I really do not like braided line.  I just want to know what other people think about it.

There are so many variety of braids that liking one type of braid is no more than hating another type of braid. It all just depends when you find a good use for it. Overall your standard monofiliment nylon lines would suit pretty much all your fishing needs.

I feel like braid goes bad sooner on your spool. It was like a would hook into a fish and would just snap and I had to change it so much. Also it is harder to tie knots I think.

When I first started using braids, that was exactly what I was finding too. I found my braids wearing out and fraying up very quickly even on the first day of use. Back then I was pretty much using my Shakespeare reels and Shakespeare Ugly Stick Lites. The nylon lines were lasting longer. Eventually I decided to purchase my first Shimano Stradic reel and a St. Croix Premiere rod. (Back then the club also offered a St.Croix Premier with your name on it for purchase at about $80-$90 or so, and I ordered up one.) That combo made a huge difference for the braided lines performance. It made the braided line lasts longer. It took about three daysof fishing before the lines started to show the line frays I was getting. So I kind of learned that it takes the right equipment set up to get better performance out of it.

So now my braid lines stays on my reels for several seasons. Whereas my nylon lines pretty much only get one season out of it, if I use it a lot. Sometimes I have to change it mid-season.

I use braid on my baitcasters with a Floro leader (I prefer Sufix. It doesn't fray like many other brands.). Mono for my spinning reels and spincasters. I find that braided line is easier to tie than floro (It's not as stiff and it feels like it's a tighter knot). I guess it all depends on how you like to fish and the gear you are using.

When I first tried braid years ago I was very disappointed. Lots of fraying and hard to get a knot to hold. The lines have improved over the years to a point that I fish almost exclusively with braid or fused (they are a bit different). There is a period of adjustment due to the absence of stretch in the braid. The typical Bassmasters hookset is a sure way to rip the bait or lure out of the fishes' mouth unless you are fishing with a VERY soft rod. Usually a light lift of the rod is all that is required. The one place I have had poor results with braid is on some of the spincast reels I keep as loaners. Given proper line guide maintainence a braided or fused line should last many seasons as it doesn't deteriorate from sunlight like mono. Tom

I switched to braid (Power Pro) a couple of years ago and can't imagine using anything else.  I use it on both baitcasters and spinning reels.  I have found braid to hold up much better than mono when fishing around rocks.  In clear water, just add a fluoro leader.  It all depends on the gear and situation, but I almost always prefer braid to mono.

Mono, mono, mono! That's my preferred line of choice. I use it for almost every situation. It has never let me down.

And braid is usually colored. Braid is not for me the week I used it I ripped so many hooks out of fish's mouths.

Personally, I prefer monofiliment, and use it on all my spinning reels and all my baitcast reels except my Penn Peer 309, my flathead catfish reel, which I spool with 80 pound test braided Dacron line with a 50 pound test monofiliment leader. My fly reels have braided nylon backing line under the fly line.

I always use braided line. I like how I can have 20 pound test (I fish inshore saltwater) and still have a small diameter line. I also like how the is virtually no line memory. The one downside to 20 pound braid is when I hook a submerged object I need leather work gloves to free my line.

Ripping big holes in fishes mouth or ripping their lips off is entirely up to the individual. LOL's. I will say that choosing a different hook type can change things too. I'm more likely to put a bigger hole in the fish with straight shank J hook vs a wide gap type hook. I'm also the type of person who has a very short hook set, mostly a wristflick or a lift of the rod is what I do. So with braid, I am able to put the required hook set. With mono's I have to remind myself to swing the rod more on my hook set. It feels like I'm over doing it eventhough it gives it the right hookset.

That was a plus when i used braid. It didn't get tangled on my spool as much as the mono.

I put braid on (Berkley's new Pro Braid) for the first time on my 7" Quantum Spinning rod this winter. Haven't used it yet. I used this rod some last year for small channel cats with #12 mono and I had a lot of missed hook ups because it seem the mono was so springy I was losing a lot. There was so much stretch it seemed like I had to pull up 15 feet to get 6 inches of movement to set the hook. It's exaggerated yes, but I tried braid on this year to take the stretch out of the equation hoping it helps.

I was afraid to wind the braid on my baitcaster reels because I'm still not very proficient at baitcaster and I didn't want to blow the money and be respooling again in May. But I'm all excited to see how the braid does for me on my outfit, I'll let you know.

That 15" for 6" isn't to far out of line! According to Berkley, most mono and fluoro have in the vicinity of 23% stretch, so with 75 feet of line out, stretch would be around 15feet! Most braids are closer to 3% stretch with the exception of a "stretch braid" I have read about that is reportedly closer to 10-12% stretch. The stretch in mono also increases with water absorption. Tom