If you talk with any seasoned redfish tournament angler and get into a discussion about braid vs. mono, you will definitely get a lesson on the advantages of braid. Now I am not a seasoned pro by any means, but my experiences can be used by someone who is learning and aspiring to one day be at that level.

 All my life I have used mono. When spider wire came out, I tried it. When power pro came out, I tried it. I never liked it when compared to mono. Hard to cast, bird’s nest were a nightmare, and so on.  Now this all happened before I started fishing tournaments.

 I fished my first tournament in the spring of 2004.  I fished my first real professional tournament last year (2005) at the FLW Redfish Series in Grand Isle. Prior to the tournament, I got into the above discussion with Troy Robichaux. Troy a well known professional guide and  tournament angler. It went back forth for a while until he said something that stuck with me. His exact words were, “if you fish enough tournaments, you will use braid”.

 He went into the advantages of braid; you never lose a fish, shorter fight time, durable, etc. I agreed with all of his arguments, but I was determined that mono was still the best and I was not convinced that I needed braid. I was bragging that I had never lost a fish in my life on mono. Unfortunately, these words would come back to bight me later and teach me a valuable lesson. I will get into that later in the article.

 All my life I used Berkley Big Game, 17 pound test monofilament. This line had never failed me and I am still a fan of Big Game to this day. For some reason for the FLW tournament, I decided to use a co-polymer line called P-line. I had been using it for about  a month now and had success using it in scouting. The night before the first day of the tournament, I decided to respool my lines, since it was my first pro and a lot of money was on the line.

 Well apparently the spool that I used to respool my lines was defective. The first day of the tournament, I broke off four fish. Three were definitely nice fish. All break offs occurred at the knot. We only weighed in 11 lbs, 9 oz on day one. There is no doubt I would have weighed in a larger stringer with the fish I lost. I contacted P-line and their excuse was that it was a defective batch and offered to buy me a new spool. The saying goes something like this, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. 

 As many of you know, I am not likely to admit that I am wrong. Needless to say, I spooled my lines the night before the second day with FINS PRT braid. I finished 29^th in the tournament and took home a check weighing in 13 lbs 11 oz. My total weight was 25 lbs 4 oz. I have used it since and will never fish another tournament without it.

 Here are my reasons for using braid over mono in a tournament. Redfish have to be weighed in alive to avoid a penalty. Larger redfish in the 7-9 pound range have a tendency of ending belly up in the live well after a day of fishing. I believe that this is from fighting so hard when the fish is caught. The braid allows you to fish 50 pound test with only a 12 pound diameter. These larger redfish can be brought to the boat quicker putting less stress on the fish. This in turns give the fish a better chance of surviving the day in the live well. 

 Secondly, you will never lose another fish again because it is strong and durable. Now, the only negative to braid is its visibility to fish. When the redfish are skittish, I put a fluorocarbon leader and the problem is solved. 

 Again this was based on my experience and hopefully this was informative. Good luck fishing.

Jay Cedotal