Sakura Sensibraid 12 braid review - around £40 for a 150m spool, this is a high-end mainline

You know what I really want from a braid? Absolute trust at the end of the day. For sure I want the line to feel nice, knot well, cast smoothly, and not give me any line management issues if I have taken into account the various “quirks” which some spinning reels have, but what I want above all else is to fish with it for a good while and not get any unexplained breakages or mishaps which will really niggle me…………..

I was kindly given a couple of spools of this braid to try by a friend in the trade, so I loaded a 150m spool of this 12-strand, dark green Sakura Sensibraid 12 in the 22lbs (10kg/0.12mm) version onto a previous generation Shimano Vanford C3000HG spinning reel back in March of this year - and it’s had a hammering since then. I gave the other spool to a friend and I was interested to watch him give the stuff a (successful) battering on a few open coast sessions we did together, mainly because I have fished with this braid almost exclusively for so much of the estuary based bass fishing I have been doing this year. A hell of a lot of it if that is any help, so the braid’s had a lot of water and fish time.

And it continues to perform absolutely flawlessly. We are talking about an expensive 12-strand mainline which I think feels every bit as good as the price suggests. How a braid feels I accept is hardly the acid test, but damn it’s some smooth stuff when you load it onto a spinning reel and take it out fishing. I only ever use the FG knot to secure my braid to my leader, so I am not the person to ask about any other lesser leader knots and how they work with this particular Sakura Sensibraid 12. For the bass fishing I have been doing and the few creature baits and so on that I have snagged up and often got back, this is a strong and very reliable mainline. I have been fishing mainly with the 12lb and 16lb YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon leader for my estuary stuff, and with the FG knot I like to think I know what a strong mainline actually is.

For sure there has been a bit of colour loss over about the six months I have been fishing with this braid, but that is perfectly normal. I wouldn’t expect any line management issues on a spinning reel like the Shimano Vanford C3000HG I have got this Sakura Sensibraid 12 on, even when casting light lures into lively headwinds at times - and there haven’t been. I can’t sit here and tell you that this Sakura Sensibraid 12 is better than say Sufix 131 or this Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE X8 braid which I have gone back to (check this blog post here, it’s easily as good as I remember!), not with my lack of technical knowledge - but it’s bloody good and I have absolute trust in it. When it comes to fishing tackle I base my thoughts and opinions on real fishing time that I spend with the gear. I don’t speculate and I believe in forming my own opinions. If you are after a high-end, bloody lovely dark green 12-strand braid to load onto a modern spinning reel, I would urge you to put this Sakura Sensibraid 12 on your list of mainlines to think about. You all have a good weekend, come on the Red Roses, you girls are awesome!

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