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[Suther]

I know questions about braid have been asked a million times, and I have read a bunch of old threads and stuff already but I am still left with some questions, including brand, color, and how much to spool on my reel.

I am planning on setting up my new spinning rod with 40 or 50lb braid for bar fishing the Fraser and bottom fish(flounder, ect) and dogfish from piers in the salt.

First question is the always-present whats your favorite brand? More than favorite brand, I am interested in brands you've had bad experiences with. From old posts I gather Spiderline is not very good - it frays quickly and is generally not as good as others. Does anyone have an opinion on Berkley Big Game braid, or Sufix 832? Tuf-line XP seems to be highly recommended, and Power Pro is also recommended. Im leaning towards whichever I can find cheaper, which seems to be to Power Pro. I see some bad reviews for the slick 8, does anyone have bad experiences with it?

Power Pro leaves me asking what color I should use. I dont think I particularly need a hi-vis line, so white/yellow are out. That leaves blue, two greens, red, and brown (between regular and slick 8 lines of line) Im leaning towards the regular (not slick 8 ) green. It seems to be readily available in whatever size spool and test I want, and seems to fit the bill of fishing Fraser/ocean. I would be using a leader regardless of color.

Finally I come to how much should I spool on. I see lots of recommendations of using some mono to fill up the spool a bit first, and the reel Im getting calls for 390 yards of 15lb mono, which is a lot of 40lb braid. I also dont think I need 400+ yards of braid on there. How much braid do I want on a bar fishing/pier fishing setup? 150 yards? 300 yards? I was thinking, if I use only 150 yards of braid, I'll need mono thats strong enough to keep up, so 40lb or whatever, but if I had 300 yards of braid then my mono would only really be needed to fill the spool, so I could use something smaller like 15lb mono?

[Dr. Backlash]

Chalk me down for the Sufix 832 for sure!  I've used both the green and most recently the ghost and I have to say the ghost is the best braid I've ever casted with!  Even the wife is a believer - and she's not a fan of the braid until I spooled her up with the Sufix 832 Ghost - it casts beautifully and we've had zero issues with it (we're using 20lb test). Last year we used the Power Pro and it was garbage!  It was 20lb test and we both experienced our line breaking above the knot on just regular casts (maybe we both got bad spools of line).  Sufix 832 gets my vote

[Dr. Backlash]

forgot to mention it also has virtually zero line twist and doesn't get affected by the salt

[hungry6]

Here in Australia, a lot of fisherman have gone to braid for everything, except hi speed trolling.
Plenty of guys here originally use fins and power pro and regarded them as the best until of the last few years, we have all gone to ebay special as someone here did a very comprehensive test and found that the ebay cheapies are as good and some time better than the much hype established brand. But saying that some of the braid I've used, I have notice some are louder than others on a spinning reel. The way to avoid premature braid failure is look at the tightness of the braid to see if it allow tinny particles of grits in there which eventually cause it to fail. One thing you have to remember that untested braid will generally break over 50% on top of the stated rating ie. a 20lbs will go over 30lbs before breaking.

cheers

[typhoon]

I used powerpro hi-viz for several years on my float rod and aside from being noisy it worked perfectly.

I switched to Slick8 two years ago on my low profile reel and it is really nice. Strong, quiet, high visibility, and it floats. I haven't had any problems with abrasion and it remained solidly strong even after being shredded by a broken ceramic ring on my rod.

[Easywater]

I use 150lb Tuff-line for sturgeon and around 60lb Tuff-line for Springs & Chum.

This year, I started using braid for pinks to be able to get a long cast.

I tried a coated Spiderwire (green) that was awful.
The green colour came off on your hands and the line frays badly after a few days use.

I then tried another Spiderwire - the "camo" version.
Sounds hokey but the line is very good - very supple and does not fray easily.

I would put the lighter mono on as a base under the braid.
Slim chance that you will ever get to the mono while fishing & it will provide a more even base.

I ended up using the crappy coated Spiderwire as a base for the camo line.

[Suther]

Here in Australia, a lot of fisherman have gone to braid for everything, except hi speed trolling.
Plenty of guys here originally use fins and power pro and regarded them as the best until of the last few years, we have all gone to ebay special as someone here did a very comprehensive test and found that the ebay cheapies are as good and some time better than the much hype established brand. But saying that some of the braid I've used, I have notice some are louder than others on a spinning reel. The way to avoid premature braid failure is look at the tightness of the braid to see if it allow tinny particles of grits in there which eventually cause it to fail. One thing you have to remember that untested braid will generally break over 50% on top of the stated rating ie. a 20lbs will go over 30lbs before breaking.

cheers

Is that so? Any particular brands you've used that are good, or just whatever braid is cheapest online?

I have come across SeaHunter and Eposeidon for very cheap on Amazon, and a bunch of Spectra extreme braid and PE Super Strong on Ebay.

This is the only one I can find on Amazon.ca, (Im ordering other stuff from amazon, such as a reel, so I get free shipping for most things, thats why Im trying to get it from amazon.ca if possible)

http://www.amazon.ca/Spool-Strong-Braid-Braided-Fishing/dp/B00CFFISFM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1382114632&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=braided+fishing+line+40-pound

[Long_Cast]

I use a multi-coloured Sufix 832 which is camo coloured (green, brown, white). Although I'm not crazy about the colour choice since Wal-Mart didn't have any other colours for this brand, it is strong and it has decent casting.

So far, I haven't had any breakage under any condition. I try to avoid tying my line to my lure if if it's at the white section of the line since I discovered that I get much less strikes to due to high visibilty of the line, especially on clearer water. Some people say it's horrible for spinning reels, but I have no problems so far in terms of casting, but the line does absorb water, so the line does stick a bit (not much in terms of the spool itself, but the line, yes); therefore, casting distance will be slightly reduced.

I've experienced slight line twist when using spoons even with a snap swivel for spoons that don't come with a built in swivel such as with my Luhr Jensen Krocodile. However, for the most part, if you're using a high quality spinner that's designed to reduce line twist (Blue Fox) or a lure with a built in swivel, line twist will be rare with Sufix 832.

[louie]

braid buyers guide
http://www.paulusjustfishing.com/4linetestingbuy.htm

[Suther]

braid buyers guide
http://www.paulusjustfishing.com/4linetestingbuy.htm

Thanks that helps a lot.
Although he seems to be pretty unimpressed by basically all brands lol

[DanJohn]

I use the Sufix 832 Braid in 10lb for pinks and Coho. I couldnt be more impressed. I have not tried other variants of Braid, but switching from mono to braid has been amazing! I have had 2 birds nests on my spinning reel, one was totally my fault, both took about 20 minutes to untangle. No break offs, but I have suffered the braid spinning around the reel due to a lack of backing, but after 3 or 4 pinks caught, it has tightened up and not been a problem. I will never go back to mono! This stuff is absolutely great and I love it!

[hungry6]

Is that so? Any particular brands you've used that are good, or just whatever braid is cheapest online?

I have come across SeaHunter and Eposeidon for very cheap on Amazon, and a bunch of Spectra extreme braid and PE Super Strong on Ebay.

This is the only one I can find on Amazon.ca, (Im ordering other stuff from amazon, such as a reel, so I get free shipping for most things, thats why Im trying to get it from amazon.ca if possible)

http://www.amazon.ca/Spool-Strong-Braid-Braided-Fishing/dp/B00CFFISFM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1382114632&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=braided+fishing+line+40-pound

PE or spectra are the two main ones. The fish we go for here are pretty serious customers. I don't have a preference, who ever sell the right colour at the right length for the cheapest is good.
I get different colour for different strength. ie yellow for 30lbs, pink for 50lbs, black for 100lbs, so a quick look and you know the strength if you got multiple spools for the same reel.

[Suther]

Ended up ordering 300m of this.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/FREE-SHIP-PE-DYNEEMA-BRAID-FISHING-LINE-100M-500M-300M-1000M-BLUE-COLOR-/310758767982?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var&hash=item485aaa7d6e&_uhb=1

For $11, I figure I can't go wrong. Even if I hate the stuff as fishing line, and can use it for other things.

[DanJohn]

Not too bad I suppose. the 10lb is only 6 thou thick, my suffix 832 is 8 thou. Unless its really garbage, if the diameter and test is correct, seems like a good buy!

[Gooey]

I like power pro...have had the stuff on some reels for 6+ years. 

If you are going to fish braid, please do the following: use a mono bumper.  Learn the albrieght knot or use a swivel.  Either way it sickens me to see people using braid down to the weight snapping off large amounts of line in the river.  Put on a 5-10 foot mono leader below the braid and you run that spool of braid for YEARS and you wont leave a lot of line on tyhe bottom if you snag up....