Using any hooklink material with a higher breaking strain than the mainline is in my opinion totally irresponsible and constitutes nothing other than a death rig.
I almost exclusively use braid mainline and nylon hooklinks for floatfishing and ledgering, can't remember the last time I suffered a mainline breakage. For floatfishing I try to get somewith a similar diameter to 6lb 'normal' nylon which normally means a braid rated around 18-20lb, for ledgering or spinning I find 30lb Spiderwire goodthing .
I gave up on braid hooklinks long before I started using it for mainline, far too many tangles for my liking and the fish don't seem to mind the mono/flouro.
Paul, I fully expected that my post might well bring forth a storm of comments like yours, comments that hadn't been thought through...but at the time of writing this, yours is the only one. Ah well. For a start, the post from Peter Robinson immediately previous to yours should have told you most of what you need to know. I carefully used the word 'STATED' breaking strain, because as Peter said, virtually all braids are wildly overrated on the packaging....while the reverse is true for mono. This means that the realities of these rigs are an awful long way from what it says on the tin.
Secondly, 'death rig'? How on earth can you make that knee jerk claim without knowing how the rig is constructed? The suppleness that the braid gives you is generally only required immediately next to the hook, the part the fishes mouth comes into contact with. That being so, the average angler constructs a combi rig, a short length of braid (1" is often enough) connected to a longer length of much stiffer material, most usually fluoro (another material vastly overrated in the breaking strain blurb in the adds and on the packaging). If a break occurs with such a rig, it won't be the main line that goes...unless you have absolutely no idea what you are doing of course.
Nowadays, there are some modern hook link materials available which vastly simplify the tying of a combi rig. I use a braid covered fluoro for a hook link. Once the central fluoro is pushed out and snipped back as required, you have a rather splendid supple length of braid right next to your hook, of a length of your choosing. Again, by doing this you have greatly reduced the STATED breaking strain of the hook length, which will already be a lot less than that claimed. The stiffer section helps to avoid all the casting tangles you complain of, while the short supple end section fools the fish. Simples.
Again, far from being irresponsible as you claim, the accused anglers may be using some form of helicopter rig, meaning that if the mainline snaps, the hook link will simply slide off of the broken end. A chod rig? Same effect, and so on ad infinitum. In short, there are a multitude of ways in which a hook link stronger than the mainline can be safely used, whether those breaking strains are correct as stated....or not.
In my own angling, I also use a lead link which incorporates a safety connector, of which there are many types on the market. If my lead or feeder gets snagged up, that link WILL give, long before the main line is in any danger of snapping. Death rigs? I think not.
Of course I could use a braided mainline like you do, which is immensely thin but strong, and I quote "For float fishing I try to get some with a similar diameter to 6lb 'normal' nylon which normally means a braid rated around 18-20lb, for ledgering or spinning I find 30lb Spiderwire goodthing" . That will mean of course that during the fight, the fishes body may well come into contact with something akin to roughened up cheese wire. No....thinking about it, I think I will give that one a miss.
Whatever.
Cheers, Dave.
