Beach Fishing With Braid

[BTK]

Hey everyone

Today i went and got my Baitrunner 4500 spooled up with 20Lb fins braid for my beach fishing outfit, ive never used braid on the beach before, or for bait fishing at all, so im stuck and wondering if i need to have leader line before a Swivel or if the braid can tie directly to my swivel and then have leader coming off the other side of the swivel (see below picture) or should i do a Bimini twist and then do a leader to braid knot?

The red is the braid, blue is the leader line

Cheers

Cory

[johnny doi]

hi btk what i do is i tie on at least 1mtr minimum of momo or flurocarbon as a little bit of extra stretch.i think they call those SHOCK LEADER.i join the braid to mono via a albright,slim beauty or double uni knot.i dont use a bimini twist mostly because i cant do a good 1.what i do if the leader diamiter is too thick is double over the tag end of the braid so its twice as thick,& tie the knot with the doubled over braid.in my experience the knot holds pretty good.once the shock leader is tied i see what type of rig i need to use for the situation.iv never tied the braid directly to a swivel or the like due to the fact that braided line seems to slip easier and doesnt bite down as snuggly than mono line does.also if you have a sinker running onto the swivel,the sinker running up & down the braid can cause the braid to fluff & therfore damaging the lines fibres in the process.& when casting,the sinker constantly banging on the braided knot can damage it also causing it to come loose.if you do decide to tie braid directly to the swivel,be sure to do double the amount of wraps of the line so that the knot has more to bite down onto.what i do if im going to fish a running sinker down directly onto the hook is just tie on a longer shock leader[of at least a rod length] to the braid.the rig you drew in your post is a good way also.im sure everyone has their own ways of doing it but this is how i do mine.i hope this helps & good luck on fishing on the beach.using braid for baitfishing sure does have alot of advantages.

cheeers & good luck

johnny

[arpie]

Braid allows your cast to go for miles, too!

The down side, is .... NEVER TRY & 'SLOW THE LINE DOWN' BY HAND when you have a good fish on! It will slice though your fingers like a hot knife thru butter! You would only ever do it the once!!

Roberta

I use either a bit of electrical wire plastic sheath to protect my knots from the sinkers ..... or just whack a bead on immediately before you tie on the swivel. That should protect the knot.

[jewgaffer]

Hi BTK I know Johnny Doi, that's pretty sound advice he gave you.... In the rig in your pic, the sinker running in between two swivels that are close together is virtually a fixed sinker.... In this particular application it would pay to use a running sinker to bead above the one swivel to lesson the casting impact on the braid knot and, instead of having a bait sitting on the bottom on ganged hooks use a two rig hook off a leader cork ... if you make up a rig that way, the claw sinker will hold bottom and particulrly in the surf, and even if rigged as a standout paternoster, the cork can be placed so that your livie will struggle a metre or so off the bottom and also your dead baits will be be suspended....

Cheers

jewgaffer

[BTK]

thanks alot everyone for the good advice, i toke my new rod and reel out this afternoon for a quick go, i ended up tying some 25lb mono to the braid (about 1m or so long) and put the rig on from there, It worked quite well and im very happy with my new setup.

Jewgaffer i understand what you mean about the running sinker and the advantages i would get out of that, i will be doing it that way next time, but im not sure what you mean by a leader cork? sorry if its something simple but i dont believe ive ever heard of it before.

Cheers

Cory

[Rhino2099]

Hi Cory,

If you are intending to try and cast big heavy baits for jewies etc then you might want to try running a 30-40lb leader so that when you are in the casting position you have the leader going from waist height through the rod eyes and about 3-4 winds around the spool so your casting finger is not holding against the braid.

But if your not going heavy baits then dont bother, what your doing sounds fine.

Cheers Ryan