Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

Those of you fishing braid with 1/2-3/4 oz jigs in 20'+ water

What size braid and leader are you fishing? Thinking of going 30lb braid 12lb mono leader yay or nay?

My set up is 30lb braid to about a 3ft leader 12lb-18lb mono. The leader depends on how line shy the fish are and what structure I’m dragging it through.

Not a fan. Get hung up much easier without the stretch and feel too much . Flipping jigs in heavy cover it’s nice to have braid but that’s it for me.

BigBassDaddy1190 wrote:Not a fan. Get hung up much easier without the stretch and feel too much . Flipping jigs in heavy cover it’s nice to have braid but that’s it for me.

I agree with BigBassDaddy. My preference for jigs in deeper water is 12-15# fluorocarbon. With a decent quality rod I still get good feel and minimal line stretch to get good hook sets. I believe you are also less likely to lose fish due to the hook tearing the mouth or flesh during the longer fight bringing a fish up from deep water. If you are going to use braid for deep water jig fishing, I recommend a lighter action rod, such as a medium action versus medium heavy. There needs to be some give in the set up.

Pat

Braid with leader = 2 knots to fail.
Tom

and yet I reel in Tuna all day with 2 knots. I like 12-15 fluorocarbon straight cuz something gotta give and I'm a big braid guy but it's just me

Ditto Kelly Ripa...my exact same setup

Thanks guys! I think I'll rig one up with floro and one up with the braid and leader and fish them and see how I like them..

Recommend all flouro for jigs fishing deeper water. You get more drag and flotation with braid so IMO you need to fish heavier jigs or you will lose touch with the bottom at times. With Flouro you get the link sink and its easier to stay in contact with the bottom.

Hope this helps

Hitman

30-60# Power Pro Braid to Yo-Zuri Hybrid Floro 17-25#. I use a Crazy Alberto for Braid to Floro and a Palomar knot to the Jig. Works good for me !!

Hitman wrote:Recommend all flouro for jigs fishing deeper water. You get more drag and flotation with braid so IMO you need to fish heavier jigs or you will lose touch with the bottom at times. With Flouro you get the link sink and its easier to stay in contact with the bottom.

Hope this helps

Hitman

This is me as well i fish the jig on a slack line and the flurocarbon has no issue transmitting that tick on the fall. the braid has to be taught to transmit. I fish Fluro on all my jigs 20lb Delta and Clear lake and 12-15lb on all other lakes. Never had an issue. Also too i tend to have to retie my jigs more frequently then any other bait and I dont want to retie a braid connection on the lake when its blowing.

I use straight Floro in 12-15lb test mostly. I will jump to 20 lb if fishing around a lot of cover. I just don't like the feel of braid for fishing jigs. Yes, you feel bites better with no stretch but it just doesn't feel right to me. Many guys use braid now on spinning with a leader in deep water. I don't like the feel of this either. Braid just doesn't sink and feel right to me in deep water. It works for many guys but others like me simply prefer straight Floro. There's really no right or wrong answer here. It's whatever fits the angler's style and preference.

Thanks again everyone.. Much appreciated!

My thoughts on this.I have a jig tied on most of the year . One June morning a few years back on Clearlake i wanted to do a comparison . I fished a jig on 65 # braid in about 20 ft of water and was catching them pretty good till sun got up. Switched to Floro and started catching again.
I will use braid in heavy cover and all of my topwater.
My jig setup is a Dobyns 784 with 17 # floro and dont like the braid to leader method.
I have put a jig on 20# braid on a spinning set up for guys that cant use a baitcaster and it works but floro for me.

The only time I use braid with jigs is in heavy cover without a leader and that is up in the Delta or Clear Lake.
SoCal lakes are mostly rocky structure with some brush very sparsh cover so straight mono or FC depending time of year or day or night.
Everyone thinks mono stretches which is false, FC has the same amount of stretch but lower coeffient of drag going through water. I have caught far more giant bass using mono then FC in water 20'+. 15 lb+ bass on 12 lb FC is always breath holding event hoping the knot doesn't fail, mono no issue. Heavier then 12 lb strike detection is very difficult. 15 lb is OK at night.
Tom
Aka, Oldschool
My 5 top jig bass using mono line;
17.4 lbs, 18.6 lbs lake Casitas.
17.4 lbs, 17.6 lbs, 19.3 lbs lake Castaic.