braided question again

Hello everyone. I've been following the information on this forum and found it very helpful. I fished on GSP for 8 times and caught my 1st jack and king here. I really appreciate the help (knowledge, gaffing, untangling..) from all the friendly people on the pier!

Most of the time I've been using the braided line and throwing lures. The line I've been using is high vis yellow power pro super slick 8 65lb. And the reel I use is penn battle 6000. However I noticed that nobody is using a braided line that heavy. Please give me some advice on what kind of line I should use if I want to throw lures? I also have a penn battle 4000 and have 30lb braided line on it for spanish mackerels. Is it over killed for spanish mackerels? Please give me some suggestions on that too.

I noticed that 80% people at the octi are bait fishing and using mono lines. Should I just give up lure fishing at all and use mono and bait as most pople do? I don't want to be a googan..

Welcome to the forum Z.
Very intuitive first post!

I have noticed the older I get the less stamina I have for grinding away hours throwing lures.
The saying in shallow is "everything eats shrimp".
Well on the octi "everything eats LYS"!
Most folks are content to let the LY do the work for them after the first 1000 or so casts with a plug ;-)

Besides nothing beats watching a king sky on a bait under a float :whip
and they sure are cheaper than $15 plugs. LOL

65# braid has about the same diameter of 20# mono but NONE of the stretch.
Peaches, Gainer and a few others use that for cobia jigs but few go that heavy for kings unless trying to keep them away from sharks.

I have used 30# braid for plugs and bubble rigs for spanish macks, but prefer 20# or 15# braid for that.

NObody is a googan who asks questions :-)
Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply! And it makes a lot of sense.

I guess I will spool the penn 6000 with 20lb mono and use LY on it. Two things that kinda stop me from using LYs though. 1st is shark.. 2nd is that LYs die pretty fast and then you have to sabiki to catch another one. But I guess that's probably because I did not hook the LY in the right way..
I still want to keep a lure setup. Do you think I can use the penn 4000 with 30lb braided line to throw those 1-2oz lures for kings? Or how do most regulars throw the lures?

Pier#r is the man! I use 15lb. Super slick 8 blue on my 4000 size reel for throwing King lures , which I do pretty regularly , but it also gives you a chance to throw lighter lures as well without much wind resistance . Main reason I use 15 lb braid is because it holds more line which is very important when fishing smaller reels for kings

[QUOTE= Main reason I use 15 lb braid is because it holds more line which is very important when fishing smaller reels for kings[/QUOTE]


15 lb. braid is tiny. Can't even imagine how much you could put on a 706.

So 15lb braided would be sufficient for Kings?! I wish I have known this earlier. Now I know how silly it is using 65lb braided..Do you spool the 4000 reel full with the 15lb braided?

Just buy a 300 yard spool of 15# braid, but put some mono backing on the spool first.
Most stores will spool the line for you if you buy it there.

I just use 15lb Big Game mono. Strong and cheap.

Welcome to the forum Z. There is a reason why 80% of the people use mono. It is correct and courteous thing to do. Use braid (as backing) to increase the capacity of your reel not to enhance the ability to cast further. With live bait, I would argue that a short cast or even a straight drop is more productive than a long cast. Remember that, live is the key word in live bait. We must keep it alive in order to expect any sort of success.

If I had what you have,
1) I would take the 65# braid off of the 6000 and save it for some other use in the future or toss it. Then take the 30# from your 4000, put it on the bottom of the 6000 and top it off with 12-20# mono. This would be my live bait king reel.
2) Fill the 4000 with 10 or 12# mono and use it for throwing lures and smaller live baits at appropriate sized fish . Of course everybody has a different idea of what appropriate is (mine is anything other than a tarpon or shark).

Agree with point 1. How do you keep the LYs live longer?

For point 2, are you implying that 12# mono is enough for most species including kings?

The LY stays alive with a soft cast as opposed to the shock it receives from a hard cast with distance.
I am saying 10 or 12 on a 4000 is capable in the right hands. I say that in a non challenging way as in it wouldn't be my first choice, but if it were my only choice I would not be afraid to use it.

I think that you ought to fish in the manner that you think increases your chances of bringing a fish over the rail as long as your method of fishing doesn't adversely affect the other guys. Overkill? That probably describes most fishermen. I use about 14 lb. mono line for spanish and 20 lb mono line for kings and that's probably heavier than most guys use and some might call my line size "overkill". As long as the line size doesn't deter the fish from biting my bait/lure and I can cast it a long way, I'm good with it.

To my way of thinking, the idea is to get the fish over the rail and into the cooler, not to give fish an even chance of swimming away with treble hooks in their mouths.

I think both mono and braid have their place. For my king rods I put 150 yards of braid on the spool and top the rest with 15lb mono. This allows me to have slightly more line capacity as well as give me a good idea when I see the braid start peeling off the reel of how much line I have left.

As for braided line I like it on my Spanish or lure rods. Allows me to cast good ways and put greater amounts of line on a smaller lighter reel that I can work all day with a lure. The extra line capacity on a smaller reel comes in handy when a larger king or jack grabs your lure. As for size braid I would suggest no larger than 15 is needed. That stuff is tough as nails.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roll_Tide

As for size braid I would suggest no larger than 15 is needed. That stuff is tough as nails.

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In general manufacturers way understate the breaking strength of braid, often by 50% or more. So don't be afraid to use "light" braid, but be sure you learn a good knot (braid has poor knot strength compared to mono).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FishAddict

I just use 15lb Big Game mono. Strong and cheap.

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What he said.