Braided VS Mono

I recently spent the extra $$$ for the power pro depth hunter braid... and to be honest I am a fan so far... I also like gear as much as musicians like heroin... sooo take it for what its worth.

from a more technical standpoint i think there is something to be said about fluorocarbon in this discussion as well... a lot of the guys in this thread are right that using a mono top shot with a little stretch is a good idea... for me most of these scenarios are coming from a guy surrounded by trout and I run a 12 pound fluoro top shot on all of my "light" setups for trout to that I run a 20lb power pro braid. I also run 30lb braid to a 15lb fluoro top shot for lake trout... i find that the sensitivity i get from fluorocarbon is worth it when jigging or fishing in water with 20' of visibility. in the ocean the fish arent as line shy.  on the bass fishing side of things i will run mono on setups like carolina rigs because it floats and gives the bait a little bit more freedom in movement on the bottom. again... if I am fishing a place like Shasta where I am in super clear water I will drop the mono for the fluoro...

as far as braid damaging guides... buy nice dont buy twice is my answer. if you are putting 20 bucks of braid on a 20 dollar combo set up well... you are asking for problems. so if I was on that kind of budget I would run mono.

I really like flourocarbon. My perception is that it's not as popular in this region and I'm not sure why. 90% of the time I'm using flouro leader on whatever my setup is. I haven't found anything better for abrasion resistance, and of course the transparency is hard to beat. It doesn't have to break the bank, either. You can run cheap mono and then just a couple of feet of flouro at the end and get a lot of benefit.

Redbeard i think the reason to what you said regarding fluoro is that a lot of guys in this forum that are active are also people that spend a lot of time trolling... mono is a superior choice to fluoro in a trolling scenario in my opinion... it is a bit more forgiving on the hook set. there isnt a guy that seriously targets bass that is not using fluorocarbon... but you can tell by the topics in our threads that there isnt that many of those in here that are actively posting.

Yeah, good point. Trolling is super prevalent here. Still, why not run some flouro at your terminal tackle?

Yeah, good point. Trolling is super prevalent here. Still, why not run some flouro at your terminal tackle?

Just not needed for the most part when trolling? Fish are coming up from behind the lure so typically not leader shy.  Tying (good) knots is harder too.

I have read conflicting things about flouro regarding visibility.  Sure its refraction index would make it seem more invisible, but really how visible is standard mono if its clear? Could it be more that for same lb test that flouro is slightly thinner?  Could it be that it sinks and doesnt affect the hang of the bait as much as a length of mono?

I have found Fluoro to be much more fickle when it comes to braid to leader knots, you certainly have to be more careful than you do with mono since it tends to heat up much easier (easily remedied with a little spit) and this can cause breakage or memory in the line that is not ideal. All that to be said I almost always use it because I do feel like it's better for abrasion resistance and it's less visible, since I do like bass fishing it's the easy choice, that being said I only have a few setups that are fully fluoro since any sort of backlash is almost always catastrophic with it rather than braid, but that's similar with fully mono as well.

Seaguar - who invented the stuff - states that fluorcarbon line is not "invisible" to fish, isn't significantly less visible than high quality monofilament, and any manufacturer making that claim is misleading their customers.

Anecdotally, I stopped using fluorocarbon the day I saw my fluorocarbon leader casting a shadow on the bottom of an air-clear river that looked to be just as large and just as dark as the Maxima Chameleon main line I was using.  Even if the line was invisible to fish, fish can see the shadow.

These are a pair of interesting readings: concerning visibility: https://www.slideserve.com/lesley/mathematical-theory-of-fishing-line-visibility?fbclid=IwAR1HFXhtVcgZZUksSCozQ-b1TofWcKh0ju7pr2hNPDrlA_4vxoGNdoBDFSA.  And addressing other fluorcarbon properties: https://activeanglingnz.com/2016/01/04/the-fluorocarbon-myth/?fbclid=IwAR1aZQB_ZsazYaKLwn1bKyZcvi3Rf2TZv2780txzXeUZr7Z48so9pBGdTKc.

(The second one is less fact-based, IMHO, but it's nonetheless thought-provoking).

If fluorocarbon boosts your confidence, then by all means, use it.  But there are some articles online that seem to challenge many of the reasons people will spend the extra cash on it.

Tinker if you were using fluoro because you thought it was "invisible" and you stopped because it casts a shadow, I am glad you got your meds checked.

redbeard, i know of quite a few brown baggers (guys that have caught multiple 10+ pound browns) and the majority of them use mono/braid or mono/leadcore exclusively for their trolling... almost all of them have told me that they prefer the mild shock absorption of mono (also a lot of these guys like to troll 200-300 feet back).

when I run a nedrig (dropshot) i know that I prefer fluoro for the sensitivity and its visibility. I also like it a lot with small weight jigs/blade baits when fishing deep 50+ feet.

I don't entirely agree that PowerPro works with every type of fishing.  If you're casting, its flatter cross-section allows it to float in the wind and thst can make a horrible mess.  On spinning reels, I always used a more rounded round braid (like Fireline or the Daiwa braids).  I don't guess it matters that much if you're jigging, but it makes a difference when you cast and retrieve all day.

The extent of casting I do is usually targeted at Coho and Chum when I am casting twitching jigs, or the rare drift fishing for other salmon/steelhead. I haven't noticed much wind influence. if I was casting more than 60 feet maybe? I tend to use a lot of weight though