I brought 3 rods on a trip in June (EP 37) for 2 guys. I made the mistake of spooling 2 rods with 8# flourocabon. The 3rd was 8# mono as a single backup. I made this decision based on the "invisibility" of the flouro. We trolled water early when the water was calm, but when the wind picked up and it was time to drift with the drift sock or anchor behind an island, We found ourselves constantly dragging our lines up off the bottom. I knew flouro sunk going into the trip but I was surprised at the ease in which it sunk. I have another trip in a week and am planning to bring 4 rods, 2 with 15# power-pro and 2 with 8# mono. I have lots of history trolling power-pro on the sippi' river and I am becoming hesistant on if I should just spool all four with mono?

My concern is my young son and the ease of chaos that braid can unleash. I.e. tangles, knot tying difficulty for a young boy, ease of injury when trolling with an open bale on a spinning real etc..

We would troll the braid and everything else would be mono...

Am I overthinking this?

--DM

Perhaps. But probably not.

I like to spool with Power Pro and use Seaguar InvizX the last 6 feet.

quote dutchman: "I brought 3 rods on a trip in June (EP 37) for 2 guys. I made the mistake of spooling 2 rods with 8# flourocabon. The 3rd was 8# mono as a single backup. I made this decision based on the "invisibility" of the flouro. We trolled water early when the water was calm, but when the wind picked up and it was time to drift with the drift sock or anchor behind an island, We found ourselves constantly dragging our lines up off the bottom. I knew flouro sunk going into the trip but I was surprised at the ease in which it sunk. I have another trip in a week and am planning to bring 4 rods, 2 with 15# power-pro and 2 with 8# mono. I have lots of history trolling power-pro on the sippi' river and I am becoming hesistant on if I should just spool all four with mono?

My concern is my young son and the ease of chaos that braid can unleash. I.e. tangles, knot tying difficulty for a young boy, ease of injury when trolling with an open bale on a spinning real etc..

We would troll the braid and everything else would be mono...

Am I overthinking this?

--DM"

Good plan, troll with braid mono for everything else.

I think you're on...knot tying can be more difficult with braid. Depending on lure usage you may want to tie on a swivel to make switching easier. The braid can be great for pike, I've never used a leader with it and no tooth cut off problems. I have never had problems with braid "birdnesting" or other problems as long as I used a mono backer on the spool first. But personally after trying floro I have switched back to mono for ease of use in multiple scenarios. Have a blast and don't fish the place out!

All I use is Spiderwire.

I have started to use Nanofil. It is a new line from Berkely. So far, I really like it. It casts much farther than any other lines I have used. Other than that all I usually use is Fireline Crystal.

Power pro is great. It casts well, and rarely gets messed up on my reels. I like the 8lb test... It is much stronger and more difficult to break than advertised. Any higher pound ratings, you wont be able to break it off if you get hung up and you will end up cutting off a bunch of line from your rod.

I think you have a good plan though. Two rods of each would work well for me.