Bass Fishing Hacks
Simple Hacks and Tips to Help You Catch More Bass
Is braided line good for bass fishing?
Braided fishing line is your best choice for many different bass fishing scenarios but not all scenarios. If you like fishing the thick vegetation mats with punch jigs, then braided line is the way to go. If you like fishing frogs in heavy cover, then braided line is the way to go. If you like flipping jigs into submerged trees and other structure, then braided line is the way to go. If you like fishing big top water lures, then braided line is the way to go.
There are many other scenarios where braided line is your best bet and there are also many scenarios of which mono filament and fluorocarbon fishing line is going to be your best bet.
I am a Bass Fishing Charter Guide on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been catching bass in the ponds, lakes and canals all over Florida for more than 40 years.
In the article below, I will teach you everything that I know about bass fishing with braided lines.
I have been fishing long enough to remember when braided lines first came out and they sucked!!!! They couldn’t hold a knot and you had to super glue every one. They were too stiff and had tons of memory and ended up in a bird nest even on a spinning reel. They were horrible.
I remember the first time that I ever used braided line. I was using a crawdad crankbait and on my second cast I caught a 5 pound bass. On my next few casts I caught another 5 pound bass and I was thinking what a great fishing day this was going to be. THEN everything went down hill from there. My line started getting knots in it for no reason.
Then I couldn’t cut it with my pliers and had to get a knife. I cut out all of the bad line; started fishing again and then it happened again with only another 10 casts or so. I went home and threw out my new and super expensive braided line and put 12 pound mono filament line back on my bass reels.
I didn’t fish braided line again for the next 15 years or so. BUT braided lines have come a long way since then and now I use them all of the time for both saltwater and freshwater fishing applications.
Let’s cover the pros and cons of braided lines and when the best time to fish with them is.
Watch the video below to learn how to tie your mono filament base line to your braided line on your reels.
What is the best color braided fishing line for bass?
Darker lines are preferred by the pros for fishing thick vegetation like weed mats and tree branches. I use a gray colored braid and the bass really don’t seem to care that much when I am fishing thick weeds and lily pads with jig and frogs. You can tie heavy braided line up to 65 pounds directly to your hook for those scenarios and bass will still eat your lures.
Bass also don’t seem to care about braided line when you are fishing top water reaction types of lures either. When you are fishing a walk-the-dog or a popper type of top water lure the bass don’t seem to notice the braided line tied straight to the lures. They are just reacting to the lure and are oblivious of the line in front of it.
BUT if you are fishing soft plastics like a Carolina rig; a drop shot rig; a wacky rig or fishing with live bait. I think that you are crazy to tie braided line straight to your hooks in those scenarios. You have to add a mono filament or fluorocarbon leader to get the best results when fishing finesse techniques or with soft plastics in general or live baits.
Those brightly colored braided lines are great to help you know where your line is at and whether it is moving or not. I am kind of old now and I just cannot see the line as well as I used to. A bright yellow line really helps old guys like me to not miss many bass.
Sometimes you can’t feel those wily bass as they softly pick up your worm and run off with it. In those cases a brightly colored braided line will help you catch more fish for sure. “When your line is moving but you ain’t reeling its time to set that hook.”
Can bass see braided line?
Bass can see braided line but they usually do not notice it because they are reacting to the bait and not the line. Darkening the first foot of your braided line with a black Sharpie is a good idea for when you tie directly to the lure. It does make it blend in better especially in dark and stained water scenarios.
How often should bass fishermen change their braided fishing line?
Braided lines last for many years. Many fishermen say that you need to change braided line every 4 or 5 years and mono filament lines every 2 or 3 years but I disagree. I only change out my braided lines when they get all scratched up or nicked. This happens a lot when you fish around structures like rocks, docks and submerged trees and those types of things.
You also might have a chip in one of your line guides that is chewing up your braided lines. If you fix the faulty guide, then you can get many years out of your braided lines. Braided lines will often wash out in color but that does not mean that they are not working optimally. That just means that the dyes used in the manufacturing process are leaching out of the materials with use.
The bottom line is that you don’t need to change out your braided line until it starts to fail you. There are some bait shops that will unwind your braided line from your spool and re-spool it with the bad line on the base of the spool and the good never used line will now be at the terminal end of your line. Ask you local bait shop if they will do that before you throw out your old braided line.
Does braided line float?
The quick answer is yes, most braided lines do float. Over time however their coatings will erode and they will start to absorb water. Most new right out of the box braided lines will float for quite a few hours of fishing.
This floating characteristic is why braided line is a must for frog fishing over top of thick vegetation. A sinking line would make it much harder to fish that scenario. It is also great for fishing very shallow top water lures for the same reason. If it sank it would get hung up in super skinny water.
How strong is braided fishing line?
The best quality of braided fishing lines versus fluorocarbon and mono filament fishing lines is its strength to diameter ratio. A common strength to diameter ratio comparison to mono filament and fluorocarbon fishing lines is 3 or 4 to 1.
This means that an average braided line that has a 15 pound breaking point would only have the diameter of a fluorocarbon line that had a 4 pound breaking point. This is the best reason to use braided line if you ask me. You can use a much thinner line and put a lot more of it on your spool. That means that you can cast it farther.
Watch the video below and learn the best rods and reels for fishing with braided lines.
Does braided fishing line have memory?
Braided fishing lines have little or no memory. The more limp the fishing line the less memory the line will have. That is one of the great things about braided fishing lines. Mono filament and fluorocarbon fishing lines usually have lots of memory and this can cause casting problems.
When did braided fishing line come out on the market?
Modern braided fishing lines became available to the public in the late 1980s but didn’t really catch on for another 20 years because of all of the shortcomings mentioned in the article above.
The ancient Chinese used braided silk threads as fishing line almost 2,000 years ago. Polyester was invented in the 1950s and used as a synthetic fish line too but it wasn’t until the late 1980s when polyethylene was invented.
This is still the most popular synthetic material used in the manufacturing process of fishing lines. That is what a PE braided fishing line is. PE is short for polyethylene.
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