Eeling with braid

[Steve K]

Hello,

I was wondering how many many of you sling eels with braid. I have only used mono and I was wondering if you have experienced any pitfalls.

Thanks

[tlapinski]

the only draw back i have found is that you feel every little movement of the eel. you can even feel the eel get excited when it begins to swim for its life! i am very happy with it.

[Saltheart]

I use 35 lb spectron on a BG6500CL or 6500CS Mag Elite for eeling. I like it. You got to have a good length of leader. It provides just a little shock absorber. You do fell every little twitch of the eel though but since you are not setting up fast when fishing live eels , that kind of distraction doesn't matter.

for rigged eels , braid is perfect since you want to nail anything you feel right away.

[capesams]

SALTHEART:

ARE you useing that braid on a glass or graphite rod ? I don't mind it on a glass, but I get alittle nervous when I put it on my good graphite. Ahhh! hense the long leader. I guess my reel ? to you is have you broken a graphite rod useing braid?

TX....steve

[JohnR]

He doesn't break the rods fighting the fish, all he does is trip & fall on them

[capesams]

YOU mean like me and my bike

[Saltheart]

Good question. I use graphite rods and Ambassaduer reels. I keep the drag at about 5 pounds (That's fairly loose compaired to the line I use and the rod capabilities) so as not to break anything and use my thumb for added drag. The mono leader helps a lot. You'd be surprised how much give even three feet of mono adds to the system and my leaders are usually anywhere from 8 to 12 feet when new.

One big thing is to not top stick the rod. Even with a low drag you can bust the rod if you bring it straight up. More rods are broken because of top sticking than by braid or any other reason. I bet the only thing that breaks more rods than top sticking is big Oafs like me falling on them!

[thewaterfordstriper]

i fish with fireline- 50# test on a 10' seeker. i have taken a few 40"-45" 30# + fish on it and have nothing but good luck. it is loaded on a 975 penn.

[thewaterfordstriper]

i forgot to say knock on wood....geez don't wanna ginkz myself.

[capesams]

SEEKER they make a good blank, right now I'm slinging herrin w/a seeker 6'6"-mag 6500cs-with 20# fireline . the other night I had a good size fish hit the herrin so hard and never stopped for a sec. it blew the spool up into a big birds nest. the line dug it self in so deep I had to stop fishin an go home to cut it out.

is that seeker of your's glass?