What Size Mono To Use As Backing For Braided Line?

If you’re going to use a braided line on your spinning reel, make sure you add mono backing first.

In contrast to braid, mono grips into the arbor (the center of the spool) much better and virtually eliminates free spinning when a fish is hooked.

Nonetheless, many people are curious about mono backing – which mono size do you use? It’s a good question since mono that’s too thick can cause the line to pull unevenly under pressure and may even break.

What Size Mono Backing For Braid?

8-10 pounds is the weight I like to use. My spinning reels are backed with mono. With 12 pounds, you should be fine. I prefer mono, but lighter is better. A thick mono is more likely to cause problems because the thicker it is.

Thick mono provides a big knot on your spool (which can cause your line to lay unevenly) and braid is more likely to get caught in thick mono (and get tangled).

Most people have a major objection to using light mono for backing: what if a fish gets me to my backing? Isn’t it going to break me off?

In the first place, that shouldn’t be allowed to happen. It’s more than enough line to handle any fish you encounter inshore if you have 150 yards of braid over your backing.

Having your drag set properly and fighting the fish appropriately will allow you to bring in even 40 lbs. bull reds. When you are fishing for 100-pound tarpon, then you need gear more powerful than your 2500 spinning reel!

Using Monofilament Backing When Spooling Your Fishing Reel

However, braided fishing lines can be expensive to spool on your fishing reel, which has been a boon for many fishing applications.

You can avoid this by using a monofilament backing on the spool before braiding. Mono backings are most commonly used due to their low cost. Braid is usually sold in 150-300m lengths and can be extremely expensive compared to monofilament.

Even when fighting a big fish, the chances of reaching the bottom of your reel when bottom bashing are slim, so that expensive braid is essentially wasted when bottom bashing.

You can lose that one-of-a-lifetime catch by failing to spool your lines tightly. If you don’t, the braid can cut through the layers below it, and the fish will be lost.

Reasons To Use Mono Backing With Braided Line

There are several benefits to braided line, among them increased casting distance, thinner diameter, strength, and the ability to feel every nibble, twitch, and even the weight of your lure. Although braid is a good choice, it’s complicated to install on a spinning reel.

Monofilament can just be filled up right into your reel, but braid requires you to put a base layer of monofilament on your reel before it can be filled. There is a method of backing your boat with a monofilament that might save you from losing the biggest fish of all time.

The use of braided lines directly on spinning reels can result in spooled lines, which can waste your money, but the use of monofilament guides can prevent this. Using a braided line on your spinning reel requires mono backing. Here are some reasons why:

Reason #1

The braided line, when wound on a spool, tends to spin “free”. When you get a big fish on braid, you may find your spool of braid spinning freely. Braid is so slick and thin that it cannot hold any water.

If your line starts to peel off your reel, and even when you tighten up your drag all the way, it does not stop the fish; then you are experiencing this problem. However, monofilament is unable to spin freely because it grips the arbor (the center of the spool).

Because monofilament grips the arbor better than fluorocarbon and is cheaper, I prefer it over fluorocarbon here. I should also note that braided line free-spinning does not always happen, even if the spool says that it is braid-ready.

When saltwater gets to the band on these reels, the adhesive typically breaks down, and the reel will still be free spinning anyway, even if there is a band on the arbor that the braid can dig into. When you serve braid on an arbor that has tape on it, you can expect the same outcome.

Reason #2

As a filler, monofilament is inexpensive. It is expensive to purchase braid, and reels typically require hundreds of yards of line to be properly filled. 100-150 yards of mono backing can help fill the reel with braided lines. 

Most braided lines come on 150-yard spools, so you will need to add that to the 3000 series reel. You will lose a lot of casting distance without a line on your reel because there will be friction between the spool top and the line as it leaves the reel.

You can save money by adding a monofilament backing to your reel to keep it from free spinning.

Line Choice For Spinning Gear

Thanks to the vast improvements in fluorocarbon lines and braided lines, spinning reels have become much easier to manage. A spinning reel is far more efficient with a braided line. 

As well as being small, casting far and having no stretch, this rod is extremely strong, remarkably durable, and last but not least, virtually memory-free. It is for these reasons that braided lines are a spinning gear’s dream come true.

There is only one drawback to braiding: it can be seen in clear waters and be a turn-off to “line shy” fish. Since braid is not strong enough to attach a lure to a spinning reel, many anglers use fluorocarbon instead.

Filling The Spool

There are a lot of problems that can be avoided once you properly learn how to put lines on a spinning reel and how many lines to put. Overfilling it will result in the line flowing off the second the bail is opened while underfilling it will result in lost casting distance due to friction on the spool lip. 

Fill the spool up to between 1/8 and 12 inches above the lip of the spool; this is the ideal level. As a result, the lip is not too thick to retain your line, but it is full enough to launch long casts.

Final Words

The backing for your spinning reel should be 8-10 lbs. monofilament. If you go heavier than that, you will run into issues with your braid not laying flat against the backing or getting tangled in the knot from mono to braid.

It’s also a good idea to have a large spinning reel on hand if you think that you might encounter tarpon or other fish that will exceed the size of your 2500 or 3000 spinning reels.