I don't care how good you are w/ a rod, if the current is screaming, or a guy hooks a three foot dog on the other side and it gets away from him, you can't stop the inevitible from happening. You were a deckhand, and if you worked enough trips after braid became popular, you know that there may be nightmare tangles that only braid can cause.
Even if you are smart enough to reel up to avoid a tangle( w/ will keep you out of the water for ninety percent of some trips), you can't expect an owner to change his rules because you say you're good. What makes your level of talent high enough to fish w/ braid, but a certain level under you ineligible, right? In-other-words, how would you feel if the rules applied to everyone, except one other guy, who the Captain says is talented enough to break the rule?
It's a tough rule, but it is his boat. I know that I spend $600 a year on cutlass bearings because braid gets on my shafts, and I will be spending $525 per journal( four journals) four times more frequently than if I didn't allow braid on my vessel, as it eats the spray-weld right off the shafts.
If you don't like the rules on a head boat, you either need to get a different vessel, or charter it.
I'm not trying to trivialize your talent or experience, but being who you are, you have heard from too many idiots about how talented they are. And even when you found people to be capable, did you allow them to break any rules they didn't like?
Bring the rods along, and maybe if the crowd is light or conditions favorable, you will be allowed to use it.
Paul
