Interesting deal yesterday braid to fluro?

[RUGER]

I went to a private honey hole for huge bream yesterday.
I get the chance to fish there a few times a year and try to never miss an opportunity.
Anyway, the bream weren't eating. Found out later the guy that is taking care of the place for the landowner fed them quite a bit the day before.
Oh well, it is what it is.

Just for kicks I took a bass rod with me.
Spinning rod rigged with braid and a fluro leader.
Caught several 12-14" bass that the landowner wanted out of there.
Anything under 1 1/2# he wants gone.
He said keep them or throw them in the woods, I don't care. LOL

Got hung up and broke off, luckily at the hook.
Retied and got hung again and this time it broke at the knot where the braid and leader met.

Thought what the heck and retied again with just the braid. I didn't bring any leader line with me.

I don't have any idea why but when I was twitching the whacky worm the feel was completely different.
It was like I couldn't feel the weight of the worm at all?
What would be the difference there?

Just curious.
I think I only caught one more after losing my leader.

 

[Dbllunger]

Stretch is the difference. Just the simple fact that it stretches and braid doesn't, gives it a completely different feel. I have a strong dislike for braid personally even though I do have one reel that is spooled up with 65 lb braid. My hypothesis is that the stretch creates more drag of the worm so it feels different. You twitch that worm with braid and it jumps. Very little drag would be my assumption.

 

[WTM]

braid floats

 

[Pilchard]

Two good responses so far... I'll add though that I don't think it's stretch. The short length of leader would not stretch much even under full pressure.

My guess is similar to WTM in that braid is coated and has less resistance in the water since it's more slick. The elimination of the leader reduced some drag in the water allowing better contact with the lure.

 

[WTM]

straight braid will give the bait a different action too. this may be why some believe that fish cant see a flouro leader because they may get more bites. action and fall rates play a large part in how a dish is going to react.

 

[Dbllunger]

Two good responses so far... I'll add though that I don't think it's stretch. The short length of leader would not stretch much even under full pressure.

My guess is similar to WTM in that braid is coated and has less resistance in the water since it's more slick. The elimination of the leader reduced some drag in the water allowing better contact with the lure.

Hey just because you got a picture of a fish as your avatar doesn't mean you know jack about fishin'! Suppose you are right though. Not much stretch in a leader. I know the feel is very different between braid and anything else I use.

 

[megalomaniac]

I wish someone could definitively tell me a flouro leader makes no difference.

inshore and nearshore fishing, all my reels are spooled with 17lb braid over 20lb mono backing, then 15lb flouro leader on my 2500 series reels for specks and 20lb flouro leader on my 3000 series reels for reds.

Personally, I FEEL I get more strikes than my fishing partners who use straight braid without a leader, but I'm not sure if it really makes a difference. Without a leader, one less knot to potentially fail, although I don't have trouble with losing fish (unless I get hit with by a Spanish, ladyfish, or shark who just cut thru the leader).

As far as feeling the bites... braid with a flour leader is MUCH more sensitive than straight mono for sure to me.

 

[TNReb]

It was like I couldn't feel the weight of the worm at all?
What would be the difference there?

Not to be a turd or sound like a smart aleck... but braid doesn't "float" - it just stays on the surface because it isn't dense enough to break the surface tension. If you pull braid under the water, it won't float back to the top.

That characteristic is likely what you were feeling. The worm doesn't pull the braid down through the water as easily as it will fluoro - so it's more difficult to feel the whacky rigged worm with no weight on it.

If you like fishing it with straight braid, consider trying a neko rig. Stick a nail weight in the head of your worm. It'll help it sink a little better. You don't even have to go buy nail weights. Use a little nails or screws or something if you want to try it.

Weighted whacky rig heads can help too if you're fishing deeper.

 

[WTM]

depends on the density of the braid. dyneema and spectra has a density less than water and will float no matter what you do, ie spiderwire. anything with gore fibers is neutral bouyant. some braids have a coating applied that acts as a floatant.

 

[jlanecr500]

We troll 2.7mph on 45lb braid lead core with a 3oz 9" long musky lure similar to a husky jerk bait. I generally have 240ft of line in the water to get down to 40ft. I run a 50' leader because if I get hing up on bottom, the deepest it will be is less than 50'. This way if I can't free the plug with a plug knocker, I only lose the lure and leader. I also have a couple of poles rigged with a short leader approx 3 to 5 ft. We ran an extended test over a 2yr period and there was not a discernable difference in the number of fish caught long vs short leader.
That said, there IS one difference I've noted. The rod tip action from the lure is much more lively with the short leader vs the long leader.
A month ago, I decided to reel in and check my plug after trolling a while. Sometimes we pick up limbs and such without knowing it. It wasn't really any harder to reel in than normal considering the boat was still at trolling speed. About 50 ft or so from the boat my lure surfaced which is odd. Turns out I'd been dragging a good sized walleye for god knows how long. He was worn out. If I'd been running a short leader, I'd have noticed the difference in the rod tip action with the fish on.