# downrigger braid vs. cable



## BWalton (Mar 30, 2008)

Thinking of switching to braid on the downriggers. Curious on Pro's and con's and experience. I did a search on this forum and really only found 1 thread and it was a few years ago.


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## Quack Addict (Aug 10, 2006)

BWalton said:


> Thinking of switching to braid on the downriggers. Curious on Pro's and con's and experience. I did a search on this forum and really only found 1 thread and it was a few years ago.


Fished on a buddy's boat 1x and he had 150# (?) braid on a rigger. The wire riggers produced hits that trip but the braid didn't. He said the day before the braid was the only rigger to get touched. 

Braid doesn't hum like steel wire does. Seems like the riggers on my boat are more productive when the cables hum, but we run long enough leads that it shouldn't make a difference at the lure. Braid frays as it gets some miles on it.

Braid gets a limp when wet. I think it would be a bear to untangle if you got other lines wrapped up in it and *I think* it might accumulate fleas on certain days.

It's easy to tie knots with braid whereas you have to terminate cable with terminators that typically aren't reusable.

It might be worth swapping 1 rigger out to see if you like braid but I wouldn't personally go full bore and flip them all over until I had some soak time to see if I liked it in my setup. Based on the 1 trip I ran with 1 braid rigger, I'm keeping wire on my riggers.


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## anon02032020 (Oct 2, 2003)

Interesting analysis. I agree with both ideas. However the amount of fleas on my riggers and rigger rods caused me to scrap riggers altogether. Besides acting as a comb in the water and forcing fish away from the boat the amount of rigger bites is not worth the hastle in the clear water era. My money is now with wire slide divers. Way more stealthy.


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## waterwolf90 (Jan 7, 2013)

Tried braid on the riggers and pretty much stopped getting bites on the riggers lines altogether. They also can tangle and catch fleas. Switched back to cable and started getting fish again. Isn't there something about the cables conducting a positive/negative charge or current that attracts fish?


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## wolf76 (Apr 1, 2015)

Auto stop function doesn't work with braid. Fleas are a royal pain with braid. 

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


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