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Braid on pins

Terry Harman

Terry Harman

Senior Member & Supporter
What braid is everyone using on centrepins and do you prefer it over mono
My pin has gr60 on it at the moment but thinking of using braid ... not for float fishing
 
Nothing else on my pins. Spiderwire is good for lead work, for trotting Fox Jigsilk is my favourite, a flat braid so it's a bit weird on the 'diameter' but the 0.13 is rated around 22lb, nice and smooth, doesn't fur up. Around 15lb knot strength with a Palomar, to the hooklink swivel.
Much prefer it to Nylon, no stretch, floats like a cork, immensely strong, etc.
You could easily use 40lb Spiderwire for lead/feeder/rolling work, it's about as thick as 8lb nylon and you won't lose much end tackle, I think this year is the 7th for my Drennan cage feeder on the upper Lea, had a few fights with far bank trees and it still lives to fight another day.
Beware sharp rocks though, it can cut easily as it's so thin, no worse than nylon of the same diameter but beware.
Best of luck with it.
 
Power Pro in 20lb, Moss Green. Have it on all of my reels, and have been using it for over 10 years.
 
Used spider wire on mine but only on still waters so far been really impressed with it. I'll bring it to the river in June
 
Paul Collins said:
Nothing else on my pins. Spiderwire is good for lead work, for trotting Fox Jigsilk is my favourite, a flat braid so it's a bit weird on the 'diameter' but the 0.13 is rated around 22lb, nice and smooth, doesn't fur up. Around 15lb knot strength with a Palomar, to the hooklink swivel.
Much prefer it to Nylon, no stretch, floats like a cork, immensely strong, etc.
You could easily use 40lb Spiderwire for lead/feeder/rolling work, it's about as thick as 8lb nylon and you won't lose much end tackle, I think this year is the 7th for my Drennan cage feeder on the upper Lea, had a few fights with far bank trees and it still lives to fight another day.
Beware sharp rocks though, it can cut easily as it's so thin, no worse than nylon of the same diameter but beware.
Best of luck with it.
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I’m turning over to the Jigsilk on all my floatfishing pins. It’s brilliant! I think it was you Paul who put me onto it a season ago but I use the 0.08 diameter.
 
Braid for float fishing sounds interesting, I've never heard of any of our top match anglers using it though and wondered why not ?

Paul, if you are using 0.13 braid, typically what diameter mono hook length would you use ? I normally use 0.19 or 0.21 for barbel ?
 
Match anglers don't use braid as there's no advantage when swapping it for quality monos of less than around 6lb. You'll struggle to fish with it really quickly. It's not good in changing wind directions or if you need it to sink during a match. Tangles can be a pain to rectify, bump to many fish....it's just not suited to match fishing situations.
 
Also with braid (e.g. Jig Silk) you can trot to ~50m, which often wouldn't be allowed on matches!
 
Terry - I use 30lb Power Pro super slick. It has the diameter of 8lb bs mono. One thing I would say, though, is you need a soft rod.

A question to all braid users: how often do you change your line?
 
Richard Parsons said:
Terry - I use 30lb Power Pro super slick. It has the diameter of 8lb bs mono. One thing I would say, though, is you need a soft rod.

A question to all braid users: how often do you change your line?
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What does it sink like Richard I’m currently looking at the gardener hyper sink
 
I have been a braid user for years even in the 90s on vale feeder braid etc. It does have limits imo. For lesgering its great., but a leader is imperative as you will get cut off. It gets caught by the wind very easily especially after some wear and tear. Technically is thinner than mono, when flattened but imo is visibly thicker. Just food for thought etc
 
I think it's 'hydro' sink, Terry - which suggests it's good at that. The super slick is a great braid - for its abrasion resistance as much as anything. Gone are the days when braid can be classed as brittle. I think it sinks ok, Terry, though I leger with it, rather than float fish.

Thanks Paul - I'll be doing the same.
 
Julian Peacock said:
I’m turning over to the Jigsilk on all my floatfishing pins. It’s brilliant! I think it was you Paul who put me onto it a season ago but I use the 0.08 diameter.
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I use Jigsilk, for jig and light lure work in 13lb BS it’s incredibly low diameter, I have however found that I have to be a bit careful and tie knots with extra care.
 
Richard Parsons said:
Terry - I use 30lb Power Pro super slick. It has the diameter of 8lb bs mono. One thing I would say, though, is you need a soft rod.

A question to all braid users: how often do you change your line?
Click to expand...
I use PP Slick 8 for ledgering on deeper stretches/flood conditions, and for rolling meat, but use Jig Silk for trotting. I always use a leader (~4ft) and my fave is Ghostline, as it's got fantastic abrasion resistance and is stretchy.
Re knots .. whichever knot I use, I leave a long tag and tie a simple overhand/half-granny knot in it, close to main knot, before trimming. For braid-to-leader I use a full blood, with long (3-4cm) tags ... with braid tag 'grannied'.
Re. soft rod. Yeah, and/or soft hands!
 
I trotted with braid for quite a few years. There are positives, but there are some fairly significant negatives too. I used Powerpro (though I tried a couple of others and hated the flat braids with a passion) and it certainly does float well, picks up well, and good contact can be maintained, even at long range. However, you need to be very careful with your choice of rod. Too beefy and/or fast an action and you'll bump too many fish unless you seriously modify your style of striking and playing (not something that's easy to do). Another issue I encountered was that braid is not good in less than ideal wind conditions. I didn't use overly heavy braid. I couldn't countenance putting 10lb+ braid through a float rod. This may not apply to those that do. However, lighter braid tends to be picked up off the water once you get much more than a breeze. When the wind direction is across or downstream, this can really mess up your presentation and float tracking.

Braid for trotting is not the magic bullet that some might think. However, in the right circumstances, it can be very good. I will still use braid for trotting at times, though I suspect that I'm now using mono 75% of the time.
 
Chris Jones said:
I trotted with braid for quite a few years. There are positives, but there are some fairly significant negatives too. I used Powerpro (though I tried a couple of others and hated the flat braids with a passion) and it certainly does float well, picks up well, and good contact can be maintained, even at long range. However, you need to be very careful with your choice of rod. Too beefy and/or fast an action and you'll bump too many fish unless you seriously modify your style of striking and playing (not something that's easy to do). Another issue I encountered was that braid is not good in less than ideal wind conditions. I didn't use overly heavy braid. I couldn't countenance putting 10lb+ braid through a float rod. This may not apply to those that do. However, lighter braid tends to be picked up off the water once you get much more than a breeze. When the wind direction is across or downstream, this can really mess up your presentation and float tracking.

Braid for trotting is not the magic bullet that some might think. However, in the right circumstances, it can be very good. I will still use braid for trotting at times, though I suspect that I'm now using mono 75% of the time.
Click to expand...
My thoughts too Chris. I switched back to mono many years ago, because of it being easily picked up and ruining presentation.
 
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