Short session before changing lines

[linewetter]

I went out this late afternoon intent on fishing for a few hours but was cut short when I felt my line getting caught on my spool.  I checked it out and it was catching on the tag end of the knot for my braid to mono backing 😥  It was time to change lines then...But since I was out, I figured might as well keep casting a bit even if it catches on the tag end...it still casts.

Put on a mutant Zman slim swimz that fused colors into a mix of greasy prawn and motor oil.  I came away with a decent sized flatty that I put back into the water and called the session here to end on a high:

 

Ended up switching to PE 0.4 Atomic Linez braid to try out.  I haven't been able to find much about it online ratings wise so time will tell how good it is.

[lhan]

pe0.4 sounds like a brave move! But honestly my pe0.6 never gave up on anything I caught in the Parra so I'm sure pe0.4 will do just fine. The only broken braid happened on me is sth managed to cut my braid on structures, nothing wrong about the braid tho

[linewetter]

11 hours ago, lhan said:

pe0.4 sounds like a brave move! But honestly my pe0.6 never gave up on anything I caught in the Parra so I'm sure pe0.4 will do just fine. The only broken braid happened on me is sth managed to cut my braid on structures, nothing wrong about the braid tho

Yeah I was looking to replace with 0.6 since that’s what I had before and it was fine for the most part but the shop only had 300m spools of 0.6 left 🥲 Hoping I don’t experience many break offs with this 0.4 otherwise I’ll have to swap again if it’s no good after all. But I do like the idea of a challenge in getting a fish in on even lighter line 

[james Cutler]

Great report.

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, linewetter said:

Yeah I was looking to replace with 0.6 since that’s what I had before and it was fine for the most part but the shop only had 300m spools of 0.6 left 🥲 Hoping I don’t experience many break offs with this 0.4 otherwise I’ll have to swap again if it’s no good after all. But I do like the idea of a challenge in getting a fish in on even lighter line 

Sounds like your old line has seen plenty of use, so maybe it’s time anyway. Things like backing knots are lethal for fine braid.

PE 0.4 should be fine.

[Green Hornet]

Nice little flatty there to make the day worthwhile.

When respooling with your new braid and if you have backing on your reel, join it with a low profile knot. Ideally an FG, though if you’re not confident with that a slim beauty is almost as good and make sure your knot is at the very back of the spool to minimize the problem you mention in your report in the future. Either that or a small piece of tape over the knot helps smooth out the lump.

Don’t overthink the PE 0.4. It’s most likely stronger than the leaders you’re using. You may just have to pay a little more attention to line management creating loose loops on your spool. If undetected and not removed gently, they will cause wind knots.

[linewetter]

4 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Nice little flatty there to make the day worthwhile.

When respooling with your new braid and if you have backing on your reel, join it with a low profile knot. Ideally an FG, though if you’re not confident with that a slim beauty is almost as good and make sure your knot is at the very back of the spool to minimize the problem you mention in your report in the future. Either that or a small piece of tape over the knot helps smooth out the lump.

Don’t overthink the PE 0.4. It’s most likely stronger than the leaders you’re using. You may just have to pay a little more attention to line management creating loose loops on your spool. If undetected and not removed gently, they will cause wind knots.

I've been letting the shops spool my reels up for me with the main reason being I'm not sure how to best estimate the amount of mono backing to put on to get the perfect amount of line on at the end.... definitely something I could learn myself and try out but for now I've been letting the shops do it since that's the easy way for now and I think they're using a double uni.  Though I've had my eye on some of the braid available from the Japanese JDM sites since there is a much larger selection at a similar or cheaper price point.  That would be enough to motivate me to learn how to do it myself and tie my own backing knot.  I just have to find a reason to buy a new rod or reel too to make the shipping costs worth it 😅