Hi Guys
I wanted to share my thoughts on braid there seems to be a lot of confusion and misdirection about the pros and cons of various braids.
The aim here isn’t to rubbish any one brand just to give a general overview of what to expect. Of the braid I have in the pictures I have either used it in the past or I’m currently using it on one of my rigs or I have experience with them being fished first hand on the charter boats.
In my eyes braid can be divided into 3 categories American, Japanese and Hollow Core ie Jerry Brown, buy crap from china at your own peril I personally wouldn’t use it to clean my toe nails.
First up is the American made stuff they refer to braid as Spectra, Superline, Gelspun line and a few other things but its all the same. They have a ton of different brands the most popular are probably Tuffline and Power Pro which is owned by Shimano and so heavily promoted by them. Other names that crop up often are Spider Wire and Gatorbraid. The American Market is a tough place they make good products but the public demand that it comes at the right price. For this reason there braids are a little “rough” to the touch they generally have an almost crinkly feel to them. When you fish with them extensively you will begin to notice that the line makes the rod and reel hum on the retrieve. This doesn’t affect the strength of the line in any way and make no perceptible difference in casting as far as I can tell in fact most American made braids will test far higher than the given rating which can cause havoc if you are after IGFA records or fish IGFA events. Their braids tend to have a flatter profile so if you like to stich loops it’s a good choice of braid, in my eyes the major pro of the American stuff is the price point it’s not as refined as the Japanese lines but it’s a lot more affordable for the average guy
Good old Power Pro
Tuffline also good stuff as you can see this is the indicator version for jigging the only difference between Jigging and casting lines is the dye job Jigging lines cost more as the dye job is more complex.
I’m a big fan of Japanese gear whether its rods reels line or lures and for good reason they make the most amazing stuff out there. The Japanese work on a PE rating system which is a throwback from the silk trade. The PE rating of a line is its diameter so the same way the R&S guys talk about using .45 or .5 the Japs talk about PE. As a general rule of thumb you can add 20 lbs and a zero to the PE rating to have an idea of the breaking strain so PE6 + 20lbs is 80lbs but here is where it gets tricky a 4 weave PE4 can have a breaking strain of 40lbs while an 8 weave PE4 can go as high as 65lbs in a good quality line yet they are the same diameter so stay away from 4x weaves. Japanese lines generally pack more fibres into a tighter weave than other lines so they are smoother, stronger, and rounder and more supple Which means they have better shock absorption and casting properties it also means you pay a lot more though. But as with all things you get good and not so good PE lines the more you pay the better it is just check the box they all have breaking strains in kilos on them as well.
Sesame PE Premuim my favourite PE line for jigging and casting its expensive but durable and worth the bucks.
Sunline Monster Battle probably the most highly rated PE line in GT Circles but look at the price and weep gently into your tackle box
*edit* to get the maximum life span and value from your braid make sure to rinse it well before long storage to remove salt crystals, when its starting to look shoddy or you feel it needs replacing rather buying a new spool reverse what you have on, add a bit of Mono backing to make up any lost space I generally fish 2 years on a spool of line unless I have a brain fart and absolutely have to try the newest greatest stuff.
Hollow Core deserves its own paragraph as it allows you to do things other lines can’t. Hollow is exactly like nylon ski rope you can force a pencil through the middle of a ski rope open it up and feed the end in to get a 100% loop. You can do exactly the same with Hollow though not with a pencil! Because of this you can make loops to tie knots instead of Biminis, Make 100% catspaws for wind on leaders and my favourite thing is you can splice new line onto the spool and have a guaranteed 100% connection that is almost impossible to detect, I actually mark my connections with a permanent marker so I can find them again. So you can fish a whole season and just replace the first 70 meters of your spool each year or if you repeatedly get reefed it’s easy to top up again. Its also a stupidly strong line although its diameter is larger than PE lines and is responsible for more than a few broken rods especially with the cowboy brigade who go popping with 200LB HC and bolted down drags. Sadly it’s not all rays of sunshine and happiness. I find anything below 80lb a pain to deal as it gets really finicky making loops and connections and I would rather be fishing, It absorbs a lot of water which affects your casting and I have also had it dig in on the spool far more than other lines as it can pack onto the spool very loosely if you don’t fish it with vigor or spend a bit of time each session making sure its packed tight. But I would still highly recommend it. The pricing is reasonable especially when you take into account the fact that you can splice new sections on almost indefinitely.
*edit* Don't use Hollow core for Jigging it won't make your rod explode or anything but it has a lot of drag compared to normal braid so it'll tire you out and your jigs will take longer to hit the bottom.
Jerry Brown Hollow Core the best of the HC Lines although Power Pro makes good one too.
I hope that helps you in some way on your next trip to the tackle shop to spend those hard earned Ronts!
