Mono or Braid on Heavy Spinning Rod?

[Offshoreman]

I have a couple of spinning rods with Penn 5000 spinning reels. I use them for casing irons at Albacore, and whatever else I need to cast to. I currently have 65 brain with a short top-shot of mono to keep the last few feet invisible before the lure.

Who has experience with casting (far) with mono, or am I on the right track to begin with?

 

[Harper]

I think you're on the right track to use the braid on the spinning reel. I use braid on my lightweight spinning rod, for specks and redfish, and use both braid and mono on my casting reels and boat rods.

 

[Dave LeGear]

Braid will cast longer due to being much thinner than Mono for X weight class. What most seem to not do, or understand... Is how to both load a spool with Braid, and how to cast / close the bail so you do not get wind knots Before that you have to remember that some other features of each line thus the intend use for that fishing style also comes into play.

For Topwater Work I always use straight Mono (usually 17 pound class) on my low profile Bait-casters. Mono "Floats" thus it does not pull the nose my top water baits down as I "Walk the Dog" with them. It also has stretch, so when that Big Trout, Redfish, Snook or Tarpon (if real lucky) crashes the bait, you will stand a much less chance of not loosing your fish. I also have some tips on treble hooks to also help keep them hooked up.

• One is (as I do with all my baits) pinch the barb so the hook set is quicker, also makes it much easier to dig it out of your body parts
• And two is adding a extra swivel to the rear hook so it can spin 360 degrees without the bait pulling back out of the hook out of the fish's mouth. This no matter how much or many times he rolls around on it like a Hog. See picture below Top is stock, Bottom is updated and full war wounds... The Red Hook forward, also gives it a gill flash appearance when it is moving AND the fish is within 3 feet. Past that distance, red simply fades off to grey underwater.

Braid I use on all my Spinning reels for underwater work. And since it is much smaller / thinner, it gives me the ability to cast longer and with a lighter lure. But it needs to be loaded correctly onto the spool Or you will have issues with it "digging in" or worse yet, wind knots...

• I always lay down about 50 or more yards of Mono in the spool 1st. This helps the Braid not dig into it's self, and not slip around on the spool.
• Then tie in and I lay down the Braid making sure it fills the Spool to the last 1/4 inch or so. Then I will use the correct weight fluorocarbon leader of at least 3 to 6 feet for that battle / ecosystem since it has near the same light refraction as water thus, much harder for the fish to actually see the line. It also ties a much better knot than Braid, so really I am only using the Braid as my main casting and "Running Line" only. It is great that it does not have any stretch so I can feel taps or bottom bumps. But on the flip side, it does not stretch either! So you can pull a lightly set hook right out of a fishes mouth at the same time. As such, I use softer tip / slower action spinning rods to have some needed casting and fighting "flex"
• Lastly when using Braid (very important) always manually close the bail, and make sure it makes contact with the bail roller. I do it so fast and I rarely even look at the process nor do I even think about it anymore... If not and you use the handle to engage the line. A wind knot (small loop) can develop right then, and really mess up your next cast!
• If you do get a wind knot, the process for getting one out of Braid is quite easy, but shocking how many forget or were never taught the best way... No need to open the bail and try and pull the mess out. Just loosen the drag so it has just a tiny amount of tension... What we are looking for is to keep the spool from spinning overlay fast as you pull on the line till the wind knot comes free. Oh and remember that the wind knot most of the time "started" back when you do not manually close the bail and run it through the roller by hand. As such, the distance of your last cast will be how much line you have to slowly pull back off the spool, and then reel back up through your fingers / towel to get it all back on

Hope this helps!
Dave