Heavy or light ?

[beano]

Oh and you can't mistake a good cod bite when using braid.
And the sensitivity when feeling for a bite is amazing.
I revert back to mono when fishing in a heavy sea, as the breakers can bounce your rod clean out of the rest.

Deffo theres no give with braid I just hold the rod on the beach in heavy seas and you dont strike into a fish as it'll self hook itself

[RL83]

ive always used 15lb main line and 50-60lb shocker! thats all ive ever needed for where i fish
ocassionally ive used 20lb main line but not very often cause to me 15lb line tends to hold in the tide better than 20lb but thats my opinion and i could be talking sh##e haha
different courses eh!

[skott]

i use 25lb main and 60lb leader with 30lb traces most times.

[g-force]

I generally fish with a good, sturdy 0.5mm/ 30lb line (Tritanium red or Trilene Big Game) and a 60/70lb leader over rough ground, but some venues do suit the "straight through" approach and I have a couple of reels loaded up with 0.6mm (45lb) and no leader for shorter range stuff pretty much as you describe. I find that sort of set up particularly good for the likes of Whitley beach, where there can often be bits of weed floating around and there's nothing worse than losing a fish to the snags 10 yards out when your leader knot jams in the rings!

Only downside really is that the last few yards of your mainline needs checking carefully as it doesn't have the resilience of a heavier leader and I regularly have to trim a few yards off, meaning that after a while the reel needs a refill as the line level has dropped too much. I like to keep my reels brim-full so as to keep as high a speed retrieve as possible; this is where the thinner line works better especially at longer range, but as I rarely chuck the heavier line more than 70/80 yards, keeping them full there's still enough line on to get your gear back quickly if need be.

End gear will be pretty much the same on either set-up;80lb rig body, 40 or 50lb hooklengths & a 20lb rotten bottom (if I'm using one) with hooks that will bend out (I like the Mustad big-eyes in 3/0 - 6/0, or Vikings or such). I use Amnesia for the rotten bottom as it's quite thick, so will take a bit of abrasion & avoid throwing away sinkers unnecessarily, but will still snap easily enough with a bit of rod pressure (vital if you've got a fish on). I'll sometimes make the rig body a bit longer, up to 6ft or so, when fishing without a leader just to help reduce abrasion issues a bit. For heavy ground I usually just use a simple one hook flapper, tied old-school-stylee with a loop-to-loop hooklength so that there are as few bits as possible to throw away (just a personal thing but I don't rate pulley-rigs one bit) and places like Whitley I use a 2 hook flapper on the more mixed-ground areas.

Gary