Best Braid

[driftwood]

hi fishraiders

just wondering what some of your apinions are on what yous think the best braid is.

thanks driftwood

[Mik]

Oh man you've opened a can of worms here

Platypus for my money. I love it. It lays on the reel beautifully (Still it is best to run it on through a wet cloth to remove the waxy type out of box appearance)

It runs off the reel very well too. I have it on a Spheros 8000 & 12000, as well as a shimano baitcaster (Can't remember which one its been ages since I fished fresh water) & it casts very well of those. It also has good abrasion resistance for a braid line. I was told today by a guy who definatey would know, that Bionic is the same line with different packaging.

Also, same guy told me he used platypus in Wepia in some thick mangroves last year & when fish took him into structure the braid actually cut into the roots of the mangrove & didn't break, several times.

[Jewhunter]

Slinky will answer this one as he knows a whole lot more about braid that most!

Cheers,

Grant.

[caranx]

How much do you want to spend...if you have the cash then Varivas avani from Japan. If you want something a bit more budget orientated, then tuf line.

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Driftwood,

I too use Platypus and Bionic Braid... but my company has a relationship with the company that makes it. That said, I wouldn't use it unless it was as good as you can get.

The fact is that any of the top braid brands are fine to use. All the fibres for all the gelspun lines in the world only come from 2 manufacturers... under the trade names Spectra or Dyneema. So all braids start with the same stuff. Each manufacturer then use processes to braid and coat the fibres.

That doesn't mean they're all identical. The more expensive lines are usually made using finer original fibres (measured in denier... get this, a 50 denier fibre means that 9 kilometers weighs 50 grams ). How each company also braids the fibres and sometimes coats them and the quality of each process can also impact the quality of the finished product.

If you ever compare budget braid to one of the better known brands like Platypus, Tuff, Varvias, etc, you'll usually notice that it feels really rough and coarse... and then you'll find it casts like a dog and is a handling nightmare as it 'sticks' to itself coming off the spool.

The one area of difference is thermally fused braids (Fireline & Microfuse). In this case the manufacturing process is owned by Berkley (who own both brands) which is why there aren't dozens of similar brands in the market. The outcome of the process is a line that has the same no-stretch characteristics as braided gelspun but is not as fine and noticeably 'stiffer'. Some people prefer this type of line, particularly in the lighter breaking strains, because the stiffness changes the handling characteristics of the line. In heavier breaking strains (say 20lb +) I'd only recommend it in overhead reels as it starts feeling like fencing wire.

There you go... how's that for a short answer My only advice is don't get budget braid!

Cheers, Slinky

[driftwood]

thanks fishraiders for all your advice

i think my best bet for my bait caster would have to be berkly microfuse

thanks driftwood