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Would you ban the use of braid?

Leyton Jones

Leyton Jones

Senior Member
One of the club books i've held for a couple of seasons now are trying, this year, so i'm told, to ban the use of braid on the river, could anyone suggest possible reasons for this? :confused:
 
Incorrect use!!!

Braid is very strong for its diameter, and if used in the lower breaking strains can and does cut into the flank of the fish if the fish is unlucky enough to roll up the line.
There is also the risk of fish becoming tethered if using poorly designed rigs and heavy braid (saying that, there is still a risk of fish becoming tethered when using mono too).

I've written about this before, but I had the misfortune of having a Barbel roll up the line and the braid I was using (20lb Spiderwire) cut a huge slice into the flank of the fish.

This was about 15 years ago, and I've never used braid for Barbel fishing since.

If used correctly, ie for drift float fishing for Pike for example, or lure fishing, I don't have a problem with it and it certainly puts more fish on the bank under those circumstances, but in harsh environments like rivers, I'm not happy myself to use it. It cuts too easily on snags like rocks too.

I know there will be hundreds that use it without any problems, but most are sensible. It only takes a few fools using it, combined with 'death rigs' to have committees banning it.

Why do you feel Braid is 'better' than mono for targeting Barbel?


Steve
 
On the upper parts of the river certain pegs and swims are only 10 ft wide and 3/4 ft deep so fish rolling up the line as you put it just doesn't happen. I can see it on wider rivers and when still water fishing at distance but over the last 4 years of using it across rivers like the Trent Thames Lodden Dove and Avon i've never had a fish damaged due to the braid neither have i heard of such things from others using the same set up.

I use 20lb power pro mainline and a 15lb coated braid hooklink with a running enterprise snag clip for 99% of my barbel fishing, same as alot of guys. This is because of the snaggy nature of the bankside and riverbed

i have caught several fish from the clubs waters complete with size 8 hooks with mono hooklinks of 10lb and have as of yet never been snapped up or cut off using the braid.

Why do you feel Braid is 'better' than mono for targeting Barbel? Well several reasons actually but i'll leave those for another day, thanks steve

anybody else?
 
i used to belong to a club that banned braid on the river, it's for good reason, as above,
i only use braid for pike, i just don't see any advantage over mono for barbel to be honest.
 
I would imagine that the club has had good reason to impose such a ban but it would be interesting to know what if anything had occurred.

I don't use braid for barbel I only use it for longer range pike and lure fishing but I know that many do prefer it. I can't see an advantage for barbel fishing though. Let's face it, bites are generally pretty easy to spot and the stuff is highly visible under water so why would you use it?
 
David Hall said:
i used to belong to a club that banned braid on the river, it's for good reason, as above,
i only use braid for pike, i just don't see any advantage over mono for barbel to be honest.
Click to expand...
On the large rivers like the Trent it does give the angler more pro's than con's. Such as less friction/tow = less weight used, I for one wouldnt be without it. However i do fish with a fluoro/mono leader above the hooklength, which provides total safety of the braid ever cutting a fish. Onto this i have incorporated my own breakaway lead clip, which reduces the risk of tethering. Maybe this could be introduced into your club Leyton, either fishing with some tubing covering the braid or a leader?
By fishing braid straight through, your more prone to getting cut off on snags and rocks, increasing tethering, also filleting would be a thing of the past. IMO
 
Leyton
Apart from the potential 'cheese wire' effect, I can think of no other reason.
Have you asked the Club why?
I will use braid under certain conditions, and I have caught a fair few fish whilst using it, where I believe it's attributes have helped me catch. Perhaps I have been fortunate, but I have never experienced the potential it has to damage fish. Having said that, for the majority of my fishing, on the Dove, Teme, Wye, Warks Avon and Severn, I use mono/flouro, but that's only for the benefits I believe that offers me, rather than the risk of any potential harm.

Cheers
Mark
 
i can't ask the club at the minute which is why i started the thread to try and gauge the possible reasons for banning before the vote at the AGM.

Thing is, the club seems to have a "us and them" attitude towards the modern Barbel anglers approach. Other things on the list this year are also to ban pellets and no fishing inbetween pegs which to me when you include the braid ban aswell all adds up to, we don't want barbel anglers on the water full stop.

After studying Barbel (and chub) feeding in low clear water over the last few seasons where the barbel can be seen reacting to mono and braid main lines, hooklinks and all types of end tackle set ups the rig i use is the most effective for my type of fishing.

They can see it Mr Burr your right but it doesn't seem to spook them as much when they touch it, returning to feed within minutes but put some flouro on that they cannot see and when they feel it they spook a mile, clearing the swim for an hour or more. The same can be said with mono hooklinks vs coated braid these are things that i have seen that have lead me to use the set up i do.

Jon's right aswell on the bigger rivers the dia of the braid mainline helps clear the floating weed which seems to cling less to it than when using thicker mono pinging off rather than rapping around it.

i think also the modern rounded braids are now far safer than the older flat braid's used to be, like the one that cut poor old Mary in half back in the day.

no real showstoppers as yet then.....
 
Hi Chaps , I would just like to add that braid has no stretch at all and because of this my personal opinion is that it could cause other trauma to barbel / carp as they are such hard fighting fish , whereas mono has some degree of shock asorption as it stretches as the fish runs .
Now if you have some idiot wanting to give it some welly and drag a fish in, it could have long term damaging effects to the fish !
Now i know there will be people who will totally disagree with this , so please bare in mind it is only my opinion and the main reason i would vote to ban braid !
 
Leyton, I have also been fishing with braided mainlines for years with no issues at all, the main reasons for the types of ban it looks like your club are imposing are ignorance. Someone comes up with a theory or over inflates an issue and convinces the rest of the committee who in turn convince the membership, after all, let's face it, most club members just go fishing and trust their committee to come up with reasoned judgement. My club had lots of stupid rules which we are slowly getting rid of, mostly brought on by a match fishing led committee, some sound very similar to yours, is the club big on match fishing??
 
Bigs not really the word Ian. Hardcore old skool anglers mostly late 50's upto 70's. The same guy wins it ever time sort of club

They are an old club tho 121 years on the water with a hardcore of members (15 or so) that only fish our stretch every other week thru the season. Due to the decline in roach and dace populations (2007 floods? barbel pushing them out?) on the strecth recent match result's only throw up chub, most winter matches were won with one fish or 20lbplus of 4 fish all chub.

James, sorry but i don't agree, the lack of stretch is a main the reason that i fish the Braid it allows me to know the limit of my set up and makes the hook itself the weakest part so with the aid of the drag it helps to control the barbel safely to the net, no welly involved

so overall from the replys it seems the only reason could be fish welfare? so i'm guessing banning keepnets is fair game in that case.......

cheers chaps
 
I have never seen any damage to the fish having used braid (powerpro) for the past 5-6 years at least. The body of most fish especially barbel, is incredibly tough.

Given the number of recaptures, and the number of anglers using braid, actual fish damage seen is pretty rare in my experience.

I also agree with Leyton re Fish seeing the line, and the reduction in spooking/liners. A point I have written about numerous times. A key advantage is the fact that hooks pull home with less movement of the bait.


Graham
 
I've been there done that with braid, I even bought the through action rods to compensate for the lack of stretch, (how ridiculus is that?).:rolleyes:
I also had 5 page argument on the old board with someone who I now regard as a mate because I admitted to using a 20' fluro leader on my braid.

I don't use it any more for my barbel fishing as tbh I don't see the need, in fact I'm thinking of going back to Maxima for my every day feeder flinging on the Severn and the Trent.

I'm not sure why anyone would suggest braid is ok for pike but not for barbel....Where's the logic in that? Don't pike have the ability to roll up the line and get tangled in braid?

I can see that large scaled, deep bodied fish, i.e carp, might possibly have a problem with fine diameter lines lifting the odd scale but to cut a fish in half, as has been suggested, you would have to be some sort of Neanderthal pulling for a break with a towel or something similar to protect your hands. I fail to see how one could cause that sort of damage in a normal angling situation.


Having said that, if this ban was being proposed by one of my clubs I would oppose it as I oppose any and all unnecessary rules.

As a practical point do you know many of the other 'speci' types in the club? Most clubs only have a tiny turnout for agm's and a dozen members will often be all you need to prevent these stupid draconian rules being voted in.
 
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Hi Leyton , as i said it is only my opinion , I actually prefer Mono so I am bias towards it , so i will watch the thread closely to find out more on the subject .
 
In the small group of friends I fish with (all braid users) not one of us has seen any sign of damage to the well over 700 barbel we've caught between us this season.
To me this is the thin end of the wedge..I used to fish commercials & saw some mouth damage (barbless hooks only!)
What next ban hooks?
 
I suppose if push came to shove you could always put a length of rig tube above the hooklink to help prevent the risk of cutting.I'm not sure if anyone does that or not but I have a feeling that pike anglers are known too.
Rich.
 
i have been using braid for a lot of my barbel fishing for over 40 years,
i have never seen a barbels flanks cut from using braid, carp yes far too many
and mostly because of inept use of it but carp aint barbel, totally different shape, braid gives instant indication of enquiries and is a lot better than stretchy mono when it comes to keeping a barbel away from snags in tight narrow rivers, the rod takes the lunges and the clutch so does the clutch
i have had plenty of times i felt that horrible kind of rasping grating feeling as the line pulls over the barbels fin but i have never ever seen a barbel roll itself up an anglers line, and yes flinty or rocky river beds spell plenty of cut offs on braid, personally i use mono in this type of river bed....j.w
 
It has to be said, the only fish I've ever seen injured by braid line was in fact a pike but in all honesty its injury was only sustained because the numpty that was drifting his deadbait so far he couldn't even see his float:mad:.

Like most injuries fish pick up whilst being caught by anglers, it occured because of poor angling rather than poor equipment:eek:.

Clubs can ban every conceivable risky practice, item of tackle
But in some hands the only safe rig is the one left at home:p!
 
Which club is trying to enforce these bans Leyton? And could a party of like minded anglers i.e. Those who use braid, fish between marked swims, as a lot of us Barbel anglers do, try to oppose these sanctions?
 
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