Braid Fad Over?

r.s craven said:
Man, no way i would ever go back to wire.
200lb power pro is awesome stuff, no more rusted,frayed wire
to break off, jab you and spring off the spool into a friggin' birds nest.
I can't say enough good things about it. :)
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Totally agree. Both the downriggers in my salt water boat have 200 pound Power Pro on them and I doubt that I'll ever switch back to wire. My lake boat, however, still has SS wire on both the downriggers and that's the way that they'll probably stay until circumstances require changing the wire out. No big corrosion issues with fresh water.
Dave
 
I keep a lighter in my tackle box to burn the ends of any braid
I use and it cant come apart after that, never had a problem with knots.
 
Dragginbait......I'll try sinjing the ends of the line with a lighter...just like polypropylene rope method.....sounds like a good idea........tks.
 
Hey FD,

My guess is you get minimal blowback because you're using 15 # balls. I typically use 8 to 10 lb balls and with 150# PP, I get way more blowback with braid then I used to get with wire.

I upped the ante to 12 # for this summer, hoping for less blowback. We'll see how that goes

I should probably go to 200# PP with 15's but for the type of fishing I do, my guess it's overkill (I never use flashers on my main-line and I'm usually fishing on the shallow side)
 
i had both riggers spooled with SS and Braid at the same time for a whole summer ,
, same weight on both sides , less drag on the braid , bar none...

why not just use 15 all the time ??

we all do ?? no need for change , rigger is doing all the work ??

some Guides WCVI are using 20lb exclusively on the new Scotty's ,


m2b , outta here...

fd
 
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When I turn on my Scotty hauling up a 10# ball, there's an audible drop in the RPM's of my Honda kicker, like somehow the alternator is struggling. 15# sounds great for minimizing blowback but I always figured (rightly or wrongly) that the extra 5# would work the Scotty too hard.

Maybe I had that part wrong?

I do know that losing a 10 # is not as painful in the back pocket as losing a 15# (after you've had a drink or two and get blind-sided by that reef you knew was there but you figured you'd miss this time....)
 
Birdsnest said:
I'm a braid guy too BUT I have a dream of finding a kevelar braid. I have searched and searched and could never find a product that would work. My reason for trying to find kevelar would be to increase the strength and reduce diameter if the line. I figure that if I found the right material it would or could be thinner than the common wire we have used for so long. This would be very advantageous.

Dare to dream.
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In the very early days there was a Kevlar product that proved to be very abrasive-it quickly disappeared and there's been nothing on the market since (except for high end sailing ropes IIRC)
 
OK one more post on this topic LOL.
I switched one side only to braid to try it out last year and all went well until last month when I had two unexplained snap offs on the braid that was only 15 months old. (Full details on the Sooke reports thread)
It appears you can ONLY use braid on brand new pulleys/downriggers. Mine had wire for years and were cut/abraided and they simply did a number on the braid over time so that the 175lb braid snapped like cotton 20 feet above the ball, twice on same day!!

So since I cannot afford new downriggers I am going back to wire.:D

BTW I believe I get less blowback with wire than braid. This seems to be reasonable physics since wire is denser and heavier than braid (in fact 100 feet of wire must weigh three or four times what the same length of braid does.) The diameter difference is not enough to offset that IMHO.
 
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Englishman said:
OK one more post on this topic LOL.
I switched one side only to braid to try it out last year and all went well until last month when I had two unexplained snap offs on the braid that was only 15 months old. (Full details on the Sooke reports thread)
It appears you can ONLY use braid on brand new pulleys/downriggers. Mine had wire for years and were cut/abraided and they simply did a number on the braid over time so that the 175lb braid snapped like cotton 20 feet above the ball, twice on same day!!

So since I cannot afford new downriggers I am going back to wire.:D

BTW I believe I get less blowback with wire than braid. This seems to be reasonable physics since wire is denser and heavier than braid (in fact 100 feet of wire must weigh three or four times what the same length of braid does.) The diameter difference is not enough to offset that IMHO.
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I'm not so sure it was your pulleys that were the problem.
the braid would track in the same grooves as the wire.
believe me, i would not advocate the product if i did not believe in it.
there is really no comparison, the braid is so much better.

Are you using the simple palomar knot ?

p.s. are you using Powerpro ?
 
RSC, I was not using Powerpro, but I cannot remember the make of the product.
I used the Palomar knot, but the breaks did not occur at the knot. They were way above that. Which makes sense since the lower few feet of the braid never went near the pulleys.
I am sure braid is a great product....IF you have decent new pulleys!!
 
r.s craven said:
Man, no way i would ever go back to wire.
200lb power pro is awesome stuff, no more rusted,frayed wire
to break off, jab you and spring off the spool into a friggin' birds nest.
I can't say enough good things about it. :)
Click to expand...

x2
..............................................
 
Englishman said:
So since I cannot afford new downriggers I am going back to wire.:D
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Instead of new downriggers, how about new pulleys, or even cheaper, just use 100 grit sand paper to remove the nicks in the pulley and especially the pulley housing.

F D

ps - I still use wire, and a ProTroll Black Box.
 
Fisher Down said:
Instead of new downriggers, how about new pulleys, or even cheaper, just use 100 grit sand paper to remove the nicks in the pulley and especially the pulley housing.

F D

ps - I still use wire, and a ProTroll Black Box.
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I could, but since I have totally lost confidence in braid (and only went on one side anyway) I shan't bother. And the double whammy is the wire side outfished the braid side more than 3 to 1 for winter chinooks. I am going back to wire for sure.
(I have black box too but have never figured out how to make any difference, despite some experiments....so it stays off most of the time).
 
Dragginbait said:
I even do it on my spinning rods with braid.
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Awesome. I love the stuff as well.

To each there own but if the op reads this thread through and through it is obvious that he has been reading the wrong things and that certain person at that sporting good store is full of ***** lol.

It is no fad. It is dominating if anything. I have had zero problems with 3 year old on my downriggers (that used to have wire and have a groove in the pulleys to boot). I don't know what you guys do to your line to make it fail? and I thought I was rough on my stuff lol.
 
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