The Outdoor Line Forum

Earlier Nelly said he uses Berkley HiViz Big Game Line. Is that a Braid or Mono? Which brings me to a question... for downrigger / Mooching, would you use a Braid? I've heard of people spooling with braid then tying in a 20ft Mono Tippet. Has anyone run that setup? If so what are your thoughts on it.

Hey LM.
It's mono for me on the riggers and mooching as well. The stretch of monofilament actually helps you maintain tension when a fish pops the line out of the release. The "rubber band" or elastic effect of mono minimizes slack and maximizes your hookup to land ratio especially with barbless hooks.

While I can definitely see the case for braid while mooching, I really believe braid shines while halibut and ling cod fishing as well as trolling downhill on the Columbia for springers.

Anytime you're using sinkers on your line for depth control, the smaller diameter of braid allows the use of smaller leads due to it's decreased drag. Smaller sinkers increase your feel as does the dercreased stretch of braid.

There are those who swear by braid for 'rigger fishing and more power to them! For me on the riggers and drift fishing on our rivers it's mono all the way!

Great question Thanks!

Nelly wrote:Hey LM.
It's mono for me on the riggers and mooching as well. The stretch of monofilament actually helps you maintain tension when a fish pops the line out of the release. The "rubber band" or elastic effect of mono minimizes slack and maximizes your hookup to land ratio especially with barbless hooks.

I couldn't agree more only I would add that I would use the same reasoning for river fishing. Actually like the stretch of mono, it has saved me more than a few times.

Mooching with braided line is actually pretty lethal. You can damn near feel the bait spinning, bouncing off jellyfish, and the second a fish looks sideways at your bait it's telegraphed right up the rod. The drawbacks are that it wraps around the rod tip easily, you've got to slow down or totally get rid of your hook set, and it's a bee-yotch to untangle from other lines or the kicker motor. If you hook a fish that cuts across your buddies mono line you can kiss their riggin's good by, which might actually be considered an advantage.

Regarding the hook set when mooching I've found the best way to set the hook is to just reel, reel, reel...reel some more...and then set the hook once the fish is on...just to set the hook. We've done this on literally thousands of salmon and it works. This is why women always catch more fish mooching. Because they don't do anything to screw it up!

I wouldn't hesitate to fish braid on my mooching rod in Puget Sound. Lighter lead, better feel, and you can fish the same line for years. As a charter captain I can't do it though because of the tangle factor. That's my .02

Do you have a brand of line you like and what pound test?

Berkeley big game braid in 30 pound test would be my choice.

I didn't chime in on this one earlier because I feel it is somewhat like discussing Politics, Religion, and what's the best caliber for killing deer. Everyone has thier opinion based upon their experiences. For the record, I almost always fish a good mono!
L8R
Dan

It definitely can give you a distinct advantage in certain situations