Kites and Sailfish: Why Braid May Be Better

There was a time when spooling braid as your main line for a sailfish kite spread was about as acceptable as microwaving fresh mahi. In South Florida, the rule was simple: 20-pound hi-vis mono on the reel. Braid was only for the electric kite outfits. But as anyone who’s spent a lot of time on the water knows, fisheries evolve.

Modern braid, made from high molecular weight polyethylene fibers, is thin, strong, sensitive to the slightest touch, and doesn’t stretch. In inshore waters, on the reef, and in bass fishing, braid has become the standard. Offshore, however, monofilament still dominates trolling spreads. Part of that is tradition, but more importantly, mono stretches, and that stretch helps absorb the chaos of cartwheeling jumps and violent headshakes that make billfish so thrilling to catch. Braid, on the other hand, offers no forgiveness. When a fish crashes your trolling spread, that lack of stretch would cause something in your terminal setup to fail, likely in dramatic fashion.

But kite fishing? That’s a different game. The take is more delicate. And if we’re okay with using braid when live baiting tarpon—a fish whose blistering runs and headshakes aren’t far removed from those of a sailfish—why the hesitation to fish braid main line when kite fishing? 

Flipping the Script 

Never one to follow the crowd, Capt. Art Sapp decided it was time to challenge convention. A couple of seasons back, I stepped onto the deck of Native Son and saw every rod rigged with braid. Not just the electric kite outfits, but every rod.

Over the years, we had tested countless combinations of hooks and knots. We tried Eagle Claw, VMC, and Mustad; loop knots, snells, clinch knots. Always searching for ways to improve our bite-to-release ratio. But mono had always been the main line. This time? Yellow Power Pro Maxcuatro, and I was skeptical.

Chaos Hits Fast 

Picture this: Kites banked left and right off the stern, six baits on the surface, longs out about 200 feet behind the boat. A hungry pack of sails swims into our picket fence of live baits. Multiple hookups. Lines crossing. It’s a beautiful mess. Braid may be unforgiving when it comes into contact with barnacles, trim tabs, or the edge of a boat hull. However, when lines cross during a multi-hookup, braid holds up better against itself than monofilament does. With mono, crossed lines create heat and friction until one gives. It doesn’t happen as quickly with braid. By backing off the drag and thinking quickly—keeping rod tips together—we could manage the tangles, separate the fish, and prevent parting lines.

Last year’s Sailfish Challenge confirmed our faith in braid. Our first release happened just eight minutes after “Lines In.” By 9:54 a.m., we’d released 21. By noon, we were at 34. By 4 p.m., we tallied 48 sailfish releases, a record for a single day in Atlantic tournament sailfishing. As fast as you could drop a bait in, you’d get a bite. Twice, we had seven hooked at the same time. Lines crossed, fish darted in every direction, but the braid held strong and we landed doubles, triples, and other unthinkable combinations.

After that memorable day a few reels definitely needed tightening up, and we used our entire stockpile of pre-tied leaders, but if we’d been fishing mono main line, we would’ve had to re-spool every rod, too. And with another day ahead and a lead to defend, it would’ve been a long night. 

Power in the Hookset 

Hooking up on braid feels different. When you push the lever forward to strike, you feel every movement transfer instantly through the line and rod to your hands. Underwater and at a distance, bill swats become immediately apparent. Sailfish have hard, bony mouths. If the hook doesn’t dig in quickly on the initial feed, you might not catch that fish. Mono tends to absorb some of that power through its stretch. With braid, nearly all of the force goes straight into the hookset.

That said, we fish light-wire circle hooks and they’ll straighten out if you’re heavy-handed. Force needs to be applied with finesse. Once the hook is in, though, you don’t have to worry too much about it shaking loose, even if the line goes slack for a brief moment. That’s why we can back off the drag and work through tangled lines without losing fish. 

On Native Son, we fish 7-foot Shimano Terez BW BFC conventional rods. The short and middle rods are the 12- to 20-pound models, chosen for their softer action. They fish closer to the boat, so shock absorption matters more. The long rods are the 16- to 30-pound models, which offer a bit more backbone, given the extra line out.

Braid offers another advantage in kite fishing. It doesn’t catch wind the way mono does. That means less belly in the air and cleaner drop backs. When matched with a Shimano Talica 20 BFC, retrieving over 50 inches of line per crank, the angler maintains confident control.

Read the Fine Print 

Braid isn’t without its downsides. Spool it loose, and it’ll dig into itself. Get lazy winding it in, and it’ll backlash on the next set. We prefer to fish with the clickers off, but take your thumb off the spool for a second and you might be picking out a bird’s nest until lunch. Braid also poses a safety risk; it will slice flesh like cheese wire. When leadering a fish for video confirmation in a tournament we don’t often wear gloves, but always take at least two solid wraps on the fluorocarbon. Separation confirming an official release often comes quickly in the form of a straightened hook, pulled hook or broken line, but if you let the leader slip and the braid follows, the result can be severe.

For tournaments that follow IGFA rules, it’s important to make sure you are line-class legal. The Silver Sailfish Derby states, “All participants must comply strictly with IGFA rules.” Tournament rules limit anglers to fishing a maximum 20 lb. test line. To stay compliant when spooling with 40-pound Power Pro Maxcuatro, we add a 16.5-foot mono top shot before the fluorocarbon leader. Per IGFA regulations on backing, “The catch shall be classified under the breaking strength of the first 5 meters (16.5 feet) of line directly preceding the double line, leader, or hook.”

Big Water, Big Bycatch 

We’re targeting sailfish in winter, but sails aren’t the only thing we see. Bluefin and yellowfin tuna, blue and white marlin, big kingfish, wahoo, mahi, we’ve seen it all. Here’s another reason braid earns its place: line capacity. A Shimano Talica 20 BFC can hold around 640 yards of 20-lb. mono. Swap that for 40-lb. braid, which has the diameter of about 8-lb. mono, and your spool gains serious depth. You’ll realistically never need that much line, but it’s insurance for the unknown. 

At the 2024 One More Bite sailfish tournament in Stuart, that insurance paid off. Sails, bonito, and blackfin were crashing baits. Amid the chaos, the long goggle-eye under the right kite got picked up. The bite was slow and heavy, which typically translates to a bull or sandbar shark. But this time, it wasn’t. The fish dove, peeling line in bursts, then settled into a tail-thumping rhythm that we knew signaled some sort of pelagic gamefish.

After 30 minutes of steady pressure, an 84.4-lb. wahoo surfaced, hooked on a 6/0 Mustad circle hook, 30-lb. fluorocarbon leader, and 40-lb. Power Pro Maxcuatro. The lucky hook placement kept the leader beyond the razor-sharp teeth. Without the constant pressure braid provides, we probably wouldn’t have ever seen that fish. 

Braid isn’t meant to replace monofilament, and it will never be the line of choice for trolling. But for those willing to adapt and fine tune their kite fishing tactics, braid offers better hooksets, more line capacity, improved control, reduced wind drag, and an edge in multi-hookup scenarios. It’s not ideal for beginners. But in the hands of a disciplined crew, braid provides significant performance advantages.

Originally published in December 2025 print edition of Florida Sportsman Magazine. Click here to subscribe. 

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