Backing for Braids

[petty4life]

What kind of backing do you guys use for braided lines ie spider wire, fireline? i've experimented with several things, yarn,dental floss, and blm called me a farmer when i used bailing twine i have found they all work better then mono as backing.
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[JapanRon]

Hey there petty4life,

I don't use any backing as the depths I fish, either freshwater or near-shore ocean aren't any deeper than 120 feet or so. Therefor 75-100 yards is more than enough to bring the line up from the spindle of the spool to the spool rim. I don't tuna fish or do a lot of straight line trolling so....... At 75 yards a refill, I can get 3 refills from a 250 yard spool.

Just the opposite, a lot of big fish tuna anglers here in southern cal spool their reels with spectra (braid) and have a topshot of high quality mono/fluorocarbon.

JapanRon
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[TubeDude]

[cool][size 2]For fishing fresh water, with depths seldom more than 60 to 70 feet, you can save some money by not spooling your whole reel with the "high priced thread". Whenever I need to build up a spool for a "topshot" of the working line, I tend to use dacron. It is relatively cheap and ain't too bad in the diameter and stretch departments. As you have discovered, the stretchy properties of mono make it not the best choice. Not only that, I have accumulated a lot of dacron over the years and have used it as backing on fly reels as well as for spool building.[/size]

[size 2]Probably the real issues are (1.) a good joining knot between the superbraid and the base line. and (2) being sure that you either have enough of the working line to sustain a run by a large fish, or having a base line that is strong enough to hold a large fish until you can work it back onto the superbraid on your reel.[/size]

[size 2]I'm sure Japanron has also seen more than a few big fish "farmed" on the party boats when a fish ran past the knot and it was not good enough to hold the fish...or the line under the topshot was old, rotted or just plain too small. Remember, when a large fish has a lot of line out, the stress on the line is much greater than just the drag setting on the reel.[/size]

[size 2]If you do not already do so, complete your topshot knot with a drop of fishing glue. But do not count on glue to overcome using a bad knot or tying a good knot poorly.[/size]
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[JapanRon]

Hey there TubeDude,

Thank goodness that the knot business has always happened to everyone else but me! heh heh heh

The place that I experienced the greatest backing/knot damage was on a fly reel's backing. The water, salt, and air all got to the braid or dacron in almost no time!!

Oh my gosh, don't even go where the tackle nuts (H's) start talking about hollow spectra, splicing needles the glue and the knots that will be the best for a given combination of braid and that... oh so important... brand of mono that will be the topshot and..... the knots that are the best.

I'm not a tuna guy so my opinions are worth about as much as spit to most albie anglers!

JapanRon
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