Mono, Flourocarbon or braided?

[Troy Dorman]

I don't know much about the differences in the three listed materials, what's the best one to use for bluegill/redear and why?

 

FWIW, I've been using Bass Pro Shops Excel mono in the 4lb version. I noticed yesterday that when I had to cut a lot of line out of one reel, the remaining line corkscrewed it's way out. Today, that reel got some new line, Sufix mono, 4lb test.

 

I've heard that braided line doesn't hold knots very well but have also heard and understand that it's quite strong. Flourocarbon I know nothing about. Actually this would be for redear, not bluegill. I seldom fish for bluegill but target redear almost exclusively, so my fishing trips are basically bottom fishing. Any thoughts?

[flymoron]

after trying all 3 and using different mixs of leaders, I use mono main line & fluro leader, some braids are good, some not so good, and I never have as many bites as mono, and more bites on fluro than mono, I use a very small swivel between line & leader. this setup seems to work best for me.

[dick tabbert]

Troy I have all my light action and ultralights rods and reels spooled with fluorocarbon 4 and 6 lb test. Fluorocarbon is virtually invisible under the water yet out of the water has a tint to it for us line watchers. It maintains its strength when wet and is very sensitive so you can feel the softest bite giving you a quicker response times to set our hook and yet is very low stretch. But with all that's good there is a fault. I found that like mono filament after using it for awhile on your spinning gear sooner or later your going to make that cast when you have a tangle mess come off your reel and head towards your rod eyelets. I haven't found out how to eliminate it all together but there are a few things you can do to retard it for awhile. Number 1 keep checking your drag keeping it fairly tight. Number 2 when you hook a fish and the fish takes out drag don't reel, let the rod do the work holding your rod tip up. Number 3 when you open the bail and make your cast always close your bail by hand. This will take some practice but eventually it will become second nature to you. So you see it does have flaws but with them little tricks and tweaks I told you about you will see the good out way the bad.

[Vic Tankersley]

Troy, I recently read an article on the three lines and there pros and cons. I think it may have been on In-Fisherman.com. Any way the poop is Braids are easy seen and have no strech, Flurocarbon is stiff and has to be changed often if used on spinning or open faced reels and the third and the winner is  Mono. I have been using Trilene XL for close to thirty years now and sometimes I have to change it due to line twist, but it's cheap enough to change a couple of times a year without breaking the bank. The writer of this article says this is the most forgiving for Panfish fishing. You can help line twist by buying a larger diameter spool reel such as the Bass Pro Shops Extreme series or maybe a Diawa with the larger spool. Hope this will help..Tight Lines

[Troy Dorman]

Thanks guys for your responses. I guess for now, I'll continue to use what I've used my whole life and that's mono. Although I'm thinking of going up to 6lb test, not sure though. The lake I fish has weeds in it and it's hard to even drag a small fish through the weeds. Problem is, it's a clear lake and the 4lb would hide a little better than the 6lb test would.

[jason grimm]

Hey Troy, I'm Jason I also am into redear we should add eachother as friends, i have a couple of good pics you might like. About your line, its funny how we have differences in line usage, ive been using berkley fireline braid in 6# and 20# for catfish same size hooks and catch both species on both different #test of superline. I still havent dialed in on color of line I started with smoke, which is black, and had very great success, then went to crystal which is white and have had less success, but im also thinking it could have been time of the month i was fishing, but my one setup has been the ticket and havent needed to try anything else, if you are interested in my suggestions add me as a friend ttyl.

[Brian R. Brennan]

     Troy,

 

  I switched all my ultra light and light action spinning rods over to 4lb Berkley Fireline crystal with a arms width leader of either 6lb or 4lb berkley vanish fluro......I fish this with jigs and plastics, spoons and spinners and also with minnowbaits and crankbaits. I fish for panfish and bass, walleye and pickerel bye catch. I average approx 140 days on the water and I will never go back to mono or fluro. The lack of line twist and the ultra sensitive nature of the gelspun lines have won me over. I switched approx 6 years ago and have found my catch ration has gone up not down. I know there are those who say different and and everyone has a different opinion. That being said IMHO the braid works for me all the time. Only exception is live bait fishing for trout in streams there I still use 2lb mono.

 

                                                                                                               Brian