The Best Uses for Braided Line

Braided line has become increasingly popular over the past decade or so, and its growing popularity can be attributed to anglers' creative approach to the line! Here are three tactics where braid excels, and the knots you need to know to use them!

Frogging

It is no secret that you can catch big, mean bass by fishing the thickest, nastiest slop. When throwing a hollow-bodied frog or a soft plastic toad around heavy vegetation, braided line (50lb to 65lb) is an absolute must for winching swamp donkeys out of their lair. Try a Palomar knot to connect your line to the hook eye, and make sure to wet the line before cinching the knot.

Flipping and punching

If you are fishing a field of lily-pads or stumps, or punching a heavy weight through matted vegetation, braided line can help you set the hook and muscle the fish to the boat before it has a chance to throw the hook. Many anglers use bulky, heavy tungsten weights with this technique, which are so big that they can "blow" a fish's mouth open when you set the hook. Hooksets are difficult and anglers can even miss fish if they tie a traditional Palomar or improved clinch knot. Instead, when using a heavy weight and a thick gauged flipping hook, try tying a Snell knot. The Snell knot will improve your hookup ratio tremendously because, upon hookset, the point of the hook is driven outward, so that there is a greater chance of hooking a fish, even if its mouth was blown open by the large weight.

Finesse

Recently, more and more anglers have opted to use braid in finesse fishing situations. Braid is incredibly sensitive and has virtually no stretch, which makes it ideal for fishing small lures in even windy conditions. 10lb to 15 lb braid has an incredibly thin diameter, which makes it perfect for finesse tactics. However, finesse fishing is common in crystal clear waters, and braided line is much easier for fish to see than monofilament or fluorocarbon. For that reason, anglers can tie a 4-8 foot leader of fluorocarbon onto their braid main line. There are a number of line-to-line knots you can use, but a Modified Albright is easy to tie and has a very high breakage strength, even when tying two different types of lines.So this month, take your Spiderwire Stealth Braid and try one of these tactics. Tight lines!