So finally nice day rolls by, and I decide to do a little bank fishing.  It's like 75 degrees with a slight chop on the water.  Perfect day for my brand new Spro rat.  First cast SNAP! goes the 50lb Power Pro.  See you later Mr. Rat.  Luckily the breeze brought it close enough to snag with a pincone I tied on (I must have looked like the Banjo Minnow guy).  Anyway, I have an Abu Garcia 5600 Ambassadeur SX on a 7'6" Extra Heavy Carrot Stix.  Should I go for heavier braid or heavy mono? What are your suggestions?

Seems like you need a shock leader, or to switch to mono/fluro. Braid doesn't have room for stretch when there's a problem

Oh, and what pound line do you suggest?

What kind of knot do you tie? Sounds like knot or line failure. Fifty pound braid shouldn't break at the knot that easy. Either way, if it was me I would feel more comfortable with 65 lb+.

15 lb. CXX is what I use. You might want to bump it up to 17 lb. or so.

The wierd thing was it wasn't the knot.  There was like 40 feet of line still on it. 

My guess is you had a frayed placed in the line from a previous birds nest. No line change will keep it from happening again.

I have used 25 lb Big Game mono for swimbaits up to 8 oz for decades. The BBZ-1 rat weighs 2 1/2 oz, I have been using 25 lb Sunline Defier a nylon line for swimbaits up to 5 oz for over a year without any issues, good line. I have tried the Spro rat and it looks good, just need to get out at dusk to fish it when the rodents are active.

I had a lot of problems using braid with swimbaits and don't recommend it. You are lucky the lure wasn't a sinking type.

Tom

PS, the 25 lb Defier Nylon is the same diamter as most other brands 17 lb. and over 30% stronger.

Big game in 20 or yhb in 20 or cxx in 20. Your choice.

Thanks guys probably gonna go with Big Game.  By the way if your'e on the fence about the Spro rat get it the action is absolutely crazy.  Morning Dawn is awesome. 

You got lucky, almost had to learn what a lot of swimbaiters have to find out the hard way. We all know backlash are going to happen in fishing. The problem arises when you're tossing a heavy bait and it hits the end of your line hard when you backlash. Casting off an expensive, sinking swimbait is about as much fun as getting punched in the stomach. A good quality 20-25 pound copolymer is what I use for all my swimbaits. 

Only way to snap off a lure with 50# braid is a bad knot or frayed line.  It's always possible a nick in one of the guides is the culprit, but if it didn't happen once you put a new lure on, probably not the problem.

Don't recall snapping off a lure of any size and I don't use anything heavier than 20# braid, I catch tarpon on that size line.

I'm in the process right now of respooling all of my inshore set ups with fresh braid.

Thanks guys probably gonna go with Big Game.  By the way if your'e on the fence about the Spro rat get it the action is absolutely crazy.  Morning Dawn is awesome. 

 

My SPRO rat should be here today or tomorrow I imagine. Can't wait to see it. I bought the Ninja because the brown was out and morning dawn was out...go figure. I don't think it will matter that much though. I will get one of each color. I use 15lb PLine CXX and it works well. It's tough line for sure. I want to try the Sunline though and will this year. Good luck with the rat! Post pics ...I will when I catch my first pig on it for sure.

The reason for your break off has been covered.

To answer you question...Assuming you're useing a soft swim bait like a Skinny Dipper or Big EZ?

If so my line of choice here in Fla is 30# PP.

If not, please disregard.

Mike