Braid Tips

[Nebe]

One of the best tips i picked up along the way abut braid is this.. make sure to follow your plug out with the tip of your rod, so as it splashes down, your tip is down. This will help you get an extra foot or 3 on the cast as well. Once the plug splashes, flip the bail, lift the tip to 11:00 then reel in a few cranks.. this will take any slack out of the spool that would turn into a wind knot on the next cast. reeling in line under very little tension is the culprit with knots 90% of the time when I fish... dont know about anyone else.

[Redsoxticket]

Also, if the spool of braid appears to be loosely wrapped then remove the loose line by hand then reel in the line under tension.
I've casted the line out under these conditions, loose wrap, but it was to late. I'd had a feeling it was going to happen but I was trying to take the shortcut.

[beamie]

Originally Posted by Nebe

One of the best tips i picked up along the way abut braid is this.. make sure to follow your plug out with the tip of your rod, so as it splashes down, your tip is down. This will help you get an extra foot or 3 on the cast as well. Once the plug splashes, flip the bail, lift the tip to 11:00 then reel in a few cranks.. this will take any slack out of the spool that would turn into a wind knot on the next cast. reeling in line under very little tension is the culprit with knots 90% of the time when I fish... dont know about anyone else.

Eben is on line here imo. From what I have experienced all the wind knots originate at the beginning of the prior retrieve when the line has too much slack. You get that extra loop on the spool and then your next cast is You have to get that excess slack out before starting the retrieve.

[JFigliuolo]

Originally Posted by beamie

Eben is on line here imo. From what I have experienced all the wind knots originate at the beginning of the prior retrieve when the line has too much slack. You get that extra loop on the spool and then your next cast is You have to get that excess slack out before starting the retrieve.

OR...

When you flip the bail the line crosses the face of the spool.

[Back Beach]

I stopped using anything less than 30# PP braid for the reasons you mention. Nothing but trouble with it on spinning gear. 30# and up I've had no problems.

[zimmy]

I would definately check the line amount. Casting and such I'm sure has an effect, but 99% of the time if I have a problem it is right after a line change. I yank off a bit of line and the problem goes away.

As a note... I always close a bail manually (if the reel has one) and give a tug to make sure the line isn't looped over the spool. This becomes a second nature auto pilot kinda thing... Generally have no knot problems less those described above

[Flynny]

I used brad last year for the first time on some of my spinning reels (15# power pro). The first few times I was getting frequent knots, but I was also quite windy out. After that, never had any trouble and I will never go back to mono - in fact I am re-spooling my other spinning reels with braid for this year.