Braid or no braid?

[mcheck]

i personally have never used braid. i recently purchased a used pole and it is spooled with braid, and i am not sure what size. it is a fenwick fishstik graphite rod 7 ft, says 30-50# line, and a abu garcia ambasadur big game reel. i am hoping to use this pole for Yellowtail and maybe some albi's when they come but am not sure what to do with the braid? should i leave it and run it strait? take it off? or topshot it with something?

any help and or comments will be greatly appriciated. thanks alot.

[scorch]

What kind of reel? Rod? Might give some indication of the size of braid and you might get useful information. Hard to give you answers without more information?

[mcheck]

i added more info to original post. thanks

[Double Z]

Take it to a tackle shop and have it stripped to the spool. You can re-use it if you want but never trust another mans knot. I lost a T a couple years ago because of it. I'd re-spool just to be safe.

[mcheck]

does braid go bad?

[mcheck]

no love huh?

[Echo Island]

the braid could be fine. have someone figure out the diameter and the rating. if's it's faded, it's probably been on there a while and you might want to change it, but braid is only what i fish with. doesn't really go bad unless it's frayed or chewed up. if you need some stretch, put on a shock leader.

[mcheck]

i am new to this braid stuff, can u run braid strait with maybe a 3 or 4 foot leader? if so what kind of line should the leader be? someone said there was two different lines but i cant rename them off the top of my head.

did i get ripped off? i bot the pole, and reel spooled combo for $80

[scorch]

I don't think you got ripped. But, I wouldn't have confidence in the rig unless I knew for sure what kind of line was on it. I would second the motion to strip it and take it in and have it respooled.

I have never handled one of those reels. Looked it up and there appear to be 3 versions of that reel. Looks like the largest is rated for 20lb. My guess would be that you could put 40lb braid on in no problem. Best bet is to take it in to Kevan at Noah's and get his thought on it.

I have several reels that I use with nothing but Spectra and a short topshot. I recently purchased an Avet MXJ. I had it spooled with 40lb Spectra, 340 yds if I remember correctly. To that I add @6ft of florocarbon, 20-40lb, depending on the situation. I took it to the rockpile and nado's last week. I used @6ft of 30lb and brought home 6 good Yellowtail. Worked like a charm. With the Spectra and floro leader I could really feel the sardine. If the sardine was starting to get exicted about something you can feel it immediatley. I like it.

I also have a couple of larger reels, various makes, that I spooled the same way for winter time bottom critters. Same thing. With straight spectra and floro leader you can really feel the bites.

If you do this there are several things that you will have to rethink. Knots/connections are one. Do a search here and you will find a lot of info.

Stretch and drag settings are another. Spectra, with a short floro topshot will give you NO stretch like your mono does. This combination does not have the shock absorbing qualities that mono does. You need to fish it accordingly. Again, do a search on spectra and you will learn a lot.

While you are searching for answers to your questions you will also learn that Spectra lasts a long time. Years. I've been running it on some of my reels for 3 yrs now. I check it regularly but have not seen a need to replace any of it yet. Washing spectra is an issue.

Most of my fishing is done from the sport boats. Spectra can be a pain in the ass on these trips. Spectra tangles are a royal pain in the ass to get undone. I have not met a deck hand yet that will own up to liking the stuff. Whoever is fishing spectra seems to get blamed for the tangle too. Be ready for that. My experience tells me that is BS. Most tangles are caused by the jackass on the other rod that does not mind their line. They will but a 50 yard belly in their line and then can not understand why they keep getting tangled. Or they don't look where they are casting and will cast over a dozen lines to get to the paddy. It is much easier to keep a tight line while flylining a sardine with spectra than it is with mono. IMO.

Search, search, and search some more. You will find the answers to your questions and a lot more.

Best of luck.

[crazy hawaiian]

Originally Posted by mcheck

does braid go bad?

Braid put on baitcasting reel over 7 years ago still working well.

And it's faded, but that has nothing to do with performance.

Use fluro leader.