Sturgeon Fishing – Braid or Mono?

Here’s a quick summary of the article – if you’re bored you can read further into The Weeds

Mainline braid 130-150lb test is more than adequate in strength, and the thin diameter will allow for a significant yardage of line on nearly all sturgeon fishing reels -300 yds or more. Braid is not as abrasion resistant as monofilament but the upside is it has only 3-5% stretch as opposed to mono which can stretch 25-30%. This low stretch offers great sensitivity to the rod tip and positive hook-sets. The thinner diameter also creates less drag against the river current and allows for lighter weights to keep on the bottom.

Leader can be braid or monofilament. I use 80-100lb mono as it offers some abrasion resistance, gives some valuable stretch (when fish are close to the boat and then choose to make a break for it), and i believe mono is softer on the fish.

The Weeds:

Sturgeon fishing implies bottom fishing, snags, and incredibly rough fish. Fishing line has to be up to the task; durable, useful and user friendly. To this end, which type of line works best for sturgeon fishing applications? Here are some thoughts and opinions on what works well and why. Any mentions of brand names provide no sponsor affiliations- I like what I like and use what I like. Here we go:

For mainline application, that is, all the line on the reel all the way to the swivel where your weight sits and your leader material connects, I use braid. First and foremost, the stretch in braid is minimal; 3-5% seems to be the standard. In other words, at maximum pull, 100 feet of braid will become 3-5 feet longer. This is an advantage for hooksets – you hardly have to move the rod to set the hook. Prior to the advent of braid, all I used was monofilament mainline, and if you were fishing a long cast, you felt like you were in a different postal code during the triple-whiff hook-set. Braid’s minimal stretch improves sensitivity – you can read your rod and virtually distinguish what is happening down there, whether it be varying water currents, leaves or other debris tagging the line. You can distinctly see bites, whether they be coarse fish or sturgeon, or perhaps a mere line bite – a “drive-by” as many call them, where a sturgeon is randomly swimming around into your line, or is perhaps homing in on your bait.

You also can’t beat the strength to diameter ratio of braid. 130lb braid is similar in diameter to some 25lb monofilament! Right off the bat, you can fit substantially more yardage of braid on a reel than using similar test strength monofilament on the same reel. It’s not even close. With many modern reels coming in small, light and with amazing drag capacities, braid brings a whole new range of fishing reels into the equation.

Thinner diameter not only allows for additional line capacity on a reel, but thinner line creates less drag in the current. This allows the angler to utilize a lighter weight when fishing. Does this help the actual fishing! Not really, but it sure makes life easier when casting, reeling in, and picking gear out of the water all day long.

I generally use 130lb test when I can find it. If I was comfortable with 100lb braid, I’d use that. However, 100lb is so thin that there may be some hazards such as line cuts to hands and fingers; snags occur, stuff happens when sturgeon fishing, and loops can catch various objects. There is a danger with low diameter braid – add in the fact there is no springiness or memory in braid (its limp) and undoing knots can be a complex, time consuming chore. Many will also agree, wind and braid can bring challenges. A favourite braid for me is Sufix 832 in 130lb test. It is a dark green color. Another good choice as an alternative is Tuf line XP – I generally find it on a 150lb spool and it is a silver/grey color. Both of these brands offer reliable manufacturing, very little line color-bleed, abrasion resistance as good as braid can give, and most importantly, line management on the reel is excellent. In other words, the line you wind in the reel goes on even and flat without loops and various tensions. There is nothing worse than loose braid especially when under load it buries itself. There are some brands of braid that are not user friendly for whatever reason, no matter how diligent you are with laying line on the reel. As well, I generally use the olive or grey colored lines. Some lines come in bright green or orange colors and that can be helpful for the skipper when managing a boat full of rods and lines.

Braid is not as abrasion resistant as monofilament is. I have read this a time or two but cannot comment whether it is or isn’t in comparison to mono. Braid does not show its abrasions easily, particularly when the line is wet. But when the line is dry, you will see the “wispy” section where the strands have pulled apart – a sign of weakness which should be clipped out. You will notice fuzziness near your leader connection. Sliding weights and connectors run up and down the line near the leader connection and create this fuzziness. I don’t get too excited about it – I inspect daily before the first cast and look for a change in the line diameter as a clue to damage. If there seems to be some thinning, I clip the off the damage and re-tie.

Next part is the leader, the section of line between your swivel/weight and the hook. Many prefer a braided or Dacron line as a leader, and a short one at that. I prefer a monofilament leader in the 80-100lb class, 30-36” in length. My reasons for monofilament probably are simply because that is the era of when I started sturgeon fishing (braid wasn’t readily available). Mono offers reasonable abrasion resistance, a bit of stretch which can be helpful for the angler and it’s not expensive so I can afford to change my leader after every fish. With monofilament, you can easily see and feel how abrasive sturgeon are to the leader. I also believe that the round shape and stretch of monofilament is helpful to the fish, particularly if they roll or get wrapped in the line ( hence 30-36” leaders). Knot tying is easy and reliable with mono – loop knots with circle hooks (perfection loop) and snelled knots for J-hooks are successful as is the simple fisherman’s knot when attaching your leader to the swivel. Modern monofilament has come a long way since the 80’s in suppleness and ease of tying knots. An additional feature is when casting into the wind, mono has some memory, allowing you to cast and lay out the leader away from the weight, avoiding spiraling tangles as the weight drops to the bottom.

That’s the thick of it – thanks for taking the time to read.

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