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Braid for Beginners

Category: article

 Jan 6th, 2009 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Jan 6th, 2009 at 12:00 AM

Most folks just getting into bass fishing want to absorb as much information as possible to increase their odds of catching more and bigger fish. Often beginners will go to their fishing buddies and ask them what to use. Usually this is a good thing for the newbie and the seasoned angler as well.

	Skeet Reese uses braid for various presentations

However, when the “seasoned” angler only fishes a few techniques, often the new angler won’t get the correct information, or will develop a prejudice toward certain fishing techniques or gear learned from the angler with more experience.

This is quite often the case when it comes to fishing with braided line. Sure, the “new” braided lines have been around for over a decade now, but many occasional and weekend folks won’t touch it, usually because they don’t know why they should.

Don’t fear the braid. Spool up one of your flipping outfits with 50-pound braid, or heavier or lighter if you’d like. Start fishing soft plastics or jigs into heavy cover. Remember, during this type of fishing you are looking for a reaction bite, plus you want to set the hook and turn the fish quickly to get them out of the cover. Braided line will help you do that. Try the same pitch with 20-pound monofilament or fluorocarbon and odds are you will break-off fish or not get the same quality hook penetration as you would with braid. Sure, you’ll catch your fair share, but using the right tool, in this case braided line, in super heavy cover and you’ll catch more bass over time.

Heavy cover isn’t the only place to use braid. Many bass pros like Greg Hackney and Skeet Reese will use braided line when fishing crankbaits over submerged weeds. The low-stretch line when combined with a glass crankbait rod allows the angler to be able to rip the crankbait through heavy grass and still be able to set the hooks into the bass.

	Clausen preps his braided finesse rig (Photo FLW Outdoors)

Braided line isn’t just for power fishing. Former FLW and Bassmaster Classic champion Luke Clausen often uses braided line with a fluorocarbon leader to fish finesse worms on shaky head jigs. This combo will improve the number of fish strikes you detect when fishing finesse gear in deeper water. The same braided line main line with a mono or fluorocarbon leader combo works great when you are Carolina rigging soft plastics.

The bottomline is clear, braided line should be part of your arsenal of bass fishing weapons. It’s not the answer to everything bassy, but it sure can help you hook and land more bass. If you are a seasoned angler, try braided line. For all you newbies out there, if your go-to angler has never tried braided line, look for a new mentor.