Ive been a braid to leader guy 100% for the past couple years. In my kayak where I only had 2 casting combos it gave me the versatility that I needed. I honestly only fished straight fluoro for a bit and wrote it off just because it seemed weird compared to braid. Well this year I started fishing out of a boat where I can have more rods and versatility, while still a big deal, became slightly less important. Yesterday I was having issues with the 30lb braid on my only MH moving bait rod

(a daiwa tatula elite 7’3 multi purpose) 

and out of frustration I cut off the braid and spooled it with my leader material, some 16lb sniper. Well straight fluoro was a lot better than I remember and casting distance seemed about the same as 30lb braid. It definitely felt “mushy” and less sensitive than braid, but I’ll just have to warm up to that. I think I’ll finally give straight fluoro a fair shot and see how it goes. 

I went trough something similar, in my case I was just tired of leaders (I can do a FG knot efficiently but still)

I cannot say I love fluorocarbon but it has made my life on the boat a little easier. 

Was in the same boat, and went back to braid with a fluoro leader in a few months. Anything over 10lb fluro doesn't feel smooth, and there's no reason to deal with something that isn't smooth when with braid, even 50lb is a smooth caster.

I use 10#, 12# and 15# fluorocarbon on my bait casters.  I would use it on spinning setups if it would work.  Some of my specialty casting rods have super small eyes and even an fg knot won’t work.

Hate braid on casting reels.

Mono or FC on Every one of these.

10,12 & 15 lb. Tatsu or Sunline Defier

I catch a few.

A-Jay

 

I tried flouro. I just don’t see the need. It’s cool it sinks fast. And is sensitive. Not as sensitive as braid. I love braid to depending what I’m doing. That said plain old big game has been the best all around line for me. Mono does the job just fine sensitivity wise and bottom contact wise. I say save the money on flouro. And just use quality mono or braid 

Sniper is good. 18 lb is where it gets squirrely for me. No real desire to try anything else. 

Interesting discussion. I've not tried fluoro at all. But I've been thinking about trying it for my mainline, just to see if I like it or not.

 

I've tried braid a couple times, always small braid. It digs in too much. I've not tried heavier braid to see how I like it.

Straight Mono, FC or Braid no leaders. Tried leaders using spinning outfits to reduce line twist as a back seater, works but worry about 2 knots on big bass.

Going to give BSF combo a try to use straight Max UG 5 lb copoly line for light lures to eliminate 2 knots.

Tom

I started using Sunline Shooter FC in the early 90’s from a tip from a young Aaron Martens, Trout Supply in Florida sold 200 meter spools. I really like the Shooter FC until random failures that never were solved by trying every brand known to man.

Tom

30-50# braid on most of my Shimano bait casters, 10# pound on my Stradic. with 10,12,15 and 20# big game tied with an fg knot for yrs now with very minimal failure. I highly recommend learning the fg knot if you’re going the braid to leader route. Tie it over and over and over till you master it. Now can tie it in 2-3 minutes in any kind of conditions but it was definitely a learning curve. It’s also easy to break off when hung by wrapping braid around some type of handle, I use a wooden dowel. Most of the time leader knot will remain intact and will break at bait knot. Well this is the method I personally prefer anyway, but to each their own. 

I use straight fluoro on at least 1 reel for pitching plastics and jigs.  Never had a problem with it on baitcasters.  On spinning reels I used to use straight 7 lb Gamma Touch for small swimbaits and that fine.  No issues but my casting distance was not good as with the braid/fluoro setup.  

9 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Interesting discussion. I've not tried fluoro at all. But I've been thinking about trying it for my mainline, just to see if I like it or not.

 

I've tried braid a couple times, always small braid. It digs in too much. I've not tried heavier braid to see how I like it.

 

50 lb Power Pro. Party like it's 2013.

5 hours ago, shackman said:

30-50# braid on most of my Shimano bait casters, 10# pound on my Stradic. with 10,12,15 and 20# big game tied with an fg knot for yrs now with very minimal failure. I highly recommend learning the fg knot if you’re going the braid to leader route. Tie it over and over and over till you master it. Now can tie it in 2-3 minutes in any kind of conditions but it was definitely a learning curve. It’s also easy to break off when hung by wrapping braid around some type of handle, I use a wooden dowel. Most of the time leader knot will remain intact and will break at bait knot. Well this is the method I personally prefer anyway, but to each their own. 

I consider my self pretty good at tying an FG. Can probably tie one in a couple minutes. Maybe 4 minutes if I’m using super light line. 

Frog rod and punch rod have straight braid, spinners braid to leader. Beyond that I'm mostly running straight fluoro/copoly/mono these days. More Yo Zuri hybrid than anything else, cheap and effective. I run Tatsu on my jerkbait and light BFS rods, 15lb Invizx is my goto fluoro for general use.

I like braid but hate it in the wind.  I live in a wind tunnel sooooo I use long leaders.

8 minutes ago, webertime said:

I like braid but hate it in the wind.  I live in a wind tunnel sooooo I use long leaders.

On casting gear I use about 15ft leaders. 

I started out all straight braid, then tried straight fluoro for a bit (also 16lb sniper), and have settled on braid to leader to get the best of both worlds. Only exceptions are straight braid for my frog/fipping rod, and straight copoly on my big swimbait rods. 

I've never understood when people say braid is more sensitive than fluoro.  Fluoro offers semi slack sensitivity far better than braid for me.

   I used braid with leaders for years... still do on most of my spinning rods.  I still have a few casting reels spooled with braid and I'm too cheap to strip them, but aside from a frog reel, every new spool the last couple years is fluoro or mono.

6 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I've never understood when people say braid is more sensitive than fluoro.  Fluoro offers semi slack sensitivity far better than braid for me.

   I used braid with leaders for years... still do on most of my spinning rods.  I still have a few casting reels spooled with braid and I'm too cheap to strip them, but aside from a frog reel, every new spool the last couple years is fluoro or mono.

On moving baits my line is not slack for very long. Yesterday fishing straight 16lb fluoro there was a very very noticeable difference in sensitivity. 

^ Braid with leader on all spinning rigs here - and yes, FC added in (15'-18') seems to increase the slack-line sensitivity for me anyway

 

Only two casting reels I have braid on are my flip/pitch/punch rig (50#) and my frog/toad rig (40) - and again, leaders (20# and 15# respectively) but shorter - 8'-10')

 

Ever other casting reel is either straight FC or straight YZH.

54 minutes ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

On moving baits my line is not slack for very long. Yesterday fishing straight 16lb fluoro there was a very very noticeable difference in sensitivity. 

Admittedly keyed on the word sensitivity with little regard to the rest of your post.  I've such a wide spectrum of moving bait presentations that I have trouble addressing.  I don't like braid for spinnerbaits (except sometimes on inline spinnerbaits). Depending on the rod and the conditions, I sometimes prefer braid for chatterbaits.  Crankbaits all get flouro.  Most buzzbaits get mono, but lighter ones usually braid.  Swim jigs, paddletails, and scroungers, flouro.  Spooks, ploppers and toads, mono.  Jerkbaits, braid with leader.  Spoons, larger swimbaits and A-rigs, flouro. Poppers, mono or braid with leaders.

 

   The other thing in your post that I glossed over was that you are in a kayak.  I fish from a boat mostly now, but I kayak fished for many years.  I believed strongly that I achieved a better hookset with braid from a seated position in a moving kayak. (Part of the reason that I had over half my reels spooled with braid until recently. )

I'm braid to leader for everything other than frogging and aware that there's tradeoffs, but since I moved to long floro leaders, 15-25', combined with decent rods and more experience, slack line sensitivity has improved and feels like it's reached straight mono quality.  I think I've only gut hooked once in the last 2 years.  It was a lightweight jigworm that I misinterpreted as a weed and was slow on the uptake, luckily was able to turn it and pop it out reaching thru the gill plate.

 

scott

 

 

I’m a pricey floro fan using Sniper Assassin FC on all of my baitcasters except ones I have dedicated to the gnarly stuff.  A $30-40 spool of floro is little expense compared to what I’ve spent on setups.