Salmon Backing

Marty S · #1 05-09-2015, 04:27 PM

I bought my fly line from the guys at Misty River in Terrace and they filled my reel with some kind of a 20 lb test backing. I have no idea what it is, but it actually isn't that hard to break.

Seems to me that if a guy had the reel spooled up with 30 or 40 lb braid, it would never break. I only fly fish for sockeye so I am ignorant, but anything can bite in the river and I want a chance at landing my spring or steelhead when I hook into one.

What is best? Is there a reason they didn't put a tough thin braid in?

I am leery of taking advice from guys that sell supplies on the river. The concept is, the lighter the gear, the more you break the more you buy. I see it all the time when new people show up wanting to fish Chinook and they leave the tackle shop with a bunch of 25 lb mono etc, which is just begging for trouble, fine for the little guys but repeat sales for the tackle shop on the big ones, except,for the experienced, especially if they have jet boats.

Side note... Hard lesson learned last year too, always check your tackle shop knots!!! No warrantee on their knots!

Chief16 · #2 05-09-2015, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty S

I bought my fly line from the guys at Misty River in Terrace and they filled my reel with some kind of a 20 lb test backing. I have no idea what it is, but it actually isn't that hard to break.

Seems to me that if a guy had the reel spooled up with 30 or 40 lb braid, it would never break. I only fly fish for sockeye so I am ignorant, but anything can bite in the river and I want a chance at landing my spring or steelhead when I hook into one.

What is best? Is there a reason they didn't put a tough thin braid in?

I am leery of taking advice from guys that sell supplies on the river. The concept is, the lighter the gear, the more you break the more you buy. I see it all the time when new people show up wanting to fish Chinook and they leave the tackle shop with a bunch of 25 lb mono etc, which is just begging for trouble, fine for the little guys but repeat sales for the tackle shop on the big ones, except,for the experienced, especially if they have jet boats.

Side note... Hard lesson learned last year too, always check your tackle shop knots!!! No warrantee on their knots!

Nothing wrong with using braid for backing, only problem that you may encounter is breaking your fly line with 40lb braid

fishtank250 · #3 05-09-2015, 06:52 PM

25lb-30lb mono is the norm for most boats fishing salmon on the coast

britman101 · #4 05-09-2015, 07:07 PM

I have used 40 lb. braid as backing, and I have used the heavier weight dacron backing that some fly shops sell. Have yet to lose my line due to the backing breaking. However, do not use some of the new super lines like crystal line I believe as those lines were not meant to be used as backing and will cut you down to the bone if you try and grab on to the line when a big fish is running.

goldscud · #5 05-09-2015, 07:09 PM

50lb braid is a good diameter for backing. I think fly line breaks at about 30lb, so hopefully a leader would break before the fly line

Kingfisher · #6 05-10-2015, 12:43 AM

I use 30lb gel spun backing for my salmon reel. You can get more on the reel than you can with Dacron backing.

There is no way you should be able to break your backing. Seriously you should be cutting your hand before you can break it. Salmon aren't fooling around. Get a fresh chum on there or a good spring on there and you will want every bit of strength you can get out of your backing.

Marty S · #7 05-10-2015, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishtank250

25lb-30lb mono is the norm for most boats fishing salmon on the coast

I am in the river with rocks, sticks, stumps, log jams, current, gravel bars coming to an end and no boat.

The rest of the story... when the tackle shop knot came undone, I went to the other tackle shop in town to buy a new fly line and the salesman there tested my backing with his hands, broke it quite easily and stated he figured it to be a 20 lb backing. I was kinda miffed because it was my understanding that the backing should never break easily.

So braided line backing here we come! How many yards should I have on? I'm running an Okuma SLV in an 8 and one in a 9/10 which is kind of massive.

Positrac · #8 05-10-2015, 09:32 AM

I don't ever use mono for backing. Mono will stretch quite a bit and that is not what you want for backing. If you get down to the mono backing while fighting a big fish, the backing will go back on the reel in its streched state and could cause the spool to "pop" or crack at a later time.

Wrecked lots of single action reels back in the day using mono for backing before braid was readily available.

If you are using braid on a levelwind make sure it is under pressure when going on the spool. I've seen a couple times where the mono main line cuts down the side of the spool when the backing was just put on loose. A couple turns of the spool and the levelwind line guide is at the other side of the spool and the reel jams up usually resulting in the main line snapping.

tikka250 · #9 05-10-2015, 10:13 PM

back when i worked on a tackle shop on van isl our go to for islander style reels (essentially a big flyreel for trolling) was 25 or 30 pound braid i want to say dacron but it was a while ago and cant be certain. im on the island right now and need a tuneup on my bow so when i go in i will try to remember to check.

Positrac · #10 05-11-2015, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tikka250

back when i worked on a tackle shop on van isl our go to for islander style reels (essentially a big flyreel for trolling) was 25 or 30 pound braid i want to say dacron but it was a while ago and cant be certain. im on the island right now and need a tuneup on my bow so when i go in i will try to remember to check.

You are right Tikka250. Orange Dacron on all my Islander reels.

32-40win · #11 05-11-2015, 10:57 AM

I always put the 30lb dacron on the backing for the salmon reels. I've had fish sound to 180ft on salt water, and some good coho run a long ways out, so, it never hurts to have lots on there. And I've caught stuff at 110-120 ft with the entire fly line out of the rod at slack tide, gone quite a ways into the backing on some of those. With the drag of the line itself at that depth, 30lb is gives a slight amount of comfort over 20lb.

Bron · #12 05-12-2015, 09:14 AM

20lb is fine for salmon.

Tskip · #13 05-12-2015, 11:07 AM

I've got 330 yards of Dacron 50lbs on mine but that reel is also going to double as my tropics fishing reel by swapping out my fly line