How hard is braid on your rod and reel? I’ve heard it will groove your guides. Is there a type of rod/reel that can handle braid better? I was thinking about getting a MH or H Berkley Lightning rod and putting a Black Max on it for this reason. If it’s going to wear out a combo it may as well be cheaper. I have 65lb braid on my frog pole , but have hardly fished it.
Most of your newer rods are equipped with harder guide rings that can withstand braid. Im sure some lower end stuff still will have trouble with it cutting grooves. Look for rods with SIC, hardaloy or alconite in their guides.
I have a Lightning rog for my braid rod and I have no problems with it because the guides on it are all metal so it helps IMO. If you bought the BPS graphite rod then you would definatly have problems with it. The reels to use I think should have some sort of quality to them. I wouldn’t buy a $30 reel and load it up with braid for fishing the slop.
I agree with twitch, most rods these days are built to handle a wide veriety of lines includint braid so just look for the guides he said SIC, alconite and hardaloy. As for reels a good quality reel is all you need but put a backer of mono on the spool first then use a uniknot or blood knot to connect your braid and spool up. The mono backer will keep the braid from cutting into the spool.
X4…I have a deepsouth flipping stick and use 65lb spiderwire. Never had a problem with it eating into the guide’s and I flip alot! I think, like they said the newer rod’s probably have more durable guide’s on them.
berkely came out with a superline rod last year i believe…. the lightning-something. i used braid, and loved it, had no trouble at all with it on my rod guides. but then i replaced it with flouro, and have regretted it since. havent had a chance to buy anymore lately, or i would have..
A friend of mine has used braid on a black max in the past. He is disabled, and fishes 5-7 days a week, I mention that because I want you to know he didnt spool up a reel and use it once a month or less. The guy puts a pounding on his gear. He uses BPS Extreme and Cranking rods exclusively, but I think most rods that are designed for braid will mention something in its discription that its eyes are built to handle all superlines. I think the rod diapers is refering to is the Berkley Shock rod. I almost bought one last year, but ended up making the jump to quantum instead. But Im sure if you did a little research you could find a quailty combo that can handle it with ease. Just a specualtion on my part, but if you put mono backing on the reel it should protect the spool side of the reel on a cheaper model.
Also try looking at one of the braids that is round instead of flat. PowerPro is good, fireline is also good and I hear the newer Suffix Braid is round also.
I use Sufix only, and I haven’t had a problem with it eating through anything. It’s a softer braid than most. You have to keep an eye on the last 4-5 feet or so because it starts to lose its color and become very visible, but a $2 pack of black dry erase markers can take care of that. IMO Sufix has the least amount of memory too.
Last year was my first time using a braid, fireline. I’m not very good with all the knots so I had the guys at Gander Mountain handle the backing and spooling up my reels. I had nothing but problems with wind knots all year last year, cost me way to much money. I think they did a shitty job filling my reels, so I don’t think fireline is bad but I can be hard on your fingers and hands if your not careful.
This year i’m trying Power Pro and took the time to learn the arbor knot and the uni knot and spool my own reels.
There is something out there that helps with braided line wanting to run back on itself. I use to have a lot of problems trying to cast a frog on braid. I’d cast and after several yards it wanted to knot up and the frog would come flying back at me. I found a bottle of braid-aid on ebay and gave it a shot. Used it this year and it is awesome. Silicone or Reel-Magic may do the same thing….......never tried either of them before this stuff.
I think one thing that helped with it not cutting into the spool was that when I went to make the next cast after I caught a fish or had one on, I would always try to make an easier cast and try not to overpower it.
Skeet said that he uses 30lb braid almost all the time..I found that interesting because so do I. 30lb seems to be the size that is the most managable and doesn’t dig into the reel
