Floro lines

[Headhunter]

Has anyone ever done a side by side comparison of Floro vs say straight mono when fishing? I ask because as you can see, there have been many threads about Floro recently and it has raised this question in my mind. As I am mostly a troller, can anyone tell me that Floro has put more fish in the boat? If so, did you run two lines, identically and find that the Floro out performed that other?

I am considering giving it a go.. but like so many things in this world, is it real or just hype?

PS... I understand why the Musky guys use it, but for other applications, is there really a quantifiable difference or does it just give you a sense of confidence that in turn, nets your results?

Thanks,

HH

[lew]

As I mentioned in another thread HH, I've used mono both for main lines and as leaders for pickeral for years and have always been very satisfied with it and also normally do very well with it, but this year I'm gonna be trying the fluoro just to see if it does infact make any difference.

 

It certainly won't catch less fish, but may infact catch more just because of the lesser visibility of it and I figure it's certainly worth a try next month

Edited April 2, 2008 by lew

[Golfisher]

In clear water, I think using a fluoro leader does make an important difference, particularly if you are using braid. I used to put on fluoro leaders just for pike, but became a convert for other applications while fishing for smallies up north last year. With Power Pro on in a clear shield lake, the line could be seen from the Moon, and I couldn't coax any smallies to hit the lure for days literally. Once I tied on about six feet of fluoro, the fish began to hit like there was no tomorrow.

 

Of course, it could all have been just a fluke, but the confidence alone was enough to make me a believer. Give it a try and see if you like it; if not, you can always go back to mono.

[Ramble]

If you do a little surfing there is a few sites where they do product comparisons. They found that for line shy species the fluoro made a differance.

[Greencoachdog]

I love it and don't leave home without it!

[brickNblock]

Full agreement with all that what said above.

[capt bruce]

My take on this is if your fishing a northern fly in lake, one that doest see many fishermen you can use what ever line you want , but for well fished lakes where catch and release is practiced ,fish I think become aware of that string like thing sticking out of the bait and become line shy its here where floro comes in handy.

[Headhunter]

Thanks for the info guys, but does anybody actually have any first hand experience in a direct comparison?

thanks,

HH

[kickingfrog]

In-fisherman magazine has an article about fluorocarbon lines in the April/May issue (the article doesn't appear to be on the web yet). They talk about a test that was done in a lab and they talk about the benefits of Fluoro.

 

Fluoro is fluoro; Mono is mono; superbraid is superbraid etc. They all have pros and they all have cons. The challenge is to to apply them appropriately for a given situation and conditions.

[lookinforwalleye]

I tried florocarbon a couple of years ago and it was terrible, I didn`t catch any more fish because the line kept jumping off the spool and I spent more time with tangles than fishing. However I have heard floro lines have improved so I bought some and will try it again this spring.

[Terry]

I did do a little test...

and trolling for walleye less then 15 ft of stained water it made no difference at all...

in the one clear water lake we trolled it did seem to make a little difference, but not a great difference

 

using jigs for small mouth bass I saw a day when you could not catch a bass on mono, I was the guy using mono

after he caught about 15 bass and I had not caught one, even after trying many lures and using the same one he was, he said are you using fluoro on your line cause I am

I said no didn't bring any

I grabbed one of his rods and started catching bass, one for everyone he caught..

I switched back to mine a few times but just couldn't get one on mono

near the very end of the day it got cloudy I went back to the mono and caught fish

so I really believe that the clearer the water the slower you fish and more you need floro

 

but have not put it to the test in deeper water, but would think it will not be as much of a factor

[Musky or Specks]

Yes as a matter of fact I do have actual side by side test. The first year flourocarbon was on the market I got a sample from a jobber in the business. It was fall about late September /early October. My friend Fred, my son Griffin and my self went out in the boat off the mouth of the Beaver River in Thornbury to still fish for some rainbows. We got on the mudline and cast out. My buddy Fred who is a bio was all skeptical and just used regular tippet, he thought it was way to expensive to be worth it.... Not five minutes in I land and release a nice 3 lb bow. Right after that my son who was maybe 5 or 6 land an identical fish which we will keep for dinner to get him further hooked on fishing. I turn to my buddy and say see I told you. He is still a doubter says its not a big enough sample size(darn scientist). I get 3 more fish over the next 45 minutes and my son gets 1 more. Thats enough for him he asks for some and after many I told you sos(I never let anything like that go) I give him some. Now Fred is an amazing angler and just seems to have that extra amount of concentration that lets him always catch fish. Myself and my son kicked his butt using flouro. Now after that he just outfished us but we had to leave after about another hour. He got three while my son and I each got one more. Proved to Him and me that flouro made a difference have been using it ever since

[sharper]

I normally only use a fluoro leader when I fish for pike. Now after reading some posts I think I'll use fluoro leaders more often for other species. If it's going to help my game it's doesn't hurt to try.

[tschirk]

Hey Joe!

I use Flouro leaders religously - mostly due to:

- better abrasion resistance than mono,

- less prone to bite offs than braid or mono

- resistance to kinking like wire and an added benefit is

- less visibility in water than anything else (although not invisisble).

However flouro tends to cut into itself when tying knots so extra care in lubricationg knots is key. Not all flouro is equal, I love seagar but had lots of breakage with vanish.

I prefer to use braid for main line and a 4'-6' fluoro leader. I use uni-uni knot to connect leader (or sometines use a swivel), on the business end I use a palomar knot for jigs & hooks or a uni knot with open loop for lures.

I can keep a heavier braid on reel and just change flouro test lbs'age to suit fishing style.

 

Cheers

Ted

[Headhunter]

Thanks for your replies folks! Appreciate the effort... it appears as though in the right situation, it is the way to go... I will have to give it a try this summer and fall and reprot back on my findings... nice info here folks... THANKS!

HH

[wacky tambaqui]

Hh,

 

I switched to fluoro completely fom any and all nylon mono in 2006. There are 3 brands that I bought and used according to what the retailer had on hand at the time I purchased them. Their performances have been pretty consistent out on the water from what I experienced.

 

If you're any kind of fishermaniac like I am, you need someting that will stand up to the intense UV radiation we have in this day and age. There is no nylon mono that stands up to my kind of fishing any more, but the that's just my personal experience from having to re-spool everytime I went out there with monofilament.

 

There is one catch about fluoros: the knotting techniques. It's a personal choice.

[Tybo]

I don't fish with out some type of flouro now.

I use heavy to make my own leaders.

Between 6lb to 27lb tippets. 6 to 12ft

20 to 50ft shock core leaders for when I troll with braid.

As for catching more fish I couldn't tell fully, because I do

very well in that department.

[silveradosheriff]

I prefer to use the flouro, but conducting tests that would survive a peer reviewed journal is very challenging. There are many variables at play on the water, and my best guess is that the flouro produces a small percentage increase over mono - but I wouldn't bet my life on it. I agree with what was said about line sensitive species, which I rarely target.

I try to run my set-ups to be congruent with my understanding of the theory of the given application and figure that the fishing gods (no, not Terry) will sort the rest out from there.

 

It's a numbers game, a percentage here and a percentage there....

Edited April 5, 2008 by silveradosheriff

[goteeboy]

i haven't used it enough to see a huge difference though i'll be using more of it this year.

here's a very thorough article on flouro.

 

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbontest.html

 

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbon2.html

 

it is more of a comparison between diff flouro brands.

[kickingfrog]

i haven't used it enough to see a huge difference though i'll be using more of it this year.

here's a very thorough article on flouro.

 

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbontest.html

 

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbon2.html

 

it is more of a comparison between diff flouro brands.

 

 

Neat site, something else for me to waste time surfing. Thanks.

[wacky tambaqui]

i haven't used it enough to see a huge difference though i'll be using more of it this year.

here's a very thorough article on flouro.

 

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbontest.html

 

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbon2.html

 

it is more of a comparison between diff flouro brands.

 

 

goteeboy,

 

Your timing couldn't have been better in posting that info about FC fishing lines -just as I was about to go and burn my tax refund on upgrading / re-tooling my fishing arsenal. The re-tooling includes getting FC fishing line and now I know what to look for.

 

I was surprised with the poor results there really were with two brands I used in the past. As far as having any presence in my fishing arsenal goes, the Vanish will live up to its name and I will pee on that other poor performer before ever buying it again.

 

OTOH I will put my money out to the max for that one German brand if I can't find any of the better performers that are shown on those charts.

Edited April 6, 2008 by wacky tambaqui