Braided main lines have really taken off over the last few years, especially amongst lure angling enthusiasts. My own introduction to braid was about three or four seasons ago, when it was recommended for use with marker rods for feature finding. The first time I used it was incredible. I was fishing a large pit, searching small gravel bars, which were only about two feet across and easily missed. In fact, if I had been using traditional monofilament line most of these small features had been completely missed by us on previous occasions. However, by switching over to braid the small plucks on the rod tip suddenly became rod-wrenching thuds as the three-ounce lead tumbled across gravel, flints and stones on the lakebed. Braided mainline had revolutionised feature-finding overnight.

At the time Fox Tackle had two braids on the market, these being Driftmaster and Trollmaster, both specifically aimed at pike anglers. I only purchased a spool of the Driftmaster, a braid that permanently floats – brilliant! No more greasing of mono, no more line sinking between float and rod tip, but most impressive of all was the way the braid picked up easily and quickly off the surface of the water during striking. Braid was also to prove far superior to mono in setting the hooks into pike, especially at range.
Now, when it comes to predator fishing I am a confirmed bait angler deadbaiting mainly and more recently livebaiting. Last season I decided to switch from having braid on only one rod (drifter/free rover) to using braid on all three of my baits rods, to see how it would perform, and to find out if there were any advantages or disadvantages over the more usual mono lines. After a full seasons use I have to say that the braided lines were superb!
However, the one thing that I did discover fairly quickly was that with braid it is best not to overfill your spool. Up to a point, you can get away with overfilling mono, but with braid you definitely can’t, as it will soon tangle and ‘birds nest’ when casting. I have therefore found it much better to slightly under fill your spools to avoid such problems.
The great advantage of braid though is probably the fact that due to its almost ‘stretchless’ properties, it has no ‘memory’ and therefore doesn’t seem to suffer from the dreaded line twist that can afflict even the most carefully tended monofilament. I’ve been using the more traditional mono this summer for other species and have already had to re-spool three times in the last three months. With braid on the other hand, a spool should last several seasons rather than just a couple of months. Braids do however, fade quite quickly but this does not appear to weaken it at all.

Nerve wracking
The first time you play a fish on braided line the experience can be a little nerve wracking to say the least. Every lunge, roll and head shake of your quarry is greatly exaggerated when compared to mono lines and can be felt right through the whole length of the rod. However, after catching a few fish on braid you can often sense just when a pike is about to shake its head, flare its gills, and make a last dash for freedom. It is this unique sensitivity that can tell you just when to apply more pressure with the rod, and equally when to ease off a bit to avoid pulling the hooks out of an angry predator.

When it comes to rigs to use with braid, apart from the usual free-roving and drifter set-ups, I also use the braids for paternostering and legering. However, instead of buying a sinking braid for legering, as you might expect, I decided to continue to use the floating Dirftmaster braid on all three rods. My thinking was that, as I leger with my lines clipped up as tight as a bow string, then it doesn’t seem to matter whether the braid floated or sank. In fact, my theory was that a floating braid may well be better for this form of fishing because when a run occurred, a floating line would rise up, thus avoiding any weed or snags between rod and lead. Although I doubt this would happen on a fast run, it’s still a nice thought. In addition, if I used a sinking braid, then this would lack versatility, as I wouldn’t be able to free-rove or drift with that particular rod. Being versatile with rigs is very important to me, as I shall explain shortly.

Take a bow
When fishing in very windy weather I have found it much easier to take the bow out of the line after casting with braid. This means I can have my line tight to the lead and back in the rests in just a few seconds, whereas with traditional mono, it could take up to a minute or more to get my line taught.

Bite indication is also greatly enhanced by the use of braid. One method I nearly always employ on rivers, drains and even pits, is to walk a little way up or downstream and lower the bait into a likely-looking spot – often close to the near-margin! I then walk my rod back to the rod pod. The trouble was that with mono, often all you would get with this method would be a couple of bleeps and the rod might tremble a little, which, if you didn’t watch your rods like a hawk, you could easily put down to wind movement. Since changing to braid though, these small rod tremblers have become more like barbel bites as my buzzer goes berserk, followed by my rod being wrenched around about two feet until the drop off indicator falls away. There is really no mistaking a run when using braid.

Last season saw be me doing a lot more livebaiting, legering them with the aid of a bait popper tied to one of the trebles to keep the bait off the bottom. It has been noticeable with braided main line that on calm days I can actually see the rod tip bouncing due to the action of the bait; with very lively baits, my Delkim will bleep occasionally just to keep me on my toes! Sometimes, I can actually tell when I’m about to get a run often because the bait that was causing my buzzer to bleep every couple of minutes or so, suddenly produces half a dozen bleeps in just a few seconds, usually followed by a full-blooded run as the bait is engulfed.

Quick change artist
My other main rig is what I call my ‘quick change’ rig. I first saw this rig written about in an article in Pikelines number 27 entitled ‘Pike Terminal Tackles’ by James Holgate (you’re going back a few years there Darren! J.H.). There is even a diagram of his rig and above this is reads; “This basic rig is able to be turned into practically any pike terminal tackle in a matter of minutes”. I usually start off using it as a float-leger set-up, mainly because I simply love watching a float. However, the great thing about this rig is the fact that you can quickly change presentations without the need to re-tie knots. 

For example, simply slide the stop knot towards the trace, remove the pencil float and attach a polyball with a swivel glued into it, and you now have a free-roving set-up. Alternatively, add lead by removing the polyball, and the SSG shot from the trace, move the stop knot about fifteen to twenty feet up the braid, and you have a leger rig (remember to place the stop knot at the back of the spool to avoid tangles).

Now remove the lead and slide the stop knot all the way down to the trace and you have an effective wobbling rig. Add a couple of SSG shot when wobbling in deep water. Add a couple more shot and it is now a superb rig for casting half mackerel to the horizon.
As I said earlier, it really is a ‘quick change’ rig, which has caught me stacks of fish.
One example of how effective changing your rig quickly can be occurred when I was using this rig for wobbling baits around a complex of gravel pits, when I found a shoal of roach fry in a corner of one pit. My first retrieve through the swim produced follows from two good-sized pike; one looked a low double, whilst the other was a much bigger fish, about a mid-twenty. This happened about ten times; they would just follow but wouldn’t take the bait. I wondered if they would accept a bait that closely resembled the roach fry? So I quickly added a small polyball, set the depth to three feet, swapped smelt for a small sprat and cast out into the shoal of fry. Within ten seconds of my float settling on the surface, the bait was hit and the float disappeared from view. The pike was landed and at thirteen pounds proved to be the smaller of the two I had seen. After the disturbance to the swim no further takes occurred, but I feel that if I hadn’t changed the presentation of my bait then I wouldn’t have caught at all.

Since changing over to braid last season I have caught pike over twenty pounds, perch over two pounds, as well as several good zander. All of these species do a hell of a lot of head-shaking when hooked, which can be felt right through the rod – exhilarating stuff!
The only real disadvantage probably has to be the cost. At around thirty quid for a spool. So loading up three reels is quite expensive, at least initially. However, it should last several seasons so will prove cheaper than mono in the long term. Many catfish anglers use braid and I am sure it would prove effective for eels too. I am certainly glad I have made the change to braid, and I can’t see me swapping back to monofilament for a long time to come. Tight lines – literally!

This article was first published in Pike & Predators magazine