Choosing The Best Fishing Line (the Definitive guide)

What's going on, everybody? It is Chris from "Out West with Chris" on behalf of KastKing and BassResource. And I wanted to talk to you guys today about something that I often think about, "What line should I spool on my reel?" Some of you guys know the KastKing brand pretty well, and KastKing is really well-known for some really nice fishing reels, spinning and baitcasting reels. They got their start in the fishing industry by making fishing line. And they have a broad assortment of lines that you can choose from, ranging from, you know, numerous types of braid to monofilament and my personal favorite, which is the FluoroKote, and that is a fluorocarbon-coated copolymer fishing line. I use that a lot for trout fishing and also for bass fishing. 

If you're anything like me, you get a new reeling or maybe you're doing maintenance and you're taking off some old line and you start thinking, "Okay, what should I spool on this reel? Should it be a fluorocarbon? Should it be a monofilament? Should it be braid? What should I do?" So I wanted to give you five things to think about when you guys are getting ready to spool up some line on a reel that will help you make that decision.

So the first thing you need to consider is what species of fish are you gonna be targeting. Now, this is gonna play a role in your line size, so what pound test it is. If you're fishing for crappie or bluegill, you're probably not gonna use a 40-pound-test line. There is no need for it. 

You're probably gonna be using something in the 4 to 6-pound test range, and you're probably gonna want something that is gonna get that little tiny jig head, if you're using a jig, down in the water a little bit quicker. Now, if you're fishing for bass, there's all sorts of options for a line, you know, whether it's braid for certain applications, fluorocarbon for certain, and monofilament for certain applications. Now, if you're fishing for trout, you're probably not gonna use a braided fishing line. You might use a braid as a backing and then some fluorocarbon line as a leader just to save the cost of spooling up a whole reel with fluorocarbon. Fish like trout are often really picky, and they will often follow a lure or inspect a lure for quite a while before they commit to striking. 

A lot of trout can often be line-shy, so you're gonna wanna pay attention to that, and you're probably gonna wanna use a diameter of line that's not gonna be really visible in the water. If you're fishing for redfish or black drum or Hatteras Blue, you know, on the East Coast and the intercoastal waterways, you're probably gonna want a thicker line. Those fish are strong fish. You know, in some cases, those fish have teeth that you need to contend with. So you need to be considerate of those species that you're targeting, how they approach the lure, how they make a decision whether or not to strike and, also, some of their features like teeth and their strength. 

So the second thing you need to consider is the water you're fishing in. If you're fishing in really muddy water, odds are fish aren't gonna have the opportunity, sometimes, to really inspect the bait. They're gonna be more reactionary. So using a braided line in a muddy water or a thicker line in muddy water isn't gonna be as big of a deal, as opposed to using a thicker line or a braided line in gin-clear water. Say you're fishing for bass in a gin-clear lake. You might need to go do a 6-pound-test line, and you might not be totally comfortable with that. You might be worried that that line will break. Now, that's the situation where you really need to take into consideration the drag on your reel. The function of the drag on your reel is to allow the fish to move, allow the fish to run, just enough that it's not gonna break your line.

You might have to work that fish a little bit, which will make for an exciting fight, but you might have to work it a little bit if you're using a smaller test line. But it should pay dividends in more bites if you're fishing really crystal-clear, gin-clear water using a line size that's smaller. So that is a consideration as well. If you're fishing in a waterway that has a current and you need to get a bait down in the current, you're gonna wanna use something that sinks. Monofilament, it doesn't sink. It really doesn't sink too much. So fluorocarbon line, in my case, the FluoroKote, it actually sinks, okay? So it's gonna help assist your lure, your bait or whatever, get down into the strike zone a little bit faster in a moving current. So that's something to consider as well.

The next thing we need to consider is stretch versus no stretch. Some lines, like a monofilament, they have some stretch in them, in the line itself, and that's actually a good characteristic to have in some situations. Now, other lines have less stretch. Your fluorocarbon has less stretch, your braid has almost zero stretch, and that is something you want in certain situations as well. In some situations, you don't want your line to stretch. If you're fishing a frog on topwater, you typically wanna use braid. You don't want to use monofilament. You don't want a lot of stretch. And the primary reason for that is so you can get a good hook set when that fish takes it under. Okay? So the fish slams your frog, takes it under, you wait a second, roll up any slack and then, boom, you wanna set that hook and you don't want a bunch of stretch. You wanna drive that hook through the mouth or the lip or whatever of that fish, of that bass. 

Situations were you do want some stretch are situations where you're fishing, like, a treble hook or you're fishing for a species that has maybe a soft flushed mouth, doesn't have a lot of bone in there, you want that to stretch a little bit so that when you set that hook, it doesn't tear out of the fish's mouth. Situations like fishing a crankbait, crankbaits, 9 times out of 10, well, 99% of the time if I'm fishing a crankbait, I'm gonna be using a monofilament line. Because when that fish hits, a lot of times it will strike from the side. You don't want to just rip that right out of the mouth. And another situation when I typically use a monofilament line because of its stretch is if I'm, you know, walking a dog, so using, like, a spook or something like that on topwater, again, those have treble hooks, you don't want to rip that out of the mouth. 

And for me, personally, it also seems a little bit easier to walk the dog with a line that has some stretch in it. Jerkbaits are also a little bit easier for me with monofilament. I feel like I get a little bit better action with a line that does have some stretch to it on my jerkbaits. Number four. Tthe fourth thing that we need to cover is the environment that you're fishing in. If you're fishing in an area that has a lot of, like, really sharp rocky ledges or terrain, or you're fishing in an area that has, like, zebra mussels or oyster beds or something like that, you're gonna want a line that's abrasion-resistant.

Fluorocarbon tends to kind of shine in this area. It's a pretty hard material, actually, so it has a little bit more abrasion resistance than a monofilament will. Now, if you're fishing really heavy, heavy cover. Like, if you're punching them out or flipping toolies, something like that for bass, then you're probably gonna wanna go with a braided line. Where I fish, I typically fish with a 65-pound braid anytime that I'm gonna be punching something. If I'm flipping, I'll often flip with that 65-pound braid as well, just because I wanna know that if I get a fish on and it is in the weeds, like, choked in the weeds, it's not gonna come off due to a line failure or a knot failure. As long as I got a good hookset that fish is gonna come off when I grab it and take the hook out, okay? 

And my insurance policy there is a really solid, 65-pound braid. I've used the Fortis braid from KastKing for punching. I also use the SuperPower braid from KastKing for punching. Those are great braids to use, but a braided line, in general, is gonna be great for punching and flipping and those types of applications where you're actually in the cover. So now that we've talked about the characteristics of the fish and the fisheries you'll be fishing for those fish in... Gosh, that was a long way to say that. Let's now talk about the characteristics of each of the line types, good and bad, that you need to consider. And this is number five.

First, let's talk about braid. Braid is very abrasion-resistant. It's strong. It's a smaller diameter for its strength. So, for example, if you have a 20-pound monofilament, it's gonna be a larger diameter than a 20-pound braid. Now, a couple of drawbacks to braid are visibility. Braid is not for fishing for the line-shy fish. If you are fishing for a species or you're in a fishery where those fish are extremely line-shy, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna be a great finesse application, just because the fish are gonna come up, inspect the bait, they're gonna see that braid, and they could spook off. Areas that braid does excel are using it as a backing for, like, a fluorocarbon leader material and also using it for punching. 

Braid does cast really well, so there is that benefit, especially off of a baitcaster. One great thing about braid is there's virtually no memory. Well, there's absolutely no memory to braid, so you don't get that funky coil that you get with monofilament sometimes. So that is a pretty good benefit. One of the drawbacks to braid is that it will slip on your spool. So, a lot of times, what I do is if I'm gonna spool on a bunch of braid, I'll actually tie on first some monofilament line and then connect line to line with a uni-to-uni knot or something like that, just so I don't have that slip on the spool.

Okay, so now let's talk about monofilament. Monofilament is probably the least abrasion-resistant line that you can get of the three main line types. Now, that stretch factor in monofilament line is great in some situations, especially crankbaits. Crankbaits, in my opinion, that's where a monofilament line really does its best work at. A couple of the drawbacks of a monofilament line is it does have some memory, so when you cast out, you'll actually have more line between you and the bait because of the coil. Occasionally, that can be an issue. You might miss a subtle strike. Your bait, because it's a floating line, won't sink as fast and you won't have that sensitive connection to the end of the bait. But monofilament is not a bad line. People fish for monofilament for years and years and years and years and years. That's what I grew up fishing and I caught a lot of fish, right? So monofilament is not bad. One of the main things about monofilament is cost. The cost of monofilament is pretty low. 

All right, so now let's go to fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon has some really great qualities. It is fairly invisible in the water. So if you're fishing really clear water for really picky fish, fluorocarbon can be the way to go. It does sink, so that is a major benefit as well. A drawback to fluorocarbon is, a lot of times with fluorocarbon the knot strength is questionable. There are a lot of knots that you really don't wanna tie with a fluorocarbon just because it will pull itself apart, essentially. It's not a very supple line, so you do have some issues with that. There's less memory on a fluorocarbon line, which does have some good things to it. You don't have that issue with a coil when you throw out and cast out. You have a shorter distance between your reel and the bait and, you know, not a whole bunch of line you need to take up and that type of thing. Fluorocarbon lines also have a better abrasion resistance than a monofilament line does. It's a pretty hard line.

One issue with fluorocarbon is that the line has a tendency to have some issues when you're casting. You can get a lot of wind knots. You can get just issues with the line itself on the spool or coming off the spool. Impossibly, the biggest drawback to a fluorocarbon line is the cost. It's a little bit more expensive than a monofilament, quite a bit. That's why a lot of guys will use a fluorocarbon leader off of braid if they're using it for finesse fishing.

All right, guys, that's it for me. Thank you guys for watching. I really appreciate it. I hope this video was helpful so that next time you go to spool up a reel, you have a good idea of what you wanna use it for so there's no guessing about whether or not you're making the right decision on what type of line you're putting on. I hope you guys have some stuff to think about now so that you can make good decisions on what line you put on.

Now, in the end, the best line to put on is the line that you got, okay? So go out, have some fun, catch some fish. Thank you guys, again, for watching. If you have any questions or comments, leave it in the comments section down below. Click the thumbs up button. Go check out my channel, and thank you guys for watching the KastKing channel. Hit that subscribe button if you're new. Thanks again for watching and thanks for getting out west with Chris.