This started to take shape in my addled brain when a white coloured braid arcing out across a moody sky in some of my photos so noticeably jumped out at me as I was editing stuff down here at home, but over time it’s also become a bit of a theory of mine which I must add I don’t think has any actual fact attached to it! I’m going to see what I can find out via some industry contacts, but for the time being I am increasingly liking lure fishing for bass with a white braid…………….
I guess this added interest started when I tried some of that well known Tasline Elite White braid which I believe is made in Australia. I had been hearing about how good it was for a long time, and I eventually bit the bullet and bought a spool of it from the Jigabite website. But I just couldn’t get on with it, and as with what had to have been my failings with the Van Staal VR50 reel, the Tasline braid just would not behave properly for me on spinning reels which I knew inside out and which behaved for me with other braids. I was a bit gutted because the braid felt so nice and it comes with such an amazing reputation, but after too many fluff-ups and then one mega wind knot through which I lost too much braid to carry on with it, I gave up and changed back to what I knew. Do not let this put you off because if you follow any tropical lure fishing stuff especially, Tasline Elite White braid has an incredible reputation. It had to have been me.
Sometime after this I then stumbled upon the fact that there was a 12-strand braid from Spiderwire. I had never heard anybody talking about this SpiderWire Stealth Smooth 12 braid, but because I am working with Pure Fishing/Savage Gear, I was able to ask if I could please try some out. White was the principal colour which turned up here, so white it was which went on a Penn Authority 2500 and 3500 - and I rather quickly started to fall for this fantastic braid. Very smooth and thin and strong, no hint of any trouble, I could really get into this stuff. Or at least I could have if Pure Fishing had not ceased production of it which I found out the other day (gutted, but I have found a bit of it here, on sale as well, it’s the Transluscent which is the white colour if that helps, if there’s none left it’s because I have grabbed it!). I did also load another spinning reel with a spool of this braid in yellow, but it was always the white which felt the best to me. Nothing remotely scientific by the way, it’s only what I start to conclude when I am out fishing with the stuff.
The braid I would use for the rest of my life if I was allowed only one AND if money were no object? Sufix 131. What do I think is THE strongest 8-strand braid out there? Sufix 832. I don’t need to know anymore about those two braids to know how good they are for my fishing. Sure you gain a bit and lose a bit by using one or the other, but both are essentially perfection in my opinion if you think about the best-use scenarios. I have been fishing with the Berkley Sick X8 braid for about a year and a half now, and I really, really like it. I don’t mind admitting that I was initially drawn to it because of the price and the fact that there was a red colour available - I like bright braids for a bunch of different reasons, and I don’t worry about fish seeing them when I am using a clear leader.
If you read this blog post here then you will get a sense of the confusion surrounding braid diameters and breaking strains and what is quoted on the different packages in different parts of the world etc. So I tend to go on what feels right to me when I am fishing, what feels sufficiently strong when I am pulling for a break, how it seems to catch or not catch the wind etc. The 24lb Berkley Sick X8 braid is plenty strong enough when judged along these lines, but over time I have come around to the 36lb variety because it feels plenty thin enough, it casts great, I don’t notice any difference at all when I am fishing with it, it’s incredibly strong, and as per that blog post I don’t personally see this 36lb Berkley Sick X8 braid as a “true” 36lb braid if that makes sense. It just fishes like a really good braid and that is what I am after at the end of the day.
And then I found out only fairly recently that Pure Fishing now makes this Berkley Sick X8 braid in a white colour. Nobody told me about this and in fact I stumbled upon it in a 2024 catalogue I was perusing online, so I got hold of a spool of the white colour in the 36lb. I have never had a single issue with any Sick X8 braid I have tried, but for some reason this white version just feels a touch more “premium” to me. I accept that this is probably a load of crap because it’s already a bloody good braid as it is, but the white colour just really floats my boat I guess.
Does it fly out any better than the red, yellow or green colours? Most likely not and it’s probably all in my imagination because fishing is also such a visual thing to me, but when that white braid flies out behind a lure and I can see the whole curve of the cast? Count me in. As I said in the title, a white braid isn’t going to catch me anymore fish, but I do think that for us anglers it’s the easiest colour to see in all kinds of light conditions. I do believe that when fishing certain kinds of soft plastics in ways where it might help to also see any fish related movement via the actual mainline, then perhaps a white mainline might help me a little bit? Time will tell as always, but it needs to be real fishing time of course. Roll on spring!
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