I have a secondhand Abu Garcia black max reel and vengeance rod baitcaster combo. It came spooled with either a 10 or 12 lb mono line that is full of noticable knicks and kinks over the first hundred feet or so. So, I know I need to respool some or all of the reel.
I keep reading that braid is a better line for BC than mono. Fine, I take the experts word for it.
Then I saw that I should have a mono/fc backer so that I don't have to load 800 yards of braid on one spool.
And then I saw that I should have a mono or fc lead of anywhere from 1-20 feet to add some flex and a breakpoint for snags.
So, mono/fc on the back, mono/fc on the front… what is the braid in the middle of the sandwich doing for me?
Is it just there to reduce kinks and backlashes?
Does it make more sense to respool the whole thing with a 12 lb mono/fc that is not beat up, or to make a sandwich with 50 lb braid?
Additional information: I am a beginner fisherman fishing local ponds and lakes for whatever will take the bait. When I got the Abu Garcia, I went to Walmart and bought softplastic worms, crawdads, and frogs because they were heavier than the hook with a nightcrawler or cricket on it but I have no idea how much they weigh.
Posted by Holmesaw
1 Comment
None of the line options are really better or worse, they just all have different pros and cons for different situations. Braid is much stronger than mono at a smaller diameter, and its lack of stretch makes it very sensitive. It’s also easily damaged by abrasion, almost impossible to untangle if it snags, highly visible to fish so you normally want a leader, and its lack of stretch means it’s easier to accidentally pull a lure right out of a fish’s mouth. Not better or worse, just different. Also expensive.
In your question, it’s really the mono backer that isn’t doing anything. Backer is just to take up space on the reel with a cheap fill, then let your main line (braid in this case) do the real work. The whole point is just to save some money, but if you don’t care you can certainly just fill a reel with braid. Backer doesn’t serve any functional role.
If you’re using some application where heavy line is an advantage (fishing big pike, hauling bass out of weeds, etc.) then braid is probably worthwhile. I do like a fluoro leader with that, I find it helps my success a bit as some species are more line-shy than others. In your case I would probably use something like (ballpark) 30lb-ish braid with a 12lb fluoro leader. But for general beginner “let’s try some things and figure out how to fish”, you’ll be perfectly fine spooling the whole thing with 8-12lb mono and calling it a day.