Braid Tangles

[Guest DV8]

Hi raiders

I have just converted to braid after many years of beiang adverse to the whole non-stretch thing. I have always used high quality mono like platyl soft and maxima which i always thought were fantastic (and they are).

Without a doubt braid has some significant advantages though my last two trips ahve splelt disaster with braid and proved quite costly. I have had tangles on both my reels when the drag sort of became the spool if you know what I mean, creating an absolute mess and costing me two spools of line in three trips. Admittedly, it was blowing a gale and I wasn't watching my reel (although I don't think I should have to). a few of you guys may have experienced the same thing. can anyone suggest any reasons why this is happening and how to prevent it?

regards

davo

[Jewhunter]

The 2 main reasons for this are the quality of the reel & overfilling of the spool.

Cheaper reels don't lay braid properly, especially when using very light jigheads. You should spool up with a little less line than you would with mono.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Grant.

[Sharky]

Hey DV8

Everyone gets tangles with brade when they first start out here are a few tips that I picked up through trial and error and from other fishoes.

Firstly "Dont over fill the spool" with too much line on the spool you will always have problems

* When casting on windy days if you have lots of line belly make sure when your winding excess line back on put some pressure on the line by applying your hand on the line. When line has been layed onto the spool too loosley it will come off the same way and then comes the dreaded birds nest.

*When casting with brade you dont have to cast as hard some of my biggest tangles have come from a full load on the back cast with a wopping forward cast if you leader knot gets caught up for just a split second you will get a tangle (on most occations)

*When casting very light Bream lures like sx40s ect. just remeber that when you are retrieving to have pressure on the line.

*Sometimes brade tangles come from line twist if you are usaing a reel that is that hasnt got good anti-twist use a tiny swivel theres some great ones I used a while ago that were tiny and black in colour that were rated to 50 pounds.

Once I got my head around these main points I barley got any tangles at all so now its all about confidence. I would be telling you porky pies if I said I didnt get a tangle every now and then but its very rare.

Best of luck.

[Guest Big-Banana]

I remember when I first started throwing plastics around and I filled up my thread line with as much braid as it could fit, every cast it would tangle. Just don't fill up that whole spool and you'll be right.

[FletcherG1991]

i had the exacpt same problem when i started out i ended up cutting just over 50 yards off the spool cause of tangels ..... i was also told not to fill the spool up so much (even though the tackle shop spooled it for me) and every few cast check that you have no stray loops or anything on on they 10-15th cast out alot further and wind under tention

[Gene]

Jewhunter mentioned the reel. Make sure that the line is laid on flat. I was continually getting tangles until it finally twigged that the line was not lying flat on the reel, it was forming 2 humps. Fixed the problem with a new reel.

Also every few weeks I run out a length of line, about 40 metres, and run it between my fingers a few times to get the twist out.

[Mondo Rock]

The style of fishing required to use jigs and lures properly involves a lot of jerks, twitches, and stops. By definition this means that in any retrieve it is likely that you will alternate between winding line on under high pressure, winding line on under absolutely no pressure and sometimes winding extremely fast to pick up the belly in the line. This effect is magnified when fishing in the wind.

This all means that, unless you're paying attention, the line will lay on the spool in a relatively haphazard way. You end up with loose line trapped under tight line and vice versa - it is a recipe for tangles.

In my opinion the only solution is to always pay attention to your line during the retrieve. If you give the jig a big twitch so that the line goes slack, or end up with a massive belly due to wind, then as Sharky says you have to grab the line with your hand when picking up the slack to keep the pressure on. Fletcher's advice is also good - every 10 casts or so cast the lure as far as you can and then wind it back in under constant pressure to 're-set' the line.

Bottom line is that fishing with braid is harder than fishing with mono. You have to put heaps more effort into watching your line and how it lays on the spool.

[Guest danielinbyron]

Ditto to this problem...

and Mondos list of solutions..

I also had a very expensive and frustrating time working this out... and remembering to do it.... I'm finding it hard to go back to mono after a couple of months of braid but I've lost a couple of fish I shouldn't have recently..

My reel isn't made for braid and if i underspool it i lose cast length advantage..

I took some advice from a thread the other day and have spooled my tss4 by hand to make sure its laid up flat.

Seems like allot of work but not for the money.

My main gripe with the braid is not being able to inspect it to see if there are any week spots created by tangles or a graze against a bombee. And with the cost of it its hard to just arbitrarily trim back 30ft.

Edited November 7, 2006 by danielinbyron

[Guest DV8]

Ditto to this problem...

and Mondos list of solutions..

I also had a very expensive and frustrating time working this out... and remembering to do it.... I'm finding it hard to go back to mono after a couple of months of braid but I've lost a couple of fish I shouldn't have recently..

My reel isn't made for braid and if i underspool it i lose cast length advantage..

I took some advice from a thread the other day and have spooled my tss4 by hand to make sure its laid up flat.

Seems like allot of work but not for the money.

My main gripe with the braid is not being able to inspect it to see if there are any week spots created by tangles or a graze against a bombee. And with the cost of it its hard to just arbitrarily trim back 30ft.

Thanks to all your advice. Will take everything you all said on board. maybe need a better reel.

Cheers

davo

[charlie51]

Thanks to all your advice. Will take everything you all said on board. maybe need a better reel.

Cheers

davo

One very important thing to remember when you first put the braid on the spool, it needs to be put on under considerable pressure, I use a stick (peice of dowling) through the spool and put one foot on either side and place it on the carpet, then wind it onto the reel throught the rod and make sure there is a reasonable bend in the rod. I can adjust the pressure using my feet on either side of the spool. Hope this makes sense, I know some people put the spool in a cordless drill, which is then placed in a vice, and wind the line on against the brake on the drill.

Using this method I have had little trouble, at least I have not had to cut off any line.

Cheers

[my03]

Hey guys, I've been having this trouble as well, basically what's happening is because the line is so loose the line gets wound up above and beyond the spool. ive been loosing alot of line too mate i feel your pain.

how much of the fireline have you guys on your reel's? what a good mono:braid ratio to have? tecnically we only need it so we can feel the bites right?

also sorry to be specific, but how many mil's from the edge of the top of your spool should u have it filled up to?

also regarding the backing, what weight and quality line are we using?

thanks guys

Edited December 3, 2006 by my03

[Guest danielinbyron]

Hey guys, I've been having this trouble as well, basically what's happening is because the line is so loose the line gets wound up above and beyond the spool. ive been loosing alot of line too mate i feel your pain.

how much of the fireline have you guys on your reel's? what a good mono:braid ratio to have? tecnically we only need it so we can feel the bites right?

also sorry to be specific, but how many mil's from the edge of the top of your spool should u have it filled up to?

also regarding the backing, what weight and quality line are we using?

thanks guys

try running the line out a little further by hand after casting then aplying tension to it for the first couple of turns particularly when taking up the belly or slack of the line prior to your lure or terminal tackles weight helps to tension the line.

[Richie]

A neat trick with braid is to use your spare spool when loading.

- Wind the braid directly on to your spare spool. When you have reached the end of your braid, tie on your mono.

- Wind your reel until you have filled your reel up to taste (I like about .5 to 1 mil off the lip).

- Swap the spools and tie the mono from the spare onto your primary spool.

- Wind with some *constant* pressure applied to the spare spool and voila! A perfectly wound spool!

If you don't use constant pressure when winding, you can get undercuts and loops. Not good.

Richie.