Best Braided Fishing Line Overall the reaction tackle x8:
Great tensile strength range, standard material, fair price, many colors, thin, and color retention technology. An all-around great line.
Honorable mention: Sufix 832 Advanced Superline
I put a second-best line because it’s 13 strands, the line is fairly cheap at 18.99, and is a great material of 7 HMPE fibers plus 1 GORE® Performance Fiber. This is an honorable mention.
The question that will be answered is what is the best-braided fishing line for different fish?
I will be discussing which braided line to choose for each, and what is the best line for different situations. As you read along you will notice at the beginning of each brand I will say the best line it has and as I go through all the types for each brand I will comment on the differences.
The manufacturers in question will be the following: KastKing, Reaction Tackle, Powerpro, spider wire, Hercules, and Sufix.
I hope this guide will help in choosing the best-braided fishing line for whatever fish you are going for!
All braided liens are going to be more resistant than monofilament or fluorocarbon.
Weights and test: They say 3-6 lbs is good for trout and bass, 6-10 lb test is for salmon and sea trout, and 10-20 lbs are for salmon, catfish, carp, and pike just to name a few.
Monofilament lines are threaded from just a single plastic fiber, often nylon. They are inexpensive, but consequently, slightly less durable than other types of lines and more prone to abrasion. Mono lines absorb water, weakening their tensile strength over time, which means you may need to change lines regularly.
I will not lie I don’t have much experience with a braided line, I have mostly used monofilament lines. But we will both learn as we go and decide which braided fishing line is the best.
I would not suggest this line for extremely large fish, braided line is not elastic and can cause the line to break easily when pulled with extreme weight.
When deciding which line to choose you to need to know what are the important factors to be investigated the following I have found to be important:
Color
Weight
Price
Number of strands
Tensile strength
Material
Diameter
Elasticity
Durability
The Basics:
What exactly is a braided fishing line and why use one at all?
A braided fishing line is just multiple fibers woven together to increase strength and decrease diameter. When you weave something, the material is elastic, but it loses this characteristic in a weave. It becomes stronger and more taunt.
Most beginners use monofilament lines because they are cheaper and knot tying is simpler with them. To make the knot tying simple I suggest using a Palomar knot, which is a fairly simple knot.
Choices: you can spool your hole reel with braided or you can cheat like some people and do a 70-30 split with braided to mono, I like this idea and I never had thought of this. Saves moolah.
The action of a braided line digging into itself is probably the biggest reason anglers don’t like braided lines besides the cost. I would have to agree, the few times I’ve used it I reeled in way too fast and the line snagged a bit, which can cause you to lose fish with large jerks. This happens because most braided fishing line used is 4 strand and is of cheap quality. You should not have that problem with a higher-quality 8-strand line. Coatings can make a helluva difference as well, so keep an eye on that as well.
A quick detour into fluorocarbon fishing lines:
Fluorocarbon is known for strength and its transparency and is a single strand of nylon.
Reaction Tackle:
the best braided line from this brand is the X8 REACTION TACKLE:
A good price, pretty thin, has color lock tech, many colors, and the greatest tensile strength range. A great line.
Price: 10 lb test for 500 yards is 31.99 dollars, about 10 dollars for 150 yards.
Length: 500-1500 yards
Material: UHMWPE, polyethylene, this is standard.
Has color lock technology for keeping the line the same color without fading.
Diameter: .12-1.20mm
Colors: blue and green camo, hi-visibility yellow and moss green, pink, aqua camo, hi-vis green, sea blue, no fade blue, white, and timber brown
Strength: 10-300 lb test, the greatest range we have seen so far. A wide range of options.
Strand: 8 strand
Strands: 9 strands are slightly more premium than other lines.
Length: 300 yards
Price 21.99 dollars
Colors: fluorescent and moss green
Material: UHMWPE
Has a coating.
Diameter: .14-.55mm
Decent line
REACTION TACKLE HOLLOW CORE 16 STRAND
Color: blue camo, white, hi-vis yellow
Price: 50 lb test for 500 yards is 59.99, which is 18 dollars if it was 150 yards per roll. Too pricey and comes in too long of a length.
Strength: 50-200 pound weight.
Length: 500-1000 yards
Strand: a premium 16-strand braided fishing line. it will be extra smooth and thin. should be able to cast it very far.
Hollow: lets you splice the line so it’s stronger than not hollow lines. The line will be limper as well.
Coating: nothing specific but has a coating that will help it move through the guides more easily. Should be the best-braided line for causing the least damage to spinning reels.
Diameter: .30mm to .65mm, fairly thin and should be a premium braided line, has a thin diameter.
Material: UHMWPE, polyethylene nothing crazy about the material.
REACTION TACKLE BRAIDED FISHING LINE:
Strength: 10-100 lb test
Length: 150-1500 yards
Price: starts at 6 dollars this is your cheapo basic line from this brand
Colors: blue and green camo, hi-visibility yellow and moss green, pink, aqua camo, hi-vis green, sea blue, no fade blue, white, and timber brown, gray, orange, black, red, multi-color, green no fade
Strands: 4-strand polyethylene fiber
Has a nonspecific coating
Diameter: .14-.55mm for below 120 lb test. over 120 lb test is 8 strand at .60-1.20mm
SUFIX:
Makes some quality lines, and the 832 is their most used and sought-after braided fishing line.
the best Sufix braided line is the 832 Advanced Superline®:
The 13strand Sufix 131 is the best braided fishing line from Sufix. But in terms of price and is completely adequate. The 832 has many colors compared to 1311, has 8 strands, and a solid tensile strength range. It uses the same material as the SUFix 131 braided line.
Colors: coastal camo, camo, hi-vis yellow, ghost, lo-vis green, neon lime. There are a lot of colors here for every type of fishing line. When choosing the best-braided fishing line I like to go for a line I can use anywhere and I can just get it in a different color, cause I will already know how it will work
Price starts at 18.99, but around 27 is going to be quite normal
Strength: 6-80 lb
Length: up to 3500 yards
Strands and material: 8-strand line from the website directly at rapala.com “832 Advanced Superline has 8 fibers (7 HMPE fibers plus 1 GORE® Performance Fiber) and 32 weaves (pics) per inch”. The same material as other brands just named a little differently sill polyethylene.
Color retention: take this feature with a grain of salt because it is not specific but the line has color retention technology, I think it’s just a coating of some sort, waxy or petrol based.
Diameter: is .14-.55mm
Sufix 131® Braid Fishing Line
Colors: just low-vis green
Strength- 6-80 lb line, solid strength range for braided line.
Length: just 150-yard spools
13-strand line: this is going to be very smooth and strong, whereas if one strand gets damaged it will not affect the line as a whole as much as a 4-strand line.
Material: quote from the website “Built with 13 fibers (12 HMPE fibers + 1 GORE® Performance Fiber in core)”. Its polyethylene.
Price: 30-40 dollars, quite expensive but you get that added strength. At this price, I would be using this for larger fish, but it may have an extra longevity factor with smaller fish, so it might last a while.
More fibers: increases the knot strength in the line. Think of 1 large line vs a smaller line which one has better knots?
Diameter: .15mm to .50 mm
Definitely the best-braided fishing line for Sufix.
ProMix® Braid
The colors are only low-vis green, pretty bad
Price: 12.99
Strength; 6-80 lb
Length: 150-3000 yard spools
Diameter: .16-.60 mm
I am not sure how many strands this line has but I would guess 4 strands based on the price of 11.99 for 150 yards of 20 lb test
Performance Braid
Price: 300-yard length of 40 lb line is 21.00
Colors: hi-vis yellow, green, and fluorescent neon fire.
Price: 9.99 for 30 lb of 100 yards.
Strength: 6-130 lb line.
6-strand braided fishing line, is not the worst but 8 is preferred, it seems the cheaper ones are 4 because they are worse.
Diameter: is .14-.60mm thicker than other lines at the same test, it’s because of the 6 strands vs 8.
This is the worst Sufix line, it has nothing that differentiates it, it has fewer strands, and is thicker. The only use case would be for larger fish at over 100 lbs but the use case is a small fraction of what people do. Fairly cheap and is solid just nothing special
Hercules
this brand has the best color options so for weird colors choose this brand.
the best line from Hercules is the 8 STRAND BRAIDED FISHING LINE
Price: 30 dollars for 500m of 10 lb line
Strength and length: 10-300 lb line, and 500-2000m in length.
Strands, material, and diameter: 8 strands, PE fibers of polyethylene, and is .12-1.20mm. Solid characteristics no problems.
For all types of water.
Colors: white, black, blue, camo, multicolor, and blue camo. many others but these are the important ones. Many colors.
12 STRAND BRAIDED FISHING LINE
Length: 500-2000 meters
Price: Starts at 36 dollars
Strength: 10-420 lbs
Colors: many to choose from fluorescent green and yellow, orange, red, white, blue, pink, camo, and blue camo
Strands, material, and diameter: Has 12 strands a premium style and should be quite smooth and easy for knot tying with great tension. PE polyethylene fibers, and is .12mm to 2.00mm. For a 10 lb line this is fairly thin most of the other braided lines are .14mm.
Little to no stretch is great for fishing smaller fish since their bites will be felt easier.
For all water types.
100% FADE-FREE BRAIDED FISHING LINE:
Price starts at 11.70, of 100 meters of 100 lb braided line.
Length and Strength: 100-1000 meters, and 6-100 lb weight.
Strands, material, and Diameter: 4 strands of polyethylene Dyneema. .08 to .55 mm in cross-section.
Colors: fluorescent green, red, green, blue, brown, yellow, orange, white, and black
With this line it’s cheap and the color won’t fade, nothing else special about it. The specific gravity is also below 1 so it will sink.
4 STRANDS BRAIDED FISHING LINE
Price: 17 dollars for 500m of 6 lb line.
Strength and length: 6-100 lb line, and 100-2000 meters
For saltwater and freshwater.
All Hercules braided fishing lines use the same line colors such as fluorescent green, red, green, blue, brown, yellow, orange, white, and black.
Strands, material, and diameter: 4 strands, PE fibers, and .08mm to .55 mm
KastKing:
After further review of each brand’s braided line, I have noticed they have only about 4 types of line to choose from.
The best KastKing Braided line is the SuperPower Braided Fishing Line:
Why this is the best: fairly cheap, great strength range, 4 and 8 strands, very thin, and a good coating to keep it smooth. I wish all braided lines were at least 8 strands but that’s my only gripe about this specific line, I wish it had more colors as well.
Colors: 5 colors to choose from I like moss green or low visibility gray for more murky water.
Strength: you can get this braided line in a 6-150 lb line.
Diameter range: starting at lb test is .06mm up to .8mm for 150 lb test.
Fiber type: “ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene Braid fiber”, polyethylene is a plastic and is known for being wear-resistant and strong. Polyethylene is one of the most widely used plastics that causes low friction, is lightweight, and absorbs very small amounts of moisture.
Braid numbers: up to 65 lbs with 4 braids and after that 8 braids for extra strength. 8 braids is more for inland applications since it’s smoother and should do better with obstacles.
Price Range: 16.99 to 64.99, 6 lb to 150 lbs respectively
Reviews are great: no issues from many of its users.
Proprietary coating: they say it’s not waxy and that it’s good, I guess I understand why it’s a secret.
KastKing Extremus Braided Fishing Line
Colors: Grey, yellow, blue, and green grass. I like to see lines that have camo colors as well.
Strands and material: 4 strands, and uses multituff fibers which are polyethylene.
Price: 13-30 dollars.
The company says it’s a limper line than others and should help with casting distance.
Coating: uses a petroleum-based dye that keeps absorption low and helps maintain color. Petroleum means oil by the way.
Uses diamond weave to keep strength high, with this specific line it’s the only one where the break strength is higher than the recommended strength.
Strength: 8-60 lbs, not a great full range. In the included chart the actual strength is higher than the recommended for an included safety factor, the company wants to make sure you are satisfied, and I respect that.
Diameter: .10mm-.45 mm still fairly small but not as small as the superline.
KastKing Destron Braided Fishing Line
Colors: moss green, grey, blue, blue camo, camo.
Strength: 6-80 lbs test, good range, and good enough for most fishing.
Strands: Has 4 strands and are more for bait casting and are less smooth than 8 strands. Material is polyethlene wth multuff fibers
Price: $14.99
Diameter: .11mm to .46mm, a little skinnier than the 13x kastking.
Special weaving technology: Supposedly in manufacturing they use a special process to increase the strength of the weave, and tensile strength should be greater.
Destron coating: uses a coating that keeps color well, and has abrasion resistance.
Specific Gravity of .97 so this one floats slightly as well.
KastKing KastPro 13X Finesse Braid Fishing Line
Colors: white, chartreuse, and moss green. not many colors to choose from
Price $30.00, a bit pricey but very smooth and stronger than other wires.
Strength: 6-30 lb test, quite a small range, but this is mostly for inland or lake fishing.
13 strand braided fishing line and is made of ultra-high molecular UHMPE fibers, which is made of polyethylene
The specific gravity of .97 is slightly lower than water, which means it will float slightly.
Known for its durability, small diameter, and abrasion resistance.
Diameter: .12mm-.30mm. fairly thin.
Spiderwire:
One of the most well-known companies and makes a great fishing line.
the best-braided line from SpiderWire is the Ultracast® Braided fishing line
This has a good tensile strength range, thinner, has more strands, and has better colors than the other braided fishing lines
Strength: 4-100 lbs
Price: 20 dollars at 150m
up to 2188yd of line per roll
Colors: moss green, invisibraid, and aqua camo.
Material and strands: polyethylene and has 8 strands.
Aqua Camo: for anglers who want high vis, and are line watchers.
A quick detour about hi-vis and low-vis fishing lines. High vis is helpful for the angler and helps you see what you are doing and even if it’s hi-vis some fish don’t care like largemouth bass. Low-vis is very hard to see in the water and can be helpful for line-shy fish if that’s what you are going for, an example is a carp.
Diameter: a skinny braided fishing line starting at .07mm, up to .41mm. This is the thinnest spiderwire line.
For freshwater fishing.
Another advantage to 8 strands to 4 strands is knot strength, because 8 strands are smoother and have smaller fibers, which can make it easier to tie knots and to make them tighter.
SpiderWire DuraBraid
Strength 8-80 lbs test
Price: $14.00-$16.00
Braids: 4
Colors: Hi-vis yellow and moss green
Diameter: is .15mm-.42mm. this starts at 8 lbs not 6 like the others so fairly similar gains in diameter per lb of strength.
Made for Freshwater
This braid is meant for fishing around rocks or vegetation as per the packaging.
Material: Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, the same material as the KastKing.
SpiderWire EZ Braid™
Strength: 10-50 lb test
Price: 9.99
Color: moss green
Material: Dyneema fibers are the same as UHMPE
Braids: 8
Diameter: .17-.33mm
Made for Freshwater
Terrible reviews: has to be changed out often and is just not durable
Spiderwire stealth:
Great range: 6lb to 250lb test
Spiderwire stealth is a great cheap option of line, not the best fishing line.
Price: lengths differ so the cheapest is 12.99
Color: moss green and hi-vis yellow, not many options
Material and strands: Made from Dyneema or UHMWP and is 4 strands
Coating: from the dealer “Fluoropolymer Treated microfibers – shoots through guides like a bullet!”
Diameter: .20 -.81mm braided fishing line
For Saltwater fishing and it floats.
Spiderwire stealth is a famous line and many people use it, it has a great strength range and a good coating that helps it damage your pole less.
Powerpro:
All braided lines are powerpro spectra, spectra are the material name.
The best braided line from power pro is Hollow-Ace:
This isn’t the strongest line because the maxcuatro is the strongest since it uses the strongest material the HT spectra fibers. This line has the greatest tensile strength but is a bit more pricey, and the color options are not great on any of these lines. this line is the smoothest and is more sensitive because it’s hollow.
This is a hollow core line which means it is going to weigh less, but won’t be as strong.
Strand and material: 16-strand fishing line uses spectra fiber.
Price: 24.99
Strength: 40-200 lb test.
Colors: White/Hi-Vis Yellow/Marine Blue
Length: 100-3000 yard spools
Diameter: unknown from websites
With 16 fibers this is going to be smooth, which means it will be easier on your guides and should deal with murkier rock-infested environments better. Makes the line thinner and should help with casting distance, since it is will cause less friction.
PowerPro spectra:
Colors: Moss Green, Hi-Vis Yellow, Vermilion Red, White.
Strength: 3-250lb line, quite the range of weights. Can be used with many different types of fishing.
Diameter: .06-.89mm, one of the thinnest braided fishing lines reviewed.
Length: 100-3000 yards
Price: 13 dollars and up
Strands: 4, the lowest amount of strands, won’t be as smooth but 1/2 as cheap as the hollow ace.
Material: polyethylene, spectra fiber.
The power pro spectra is a workhorse and is fairly cheap as well.
Super 8 Slick
Strands: 8, should be smooth since it’s made with spectra fibers.
Process: when making the line they use a special process to keep the line thin and smooth. The process is called EBT and essentially covers the fibers in resin so they stay slick and it will stop them from fraying.
Material: Spectra fibers, this braided fishing line has great reviews and is very smooth and makes knot tying easy, after repeated use the line stays true.
Price: starts at 20 dollars and up
Colors: Hi-Vis Yellow, Marine Blue, Timber Brown, Aqua Green
Strength: 10-80 lbs
Length: 150-1500 yards
Diameter: .15-.43 mm. fairly normal cross-section length.
Depth Hunter:
4 color line that changes color every 25 yards. The colors are Blue/Yellow/Green/Orange, which should be fine for hi-vis fishing, with the color change it may spook fish that are line shy.
Strength: 10-150 lb test
Diameter: .15-.56mm
Length: 167-3000 yards
Price: 28 dollars for 300 yards at 10 lb test
Strands: 4 or 6 strands, at 40 lbs it switches to 6 strands. Not the preferred number of strands for the best-braided fishing lines.
Material: Spectra fibers
Maxcuatro:
Strand: 4, not great but the material makes up for it
material: Spectra HT fiber is supposed to be stronger than normal spectra fibers. The first fishing line with this material and its the strongest.
Colors: Moss Green, Hi-Vis Yellow, Aqua Green
Strength: 20-100 lb test
Diameter: .19-43mm.
Length: 15-300 lb line
Price: start 24 dollars for a 20 lb 150-yard line.
The coating and material will be the most important parts to get the most durable line, along with the strands which make the line cause less damage.