Catching on Braid vs Mono

We are strictly braid on all rods with no top shots. Works great for us it doesn't stretch at all so its not super forgiving but you can feel everything. Mono in my opinion is just a mess, I find you constantly have to cut off 30 feet with it and re-spool once a season, and if you have any bad swivels and you give it slack you end up with this massive tangled ball. The braid on my salmon rod is 50lb test and its 6 years old now and and is still as strong as it was when I bought it. I Even caught a Tyee on it as well this year.
 
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Fishing with braid creates a more sensitive connection with the fish due to no stretch/elasticity in main line. You have to be able to react quicker and read changes in salmon swimming direction because tension and vice versa slack happen faster than with mono. Better angler: faster reeling, more anticipatory skills, more feel. Just my 2 cents.....

Ok then..

I’ll be honest with with you here and just say,, that sounds like a load of manure to me. But each to his own mind set for sure.
 
I think braid performs better than mono but is less tolerant of mistakes. I use 10' MH Shimano moochers, so the rod is the main shock absorber. If trolling with a DR and especially as depth gets beyond 75' or so, the small diameter & no stretch of the braid make for the best hook set; both when the fish strikes & then when you reel & set the hook. If the fish is not running, I like to keep a fair amount of bend in the rod so that when the fish swims at you, the bend in the rod keeps tension while you react ; I have a large boat so I walk backwards & reel at the same time, then repo my self back at the stern ASAP. if the fish runs I REALLY let them go using minimal tension until they get more than 100 yards out (doesn't happen as often as I'd like). I fished with fishtofino a couple years back using my reels on his rods & lost every fish I hooked (6-7). I'd LIKE to think the rods were too stiff.
 
It really comes down to who you are fishing with most of the time, over 90% of my fishing on my boat is with inexperienced people so braid would be a problem most of the time, I also rarely fish very deep so the mono is fine, I'll respool 1 maybe 2 of my many reels with braid for myself when I need new line, the rest will stay with mono.
 
I run braid with a mono top shot. When i tried straight braid, it kept popping out of the clip prematurely. I think the biggest reason to run braid is so you dont waste time dragging shakers around. with braid you can see every little bump. you can even tell if some weeds have fouled up the action. I love the sensitivity while fighting a fish. Less blowback to real down on before setting the hook. The downside for me is the braid to mono knot. i had one slip out on me this year while setting the hook on the only bite of the day. I was using allbright knot and I hadnt had issues with it before. Ill have to try the FG knot, sounds like a lot of guys are using.
 
I have to disagree with the comment of braid you can see every shaker, weeds etc etc. I can see every single shaker or issue going on and I run straight mono. I think that issue comes down to what rods your running and how much you pay attention to your rods. If your running meat sticks for salmon that’s a whole different thread and is irrelevant to mono vs braid imo.
 
Ill have to try the FG knot, sounds like a lot of guys are using.


This is the technique I switched to and I'm fairly convinced that maintaining tension particularly in the early stages of the knot is important - it's basically a chinese fingertrap and you know how those work; the only way out is to introduce slack into the far end. I think that when the FG knot fails, it's basically the same thing happening: the mono end of the wraps isn't tight enough so the slack works its way back through the knot and opens it up.

Disclaimer: I am pretty good at knots but I'm not a knot scientist or anything.
 
I use the double uni.

Also anyone that claims mono is "the same" as braid for sensitivity is insane. Less blow back, pops the clip easier, far more sensitive in feeling the fish, less tangles due to the arc in the line when stacking, more durable, longer lasting. To each their own and sure if you don't feel like changing then more power to you but to claim that it's the same or not much difference is just flat out incorrect. Wrong. Unequivocally a false statement.
 
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I use the double uni.

Also anyone that claims mono is "the same" as braid for sensitivity is insane. Less blow back, pops the clip easier, far more sensitive in feeling the fish, less tangles due to the arc in the line when stacking, more durable, longer lasting. To each their own and sure if you don't feel like changing then more power to you but to claim that it's the same or not much difference is just flat out incorrect. Wrong. Unequivocally a false statement.
I agree, but with being a newbie to braid, I cant comment on longevity but damn with over 35 years salmon fishing with Mono, their is a HUGH diff and I think I'm liking it enough to change all my 4000s over as well
 

This is the technique I switched to and I'm fairly convinced that maintaining tension particularly in the early stages of the knot is important - it's basically a chinese fingertrap and you know how those work; the only way out is to introduce slack into the far end. I think that when the FG knot fails, it's basically the same thing happening: the mono end of the wraps isn't tight enough so the slack works its way back through the knot and opens it up.

Disclaimer: I am pretty good at knots but I'm not a knot scientist or anything.
Thanks Cracked Ribs for the Vid , anyone got a good one on uni and double uni. Please post , thinking this will definitely help all us newbie to braid
 
I use the double uni.

Also anyone that claims mono is "the same" as braid for sensitivity is insane. Less blow back, pops the clip easier, far more sensitive in feeling the fish, less tangles due to the arc in the line when stacking, more durable, longer lasting. To each their own and sure if you don't feel like changing then more power to you but to claim that it's the same or not much difference is just flat out incorrect. Wrong. Unequivocally a false statement.
There are a zillion 'reasonable arguments' out there for a zillion issues that all boil down to "I don't like change."
 
I've been using Albright knot for the mono to braid connection without issue. Snugs down to a tiny grain of rice size and shape. This includes my river caster setup on an Ambassadeur level wind capable of 70-80 m casts (when the operator has his **** together). Guess I should check out FG next time I'm setting up a reel, maybe it's even better than Albright.
 
As to mono->braid connection a served connection with hollow core braid will be the strongest & least likely to cause issues when the connection goes thru the rod guides - big issue if you are casting. For solid core, the cracked_ribs FG knot video is the bomb - thanks; if my served connection failed on the water & if I didn't have a spare, I'd use the FG until I got home. For Salmon fishing, if you use 40# for both braid & topshot, knot strength should be a non-issue for most of us; I defy anybody to put over 10# of drag on a knuckle buster or most conventional reels used for Salmon.
Braid lasts decades. Replace the mono topshot as needed as that's the portion of line that sees most of the abuse. This combo then becomes more cost-effective than straight mono. It is however not for the mistake-prone, and there needs to be some "give" in the rig - for me the give is provided by a slower action rod (bend is more evenly distributed) & light drag pressure. Iv'e been using it for over 20 years & would never go back to straight mono.
If you are deep water bottom fishing, it's the only way; unless you like dragging twice as much sinker weight up from 300', and with less weight you can use a lighter rod with a smaller reel. At my age, this stuff matters.
 
I run braid with a mono top shot. When i tried straight braid, it kept popping out of the clip prematurely. I think the biggest reason to run braid is so you dont waste time dragging shakers around. with braid you can see every little bump. you can even tell if some weeds have fouled up the action. I love the sensitivity while fighting a fish. Less blowback to real down on before setting the hook. The downside for me is the braid to mono knot. i had one slip out on me this year while setting the hook on the only bite of the day. I was using allbright knot and I hadnt had issues with it before. Ill have to try the FG knot, sounds like a lot of guys are using.
Double uniknot is the best. 8-10 wraps on braid 6 wraps on mono. Never had one slip never will. Highly recommended.
 

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Double uniknot is the best. 8-10 wraps on braid 6 wraps on mono. Never had one slip never will. Highly recommended.
Easy to tie on the boat too. No keeping tension or any of that foolishness
 
We are strictly braid on all rods with no top shots. Works great for us it doesn't stretch at all so its not super forgiving but you can feel everything. Mono in my opinion is just a mess, I find you constantly have to cut off 30 feet with it and re-spool once a season, and if you have any bad swivels and you give it slack you end up with this massive tangled ball. The braid on my salmon rod is 30lb test and its 6 years old now and and is still as strong as it was when I bought it. I Even caught a Tyee on it as well this year.

So does the braid stay in the clip? I switched to braid 3 years ago but always use a mono top shot because I was told I had to.
 
So does the braid stay in the clip? I switched to braid 3 years ago but always use a mono top shot because I was told I had to.

it does for a while especially if you’re fishing shallow. then it pops and you scramble and everything goes crazy then you realize it was all a sham then you throw your rod in disgust then your wife gets super mad and wants to go home. run a top shot of mono which stays in the clip and acts as the shock absorber.
 
Easy to tie on the boat too. No keeping tension or any of that foolishness
The double uni knot is a good knot and easy to tie but a bit fat, that's the only thing that the FG does much better. Technically I think the FG retains a greater percentage of the line strength but I think most of us are using lines heavy enough that the difference between 80 and 90 percent knot strength is pretty unimportant.

If I had to tie knots in between freighters running my floating RV out of the channel I would probably be happy with the inferior double uni, like some kind of mono fisherman.









In reality I grew up with the double uni and it worked great; the only reason I started using the FG was that I read it was better for braid, and since I had never used braid before that moment I googled what I was supposed to do and heard of the FG and thought maybe the double uni didn't work on it.
 
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