It’s been said that fishing line is the most crucial link between you and the fish and it’s true. It can make a huge difference in landing fish but also greatly affects how your lure performs underneath the water’s surface. Luckily for anglers, there are plenty of choices for fishing lines and they come in various colors, pound tests, and materials.
Tennessee pro Cole Sands just wrapped up his first year on the Bassmaster Elite Series. He qualified for the Bassmaster Classic while guiding clients on Lake Chickamauga between events. He’s on the water constantly and while he keeps things simple when it comes to line. The line he chooses for his fishing and for his clients has a specific purpose: to be more efficien
The times for braided line
For nearly all of his spinning gear, Sands feels the benefits of braided line with a fluorocarbon leader make it the way to go. Like many other bass anglers, he sees it as superior to using straight fluorocarbon.
“For me, braid goes on just about every one of my spinning reels,” he began. “I use 10-pound SuperBraid in the high-vis yellow color. It’s a very thin braid and super sensitive. I also like how well it holds its color, and I can keep the same line on the reel for over a year and not have any issues.”
For a leader, he starts with 10-pound Yo-Zuri T7 and will go down from there as needed. “I always start with 10, but there are times when you have to downsize,” he said. “When the Elites made the northern swing this year, I was using the 6-pound test, which is lighter than I had ever used in my life. I was fishing the St. Lawrence River, dragging over zebra mussels and rocks and landing big smallmouth. It gave me a lot of confidence in the strength of the line, and I believe it gets you more bites when you downsize.”
Spinning tackle is one part of the equation for braided line for Cole Sands, but he also uses it plenty for baitcasting gear. Primarily, he’s always going to use it when he’s fishing around aquatic vegetation.
“I fish a lot of grass lakes and 65-pound SuperBraid is my go-to anytime I’m fishing matted grass with a frog or punching,” he said. “I also use it a lot for my topwaters, either walking baits like the Yo-Zuri Pencil or plopper-style baits. I use 30- and 40-pound, and you can’t go wrong with either. 30-pound is plenty strong for these baits, and I use it in my tournaments and when guiding over 120 days a year and like that, it has a very long life and you can’t break it.”
When fishing these walking baits, he’ll tie directly to the lure or use a short leader of Yo-Zuri Hybrid. “I use about a foot or two of Hybrid and that gives it just a little bit of stretch so you can land more of those fish that are barely hooked with treble hooks,” he shared.
When Sands goes to fluoro
Sands is spooling up a fluorocarbon line for just about every other situation. He uses them in all sizes but says the 20-pound Yo-Zuri T7 has become his most commonly used line.
“It’s great for so many different techniques, and I’ll use it for jigs and Texas-rigs, but also for ChatterBaits, swim jigs and Alabama rigs,” he said. “I like to use as big a line as I can get away with. T7 is great because it has low memory and lasts longer than other lines. I’ve had many clients get on the boat with other brands of line on their reels and want to switch over by the end of the day.”
While 20-pound test gets a lot of use, he will switch to 12, 14, and 16-pound test for different baits. “For lipless crankbaits, it’s always going to be 14 or 16-pound for me, and I’ll typically use those same sizes for jerkbaits, too,” he said. “I’ll go with 12-pound for my shallow crankbaits and for deep crankbaits when I want to get the bait down as deep as possible. T7 has low memory, which is a big thing because you don’t get as many coils, and I’ve noticed that it leads to smoother casts.”
Fishing line is a critical but often overlooked part of the fishing equation. Bassmaster Elite Series pro Cole Sands sticks with what works for him and tries to keep things simple with a handful of different lines and pound tests for all his fishing.
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