You don’t have to slow pitch jig with braided fishing line, but you probably should. It offers plenty of advantages in terms of performance over alternatives like monofilament. We’ll be covering 3 of the best of these here.
1. It’ll last longer
One of the simplest reasons to outfit your slow pitch jigging reels with braid is the economy. While the sticker price of braided line is higher, it usually comes out in the wash.
One reason is that braid is physically more durable than monofilament. It can withstand abrasion better and under normal conditions it puts up better with prolonged exposure to moisture and sunlight. Not to suggest that it is impervious to these things, but at the end of the day, it usually puts up with more abuse than mono before it has to be stripped and replaced.
This longevity is a strong selling point of braided line, because it not only significantly reduces the overall costs of spooling up, if you care for your line, keep it clean, and store it wisely, it might actually wind up being cheaper than any alternatives.
2. There’s no stretch, which offers better sensitivity
Quality braided line has effectively zero stretch, which is a serious performance advantage, and one more than one front.
The big one is the sensitivity. Nylon monofilament stretches, quite a lot, and the more line you have out, the more dramatically it stretches as a portion of total length. This utterly deadens the sensitivity of mono once you’ve paid out several hundred feet of line.
The reason this is a problem here is that, in slow pitch jigging, you’re liable to get down a hundred feet or even much more, depending on your target species. That stretch can be a serious liability.
For one thing, the more the line stretches, the less sensitivity you will feel to detect light strikes, or a strike that a fish commits merely out of curiosity. You won’t have long to respond to these, and if you don’t feel them, that’s a lost fish.
The other liability of a flexible line has to do with the success of the hookset. Nylon mono, because of the stretch, can be a little slow to respond to your actions. Braid is immediate; if you feel a strike, you can transfer the hookset all the way down the line to the fish almost instantaneously since the line doesn’t stretch.
So, because of its low to nonexistent stretch, braid has several advantages over mono.
3. It’s thinner, so you get more line capacity
If you take two 20 lb lines, one braided, and one mono, the braid will be significantly thinner than the mono. This means that you can fit a lot more braid on the same spool, even if you go up or down in weight.
The one effect of this is that you can get down deeper with the same reel, even if it would be limited if you had spooled it with mono.
The other is that, even if a little bit of your line gets worn, you can usually strip some off and still have plenty of capacity on the spool. And, even if you don’t, you can strip off a little extra braid, splice it in with a double-uni knot, and get back to fishing with the same capacity that you had before.
This is the main advantage of the thinner line, but there is another. Because the line is thinner, it will resist the water less, which means you’ll be able to give the jig much more natural action. Currents and water resistance will not affect braid to the same capacity as mono, and being lighter and thinner, the jig will work more naturally and more realistically.
Notes for Those Casting Rather Than Jigging
For those that aren’t slow pitch jigging, but who are casting metals, plastics or plugs, braid has another advantage over mono. With it, you can cast significantly farther.
Part of this is the fact that braid has no memory, so it will offer less resistance coming off the spool. The other component is that braid is thinner, so it will experience less air resistance through the cast.
The bottom line is that with braided fishing line, you’ll be able to cast significantly farther. And, on top of that, you will enjoy the other advantages mentioned here, of greater sensitivity, longevity, and spool capacity.
Better Braid, Better Fluoro Leader
If you’re here for fishing line, don’t miss a chance to check out our Pro Jigger Braid X4 and X8 braided line.
Both of these are premium PE braided lines (the X4 has 4 strands and the X8 has 8) and both are made in Japan.
They both offer near-zero stretch for maximal sensitivity, and are silky smooth, for sensitivity jigging and fluid line retrieval.
Super-smooth, seriously strong, and with nearly zero stretch, this line is engineered to minimize line noise, improve reel performance, and enhance sensitivity and jig control.
In addition, these performance braids are made with a 4-color metered pattern in which the color of the line changes with every 25 feet, from red-blue-black-white, so you can effortlessly monitor line payout and depth, even if you don’t have a line counter.
Pair these braids with our performance Pro Jigger Fluorocarbon Leader, made with 100% fluorocarbon in Japan.
Braided line has many virtues, but one drawback is that it is not invisible in the water, which can cause leader shyness. Fluorocarbon is effectively invisible in the water, so it’s common to tie on a fluoro leader when using braid.
Our Pro Jigger Fluoro offers excellent abrasion resistance as well as great knot-holding abilities, making it a top-tier choice. Check out the previous link for more details.
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