heavy line.

[Guss]

I cant figure out why bass guys (I am a trout guy) use such heavy line. It baffles me, I never use over 6lb test (once and a while I will use 10lb for tipet on my fly rod for pike). I cant imagin casting that stuf, it muct just fall off the reel.

My old man dose alot of salmon fishing in the Great Lakes and he uses 20 lb test for the most part (and fire line that is like 30, I think) these fish range from 10lbs to 25lbs and some are even in the 30lb range. Plus the boat is moving about 2 miles an hour. The 20lb will pull in these hudge fish in all day. Why dose a guy catching 5lb bass use 20lb test, it seems like over kill to me.

The bigest bass I have ever caught were all on a 5wt fly rod with 2lb test (got one last week on this rig that was about 4lbs) and a 5ft spinning rod with some ice fishing reel on it (my girl was using my other rod) I have landed bass in the 8lb range on this rig, it has 4lb test on it.

I would like to be enlightened to the reasoning behing using such heavy line.

[Chuck7]

Guss,
If I fished in open water or even semi-open water I would fish no bigger than 10 lb test. However; when i jig/flip in cat-tails the fish immediately try to snake arounhd the stalks of cat-tails. Yesterday I was with a fellow using 10lb.We were flipping. First decent fish snaked through a brush pile. The hook ended up getting hung up and the fish swimming away. I always use 10 lb.unless flipping in heavy cover. I've watched the pros down here in Florida.You would not believe the stuff I 've seen them pull bass out of. The heavy line is to pull them out quick without a fight.

Keep a tight line
Chuck

[Gundigest]

I use 20 pound power pro because the lakes I fish are so weedy that you can't pull the 18" bass out of the weeds without it. You will have 4 pounds of fish and 10 pounds of weed. That goes for the lilly pads too.

[HighDesertWolf]

growing up in the midwest most of resavoirs ive fished were nothing more then dammed up rivers in the middle of a forest so the lakes have lots of downed and standing trees anything less then 12 lbs test mono and a fish wraps ya around a tree 9 times outta 10 it will break ya off, this is where super lines and heavy mono keep the advantage in your favor also bouncing lizards on top of vegetation and when a decent bass strikes it goes straight down then all over the place getting your line wrapped up in 15 lbs of weeds, heavy lines also help a ton in those situations. in heavy cover heavy lines also help in retrieving your $23 lucky craft live pointer lure if you get hung up. thats why us bass fisherman use 10 to 30 lbs test for 5 lbs bass................


EDIT: there have been times crappie fishing and have hooked up with bass on 4 lb test and sucessfully landing them after long tedius fights trying not to get broke off, sofar the biggest bass I have landed on 4 lbs test was a 5 lbs 9 oz large mouth ive also landed big brown trout in upwards of 8 to 9 lbs on the taneycomo in southern missouri on 4 and 6 lbs test. So landing big fish is not impossible on light lines its mostly just a preference of bass fisherman to use heavier lines.

[Chuck7]

sofar the biggest bass I have landed on 4 lbs test was a 5 lbs 9 oz

WOW !!! That is impressive.
Chuck

[OneShotWill]

Guss,

you do have a good point..but the difference between bass and large water fish..is that bass tend to hang out in places where they have to be "PULLED" or "YANKED" out. Example-the pond i fish at most is LOADED with algae and in one cast you can get about 5 pounds of muck on it plus a fish..it's a pain..then for them guys that flip into weeds and stick close to bank...with light lines a fish could easily break the line especially in all that cover...but i prefer using about 10 Lbs test on spinning rods..(i'm not much on baitcasting)..i will use heavier line every now and then it just all depends on where i am and the water conditions.

[Guss]

I am enlightened, 99% of my bass fishing is done on one lake (my girl freind and I camp and fish it often) it is a big spring feed lake that is so clear you can see bottom down to about 20ft. it is all open water with little to no cover. Most of the stucture is rocks and drop offs (this lake is about 100 ft deep). I can see why I can get away with such light line, but I under stand how a bass could tangle you up real fast in some of that mess you fish.

I will see if I can dig up the pick of that big bass I got on that little rod, It was a monster. That day I caught 2 other bass almost as big, one smallie (faught 10 times harder then the large mouths) and on other good size larg mouth. All of the same rock pile about 15 to 20 feet down.

I have been out only once for bass this year and did ok. I was going to go after trout but ran alittle late so I stoped at a lake that was close by the camp I was at. That is why I had 2lb test, I was set up for trout. Caught all my fish on a #hex fly (a hex is a hudge mayfly), I just striped it reel fast in the shallows and the fish would come for miles to see what it was.

Latter you warm water crusaders

[Icedragon]

ORIGINAL: Gundigest

I use 20 pound power pro because the lakes I fish are so weedy that you can't pull the 18" bass out of the weeds without it. You will have 4 pounds of fish and 10 pounds of weed. That goes for the lilly pads too.

I use 12 lb test mostly because like gundigest said, there are alot of weeds where I fish and need to think of the weight of that and not just the fish.

[Deerslayer_37]

Before i bass fished alot, i wondered the same thing. however, now that i do it more and more, i find myself using heavier line every month. First it was going up to 12 lb. that was alot at one time. now its nothing for me to flip with 30 lb power pro and throw frogs with 50 lb power pro. you need all the strength you can get when pulling fishh out of heavy cover. once they get wrapped around something and you have light line, its over.

slayer

[knifemakerbill]

when i first started bass fishing, i used 4 to 8 lb line, but you could buy a good bait for a buck, maybe a buck fifty. now, with lures costing five bucks and up, i've gone to using 18 to 25 lb. line. makes a difference when you can bring in a limb brim along with your bait, instead of losing it. where i fish now, it's so woody and grassy it woud cost a fortune if i used the lighter line! i still use light line on spinning rod, but only where the trees and stumps allow. the biggest bass i ever caught on fly rod (and a fly works wonders on some of these lakes that see a lot of fishing pressure) was 4 3/4 lbs. on a bass bug using 2 lb tippet! just luck i got him out of the trees-he came to open water instead of going down into the limbs. would rather be lucky than good!!