Flourocarbon Mainlines

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes dont stress Tony there aint nothing wrong with PowerPro.

[Anderoo]

It was a fly fishing tippet I first used it, for little sub-surface nymphs and emergers. It definitely got me more takes so I do believe that it's harder for the fish to see, but I had so many breakages I had to give up on it.

 

I'm sure there are much better lines out there now, but once your confidence in something is rocked, it's hard to give it a fair second go.

[weirwulf]

Did I miss summat or was my favourite barbel line Fox Illusion not even mentioned and neither was my other often used product Grand max R. Perhaps I arrived at these 2 because I tried a lot of the other stuff and yes it was pants. Not so these 2 though

[Dick Dastardly]

Grand Max Riverge is a great fly leader material and Ive not had any problems with it either.But Ive never used it for a mainline and like most "Hi-tech" lines it doesn't like being used as a light hook link material on the end of a braided line.

[Ken L]

I tried Berkley Vanish when it came out and as they say "Once bitten......"

I still use flouro for both fly fishing and tropical lure fishing but only the stuff sold specifically as leader material and only as a leader, never a mainline.

[weirwulf]

Grand Max Riverge is a great fly leader material and Ive not had any problems with it either.But Ive never used it for a mainline and like most "Hi-tech" lines it doesn't like being used as a light hook link material on the end of a braided line.

 

I use it on a match spool for higher distance waggler fishing purely because it sinks so well and gives much less time for the wind to pick hold of it. It was especially good fishing the "Jungle" at Bury Hill because of the need to get really close to the snags which means there is no chance to cast beyond and then pull the line under to sink it. With normal line the combination of the wind blowing and the movement of the punt the line is much harder to control and takes too long to sink resulting in the float being moved out of position. I would agree for most of the time that is overkill but in situations where you want the line to sink quickly nothing surpasses degreased flourocarbon

[Steve Burke]

Tackle Tour is a very useful US web site, and it was their review that put Suffix Siege on my short list of monos to try.

 

The flourocarbon articles were very interesting indeed. However I remember when I read the original one shortly after it came out how frustrated I was that they chose Trilene XL as the only mono to compare the fluorocarbons with. It would have been much more useful to have added another mono as well, for instance Trilene XT. These two monos have very different properties, particularly regarding abrasion resistance.

 

Their conclusion regarding abrasion resistance would probably have been very different then!

 

Of course many of the products available in the UK aren't available in the US and so aren't tested. However Tackle Tour is a site I visit regularly.

 

The Tackle Box results that Rob posted a link to are a good starting point for UK brands. However I assume their figures are based on dry, unknotted lines, and so are only a very rough guide.

 

Another very useful article is here on Angler's Net! This is by Jim Gibbinson and is a cutdown version of a series of tests he did for Carpworld. You can find it at http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/jim09.htm .

 

Bench tests of course don't tell the whole story. They do however enable us to draw up a short list to test in the field. Unfortunately, some lines don't do nearly as well in the field, perhaps changing their characteristics with use. But that's another story.

 

Has anyone else got any good line test sites they could post links to?

Edited July 2, 2010 by Steve Burke

[Worms]

Here's an Ozzie one I've picked up some interesting info from http://www.pcwi.com.au/fishing/linetesting.htm

[poledark]

I have always been a bit sceptical of the Tackle Box results. Mainly due to the pic of the guy with a tubular spring balance in his hand Not very reassuring regarding the accuracy of the tests.

 

Added to that were my own testing results with PP which showed 100% with the No Knot knot. Like some others on here, I have used and reccomended it for many years, only having to replace it because it gradually got shorter and shorter with use A couple of my barbel reels have less than 50 yds on each, but it has taken nearly 15 years to get that short

 

Mean? Me? No, just careful

 

Den

[Dick Dastardly]

Totally agree with all of that Den.