks. I didn't think to much about it and i put it away for the season. I hope nothings wrong with it because i'll end up throwing it in the trash I'm not going to pay to fix a reel that i used 10 times and has no warranty. I am gonna throw some line on timmorow with a 3 oz sinker and see if the same problem occurs again. If so i'll end up buying one of those spider cast spinning reels instead. I thought the Corsair would be a cheaper version of the calcutta I got jipped!!!!!