With the great amount of fishing lines available on the market, it can be difficult to choose what line is going to work best for your fishing trip.
Given that there are also many different types of fishing rods and reels, too, it only makes narrowing down the right pick even harder! What lines go with what reels? What will work best?
That’s why we’ve got you covered! Below, you’ll find out all about whether a braided line can be used with a baitcaster reel.
What Is A Braided Line?
Firstly, let’s start with the basics. A braided fishing line is a particular type of line that’s proven very popular. This is for a variety of reasons, mainly its many qualities.
For one, it has a lack of stretch, which can be useful because if your line stretches too much then you might miss some bites.
This is because the line absorbs a fish’s tugging sensation when they do, and then there may be less force on the hook end, so the hook might not land the fish.
Braided lines also have impressively high knot strength, as well as a very good overall power compared to their diameter.
What Is A Baitcaster?
A baitcaster is a specific type of reel for your rod, which comes with a rotating spool that is attached to the top of the rod itself. This spool is turned via the handle of the baitcaster reel.
This means that the spool turns while you cast, something that other reels may not have. For example, a spinning reel has a fixed spool.
Types Of Braided Line
There are a variety of braided lines that you can buy, both in brand and in weight.
Weight
If you’re fishing for slightly smaller fish, and they won’t be a strain on the line, then you probably want to go for a braided line and the lower end of the weight scale. These are lines like the 20 lb version.
For catching the bigger fish, though, you’ll want to adjust it and attach a braided line that’s heavier. Something that’s 30+ lbs should do well, ensuring that the larger fish can be snagged without snapping the line.
Brand
There are plenty of different brands of braided line that you can buy, and many are well regarded by other fishing enthusiasts.
For example, KastKing have a few SuperPower braided fishing lines that have hundreds of positive customers online.
Beyond Braid also offer a well-loved braided fishing line, as do Surfix with their 823 20 lb line that stretches 300 yards.
Meanwhile, SpiderWire have an extremely popular and best-selling Stealth Braid Fishing Line for sale.
Leaders – Why You Need Them
Though the braided line is great on its own, and definitely strong enough to not break, it is wise to add a leader to your new braided line as well.
This will add a whole bunch of benefits to your fishing, one being that it’ll help the line to sink more easily.
It is also better for clear water, because braided lines are quite visible on their own, and a leader should help disguise them a bit more from fish – because you don’t want to be frightening your catch away!
A leader also allows for longer wind casting because the leader lines are much stiffer than a braided line on its own.
This means that if you’re casting your line while it’s windy, the line is going to sail through the air much more directly than if it were just a solo braid, preventing it from getting blown about by the gusts.
Additionally, a leader will help you save line, because the leader adds to the braided line.
If you mess up for whatever reason and have to lose some line, it’s better that the bit of line you’re losing is the leader and not the expensive braided line itself!
But which type of leader should you get? Well, you can choose from the two main types: monofilament and fluorocarbon.
Whichever you pick, having a leader is going to be essential to making your braided line an even more efficient fishing instrument.
The monofilament tends to be the cheaper leader of the two, though both are going to be so essential to your fishing being a success that either will be worth the money!
How To Attach Braid On A Baitcaster
Now that you’ve got your specific braided line, and chosen one of the two types of leader, you want to get into action and set yourself up for fishing. But how do you attach your braided line onto the baitcaster reel?
Well, you first want to put a few wraps of your leader (be it monofilament or fluorocarbon) onto your fishing spool.
By covering the spool in this line, before attaching the braid, it should make the process much simpler. Braid can be very fiddly to deal with, so this first layer of leader line is going to help make it stick.
In terms of how much leader you want to be cutting off and using on your rod, it is probably best to begin with around 6 feet of the stuff. This should leave you with more than plenty, so don’t worry.
Say you buy a leader that’s listed as 300 yards, like the Surfix brand that was mentioned earlier, that’s going to give you a whopping 900 feet of leader – so if you use 6 feet at a time, you’re going to get a lot of fishing trips!
Be aware that you’ll want to replace it with another 6 whenever you get down to your last couple of feet.
Now you want to attach your braided line onto the leader itself. This is done by knotting the two lines onto each other.
Whichever knot you want to use, however, is up to you. You could try a Surgeon’s Knot, or even the strong and capable Palomar Knot.
If not (or should that be, “if knot”?), try a Trilene Knot. If that isn’t your bag, go for a Uni Knot, or a Double-Uni Knot for more strength.
Whichever you pick, make sure you look it up and practice first, because you don’t want the knot falling undone and your lines to separate and sink into the water.
With the lines, you want to fill up the spool wheel to an almost full capacity.
Leave about an 1/8th of an inch near the top of the spool, leaving a little room between all that wound up line, because you’ll have more than enough to use now.
However, make sure when you’re doing all this that you repeatedly pull the line taut as you go.
If you don’t have the spool all tight in the end, then it could become loose, or not function as well as you may want when doing the actual fishing.
Now you will have your combination of braided and leader line all nicely spooled into your baitcaster, leaving you ready to begin catching those fish!
Which should be especially easy because you’ve got all the benefits of these two types of line working for you.
Final Thoughts
It can be overwhelming figuring out what type of line is going to work best for you when fishing, and becomes especially difficult as a choice when you have to take reel types into account as well.
If you go for the baitcaster and its handy top spool, though, your fishing success should start increasing. Add to that a braided line, with its strength and lack of stretch, and the fish will be lining up.
Even more so, when you have a leader line added for good measure, with its sinking capabilities and quality in clear water, then your fishing is going to become almost unrivaled.
If you feared it would be fiddly to get all this set up, though, the article you’ve just read should have “cast” (if you’ll excuse the pun) those worries far away!
Frequently Asked Question
When Was The Braided Fishing Line Invented?
The braided line was actually one of the very earliest types of fishing line invented. Its more modern versions, however, first came to the market around 1953/4.
