Can I Use Braided Line Fly Fishing?

Braided line was a favourite of mine back in my spin fishing days. I loved the sensitivity it gave due to lack of stretch, especially when vertically jigging. Naturally, I wondered if braided fishing line had a place in fly fishing?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well as a leader or tippet material. You can use it as a backing alternative though. See below for details.

Can I use Braided Line For a Leader or Tippet When Fly Fishing?

No, braided line will not work as either leader or tippet material for fly fishing.

Braided fishing line is too limp, soft, and flexible. The stiffness of mono or fluoro leaders aid in turning over the fly. Without this stiffness, braided just flops and gets horribly tangled within a cast or two.

Additionally, its thin diameter makes it slice through the water tension much more easily than similar strength mono or flouo tippet.

Can You Use Braided Line as backing When Fly Fishing?

Yes. Braided line works quite well as a backing substitute, and is actually not an uncommon practice.

Many fly anglers will almost never go into their backing, so truth be told a solid piece of string can handle many fly fishing applications (Just makes sure it’s one that will rot on you).

If you do need backing for those long-running fish (Salmon, carp, or a myriad of saltwater species), then braided is a valid option.

It’s popular in spin casting circles for a reason. Among those being that the line is strong, and the knots tied with braided seat very well, making them very strong as well. So in terms of performance, and holding up to strong fish, braided line will work.

A word of caution against using braided line as backing

The diameter of braided fishing line is much smaller than traditionally used Dacron Backing. This means it can cut you!

Most anglers would fight a fish off the reel when into their backing. Dacron is thick enough that it won’t immediately cut your if you happen to hand line it like you would the main running section of a fly line.

The thin diameter of the braided line means that if you try to hand line it while a fish is pulling line, there’s a good chance you’ll get cut quite badly. Either stick to fighting the fish off the reel, or use stripping gloves when using a setup with braided backing.

Or just use Dacron Backing (Amazon Link) as the fly fishing gods intended!