It is widely known that many manufacturers of fishing line overstate the breaking strength of their lines in order to cash in on sales. Consumers are lead to believe they can catch a 12-pounder fish when manufacturers are fully aware that the line will break at 7 pounds. So where do we draw the line?
False labelling has become such a big problem in the last few years it has prompted the industry to take action and set up a line testing standard. EFTTA (European Fishing Tackle Trade Association) developed an initiative to track down the culprits of false labelling by testing a range of monofilaments on their actual diameter and breaking strength and compare it to the stated measurements on the spools.
The procedure begins with a fishing line submitted to EFTTA (the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association), where it is documented and then sent off to an appointed laboratory. From there, the submitted line will undergo a series of lab tests to accurately test the line strength and compare it to its stated breaking strength. Lines that pass the test by a 10% / – variance are awarded an ‘EFTTA Approved’ logo on the fishing spool to make consumers aware of the lines that are correctly labelled. A list of lines that have been awarded this logo can be found in the line testing section of EFTTA’s website.
As there are still many companies out there who incorrectly label their lines, EFTTA has gone one step further and now carries out random tests on monofilaments and publishes the results. To date, you can find results from Daiwa, Colmic, Tubertini, Falcon, Grauvell, Maxima, Rapala, Trabucco, Sensas and many more companies. The stated diameter and breaking strength is quoted next to the actual test result for an easy comparison to see whether the tested lines are correctly labelled or not. The test results are astonishing and can be accessed from www.eftta.com.
Please contact info@eftta.com if you wish to receive further information or have queries about specific lines.
