I have been thinking about this alot lately...
What is the real benefit of going with braid w/ a flouro leader vs just flouro??? I put a 4-6 ft flouro leader on my rig anyway so the abrasion factor is probably nullified... Flouro will sink better and make it easier to maintain a straight line to my bait while jigging..
I had really good luck last year with Fireline crystal and xps flouro leader, but a few articles I have read lately have gotten me thinking..
I run braid on all my baitcasters. If it's more of a finesse bait (like a t-rigged worm) I run a leader. For cranks and jigs and such I color the last couple feet of the braid black. BUT, for my spinning rod finesse baits I run braid with a 6' floro leader for one basic reason: when I tried running straight floro I had issues with line twist. Big issues. As for your straight line to the lure idea... I don't think it's that big an issue. If you are dragging a jig, worm, crank, spinnerbait, etc... you are in direct contact with the bait anyway...
I've actually seen my catch rate go UP since going to the braid/leader set up. I think it offers more sensitivity, and I know I can cast this set up further than straight floro.
I run both rigs. I use straight Fluoro on most of my bait casting rigs. I like fluoro over braid for casting distance and smoothness. I also like fluoro because it sinks and is so tough for a nonbraid.
I use braid w/ a fluoro leader on a couple of spinning rigs. I use the braid/fluoro for fishing weightless baits, like tubes and stick baits. I will probably move all of my spinning rigs to braid w/ leaders.
Cy
Personally I have not been sold on the advantages of using braid with a flouro leader especially on spinning outfits. The only advantage I see is saving $ because you wouldnt have to respool with all flouro every tournament. I will be sticking to seaguar invisx since I never have line twist or loops forming with it. This year the only spinning outfit that will be braid with a flouro leader is my dock skipping setup. Last year many big fish were lost in tournaments due to not being able to horse them out from under the docks before getting wrapped up. Since I usually throw a weightless bait under docks I think the floating braid would also help detect bites. Of course I will have power pro on my flipping and frogging setup but thats it.
T
i only run braid on 1 of my spinning outfits and i run that on a MH 6'6" so i can skip sinkos under docks and haul the fish out without worry. For flouro i run half a spool of 8lb pline and then 1/3 spool of 6lb seagur floro and attach them w/ a uni-not. then i'm not respooling with floro all the time and have a strong backer w/ pline.
i run a mix of 12lb pline floro-clear and 40lb power-pro on my baitcasters. If its a moving bait (crank, buzzbait, spinnerbait), i tie directly to the braid. On slower presentations (plastics) i use a floro or pline floroclear leader.
Fuel costs have made me a lot more frugal this past year as I'm sure we've all had to be. But in a way, it was a blessing because I learned that using braid on spinning reels is a lot less hassle all around. No matter what kind of line you use, you'll end up with some twist eventually if you leave the line on long enough. Even braid twists, you just don't realize it because of it's softness doesn't cause it to loop. But you can leave braid on the reel all year and not notice any degradation, which saves money. Plus, I think most floro still has some stretch... a lot less than mono, but it does stretch. So using braid on a spinning reel when fishing deep gives a lot more sensitivity IMO.
Another money saver has been using a cheap backer. I spool half of the reel on all my reels with super cheap 14lb Excel mono. I never cast down that far anyway, so why waste money on braid? With baitcasters though, I've moved to full spools of floro simply for casting distance and smoothness. Plus, with mono, I have to trim off line more often, so eventually it does get down to the backer, so I'm doing away with backer line on baitcasters. But sometimes, I will leave a 1/3rd spool of the old Floro as a backer if I can't afford to buy a whole lot of new Floro.
As a side note, I'd say that I really liked the characteristics of the P-Line Evolution this past year. In general it seemed to have a lot less memory and cast surprisingly smooth. I'm gonna put it on a couple more reels this year and keep trying it out. I didn't have a lot of breaks and it didn't seem to affect the amount of bites I got verses straight floro. Another product I bought a spool of is that new Stren Microfuse. I'm thinking the visibility of it might really help in some situations and sometimes it's frustrating using certain braids once the fusing agent starts to break down. When using Stealth last year it seemed like you got about a month out of it before the coating was disintegrated. I'm also hoping to try the Crystal whatever that other braid is that's like it. (can't think of the name at the moment)
You just dont' hear alot about the pros running braid with a Flouro leader..other than a drop shot. They get their line free so that could have alot to do with it..
I have had great luck dragging tubes with a Braid/flouro combo and will continue to go that route, but I am going to explore some other tactics this summer...Can't wait. Thanks for the input
I personally know of two guides on TableRock that swear by the braid with flouro leader. They fish deep with dropshots and spoons. The braid performs better for longer and their clients can detect the lightest bites. I use braid, I like Sufix, and only use flouro leader on dropshots. Always use what you are comfortable with.
I will add one more thing. One of the biggest reason I run braid on all my baitcasters is backlash. If (when??) I backlash a braided line I have found it MUCH easier to pick out that backlash than if I get a backlash with florocarbon line. Also, picking out a backlash in floro often leads to a weak spot in the line... and I've had lures simply break off and fly into never never land using floro.