Braid information

[Justin Cubberley]

Has anyone any experience of using the kastking super power braid?
I've come across it on ebay and the moss green, 15lb breaking strain on a 150 yard spool seems like a very, If not too reasonable a priced product. Delivered for £3.68! And that's from more than one distributor.
The techno bumf seems all pretty much industry standard, 100% dyneema PE etc and it's available in 150 - 1097 yard spools in what seems to ba very comprehensive range of colours and breaking strains.
May be worth a tryout on a lure setup this winter.

 

[Jason Bean]

not used it myself however on maggodrowners there are people that use it and get on with it. if your not doing any distance casting it's fine it seems....do a search for kastking on maggotdrowners

 

[Terry Simner]

Although I've got spools of, and reels loaded with, PowerPro and PowerPro Slick 8 in various breaking strains, I recently bought a 500m spool of Spectra PE braid for £10 off eBay. On testing I've found it to be 24-26lb. bs, so I'm happy enough with that.
But although bs is easy enough to measure, abrasion resistance measurement is not so simple. So I'll be using this braid with a 4ft leader of Ghostline (15lb) which I know does have very high abrasion resistance. Then I'll see how it goes.

BTW.. I've found, as a general 'rule of thumb', that whatever the material (be it 'mono' (nylon), fluoro, or a braid) then the thinner the line, the lower the abrasion resistance. This is independent of breaking strain i.e. thicker line at the same bs as another line will have more abrasion resistance (IMO) than the thinner line. You rarely get 'owt for nowt'.
BTW2!! .. with thinner lines there is a much greater need to have some 'stretch' in the system. Thinner lines tend to 'snap' more easily, and this may be a (lack of) quality independent of bs and abrasion resistance. This is a further reason for using a leader : for stretch, as well as increasing the abrasion resistance of your 'system', especially your end tackle.
BTW3!! .. with the likes of PowerPro you expect consistency. This consistency may be something that cheap braid lacks. In the past I've bought "25lb" braid that on testing has turned out to be 7-8lb in actuality, so I'd suggest that the first thing you do is thoroughly check your new braid's breaking strain... then see how it goes.

 

[David Craine]

I can vouch for Spectra Braid.... I use it exclusively for my beach and boat fishing, and have done for about 15 years probably more,it was marketed at one time as "Bootleg Powerpro " but for all that it was great, The bootleg PP seems to have vanished a couple of years ago, and itbis now called Spectra, 4 , or 8 strand, it has excellent abrasion resistance and very reliable, it does tend to "sing " a bit in the guides sometimes, but that is a small price to pay, its as cheap as chips, one beach reel I use has had the same braid on for the past 3 years , and all my boat reels have had the same braid on for about four years, exclusivley 40 lb BS,, the biggest fish I have had using Spectra is a 65 lb Tope, but they tend to swim mid water when being played, so no risk of abrasion,except from their rather rough skin, I have Had Conger to 60 lb ,as well, no problems. I have never had Braid part on me when playing a fish, I have lost end rigs when boat fishing, but Intend to use rotten bottoms, and snoods lighter than my main line, so loss of braid is minimal.
There is a tremendous amount of "Braid Snobbery " about in my opinion, my beach /boat experiences with Spectra make me smile at some posts on saltwater forums.
I will be visiting the beaches on Thursday hoping for my first 2018 season winter Cod, Braid as usual.

I never ever use braid for freshwater work for various reasons, so my experiences limit me as to how it performs , I am sure somebody will be along shortly to shoot the above down in flames, but as I said, 15 years is a long time to have >>>>no <<<< problems at all. I cant think of many manufacturers that can claim that.

Dave

 

[Jon Frisby]

As above always use a leader of some sort when fishing braided line. You will be found out and you will leave a poor fish dragging a rig around for some considerable time.

 

[Terry Simner]

I can vouch for Spectra Braid....
Dave

Hi Dave, yes I've got some "Bootleg PP" Spectra braid, I've used it over the years, and been impressed. That's what led me to buying more 'Spectra' lately. But as there's so many braid lines around going by the name of "Spectra" I wasn't sure if that was a generic term, or an actual manufacturer's name. This has led me to be cautious (as ever with line )

 

[Dale Thomas]

I’ve been using Spectra in 40lb bs for all my River Barbel/Carp fishing for around 4 seasons, unbeatable quality for the price. Slightly thicker then more expensive braids which can only be a good thing. I use 80lb for any pike fishing so I can snap the hooks out of any snags, personally I’ll never use mono as a mainline ever again.