TOPIC:

Ive always used mono line on my trolling rods and i thought about trying braided line this year. I found a good deal on Sufix 832 30lb test / 8lb dia braided line. Would this be OK for trolling or is it over kill? Thanks.

Very good choice. No overkill. I use 40 pound braid for most of my rods and use 20 lb fluorocarbon as leader material. Not long ago I bought some 50 lb SeaKnight braid in a blue color from Amazon. You get near 550 yards for about 24 bucks. EXCELLENT line. Relatively soft 8 strand braid that is very, very slick. Should cut water well and make a great dipsey line.

I guess you would need to define trolling rods. Boards or dipsies? If so then absolutely. However, I would say 30lb is a little small. Not because of its strength but rather its size. Its so small that it will tend to dig on itself pretty easy when you have a decent fish. Ultimately I have settled on 50lb power pro for performance vs $$ reasons. I do however feel 832 is the best braid on the market. Its on the majority of my bass reels.

I use braid quite a lot, but not exclusively. It's thin and it is low stretch. Those are things to use to your advantage, not to overcome. I’ve heard of guys who troll with braid but put a snubber at the end of the line, then a leader. The snubber gives them a cushion. In essence, they are fighting against the no stretch. I’ve not had problems with break offs. I use limber rods and light drag settings.

Dirty says he uses 50 pound to gain thickness. No offense, but if one reason to use braid is to have a thin line, then buying higher test line to gain thickness is an oxymoron. (No, I’m not call you an oxy or the other word, Jeff.) I’ve not had any problems with braid digging into itself on the spool.

I use mono on my planer board lines.

Personal use of braid.
Twenty pound goes on my downrigger lines in the summer (anytime fishing deeper than 30 - 40 feet). Why?
1) Blowback - when I’m fishing 100 feet of water right on the bottom for trout I need to put out about 110-120 feet of downrigger wire to hit the bottom. With 20 pound mono, I need to put out 130-140.
2) Bow in the line - related to blowback. Same scenario - with 20 pound braid, my downrigged lines go into the water at a steep angle. I don’t have line counters on them but I’d guess a 100 feet down, I use 125 - 135 feet of braid rod tip to release. With 20 pound mono the line goes in at a low angle - quite a distance behind the boat and probably 150 - 180 feet of line, tip to release. More line - more bow, more potential tangles, especially if using sliders and when setting lines.
3) Tripping releases - Before braid, I’ve had guys break rods trying to trip a deep downrigger. Nothing wrong with the release. It’s just that you have to both stretch the line and straighten the bow in the line to get the yank at the top to transmit down the line and pull hard enough to release the line. With mono, a yank at the top is a tiny tug 100 feet deep.
4) Fun with fish. If you are used to fishing with mono, the first time you hook a trout 100 feet deep using braid, you’ll think you have a king on the line. With the mono-stretch, a fish can shake it’s head a foot or two back and forth 100 feet down and it feels like an inch or two at the rod tip.

Thirty pound line goes on all my diver reels - mono, braid or wire. I’ve used lighter line, but I’ve lost a lot of divers. With 30, I have divers which are 10 years old or more. I use mono in the spring when the divers are set on 3 to swim wide, rather than down and no more than 40 feet of line (often 15 or 20) between rod trip and diver. I switch to braid when I need to get the divers deeper. Thirty pound braid will pull a diver deeper than 40 or 50 pound test, with less line, or use the same amount of line and the 30 will dive deeper. Also, braid facilitates tripping the diver. Hercules can’t trip a mono diver with 150 feet of line out (bow and stretch). Little Bo Peep can trip a braid or wire diver easily with 250 feet of line out.

I often use braid as backing under copper or leadcore line. Here’s where I use the 40 and 50 pound braid. I’d rather lose the lure or the leader than the copper or core.

I have used many brands of braid. 832 is right at the top of my list, but I’ve had good luck with most all of it. I like the blue Coastal Camo color.

Thats correct, I use it for size and strength. Primarily as backing on coppers / leads. I also use it on a set of dipsies that are not wire. i do not use it on riggers or flat lines. If I did I would use smaller as you noted. In these applications that I do use it, I am not looking for the braid to be super small as it is no where near the fish. However, 50lb power pro is the size of 12lb mono, so still nice advantage. My primary reasons to utilize 50lb versus 20 lb are:

1) Dig in. This happened some on big fish. It was not constant, but makes that subsequent setting line a pain in the ass.
2) Overall strength. Braid performs horribly under shock. a large fish slams a dipsy like a freight train and your pushing limits. Certainly leaders / snubber helps, but sometimes not enough.
3) knot strength. Same reasons above. Also when tying knots, a bit larger braid ties easier, will be stronger, and last longer.
4) You have to buy a whole lot less when using as backer or on a dipsy and / or easier to manage when combined with another backer like mono.

Thanks for those detailed responses guys. I normally run 4 planer boards and 1 or 2 dipsys in my trolling setup. I see the benefits and disadvantages of braid line a bit clearer now.

When using braid with a Dipsey Diver (or wire line), Dirty is correct, you need to be using a snubber with it because of the zero stretch in the main line. Always, always, always. Also, the diver reel's drag should be set so it just barely holds tight against the pull of the diver. When any fish bigger than a perch hits the diver line, the drag should slip. One last tip, learn to tie the "double" palomar knot. In several tests, the DP knot proved to be the best line to lure knot for braided line. Works good on any strength braid.

Can a 4 lb fish break 10 lb line and the answer is yes. Dick Swan (most of us old timers remember Dick who pioneered noodle rods) used 2 and 4 lb test with noodle rods on his boat for steelhead in Lake Michigan. Long noodle rods with very slow rod action, increases the time that force is applied to the fishing line. Good reels with smooth drag (prevents high impact forces) are key for open water, when using light line. However a fish hooked in a creek or river with rocks, logs, etc is another matter because rocks can cut lines and fish can wrap the line around a log increasing the applied force applied. Snubbers on dispey divers reduce impact force by increasing the time force is applied to the fishing line.

Bruce

I didn’t read all replies but I use 65# braid for my high divers and wire on low. Smaller diameter goes deeper but for high divers I don’t necessarily want max depth. 30 - 50 braid is great for riggers. Backing for lead and copper 50 is my choice.

If you run braid for a rigger rod are you running it to the swivel? Or are you adding a short length of mono or flouro to the braid for a camo effect? I typically run a pure mono or mostly flouro line on my rigger rods.