Fluorocarbon leader keeps breaking

[albany_guide]

I just rigged up one of my reels with fireline. I have been using berkley vanish as a leader, tied directly to the line. I have had the vanish break every time I set the hook. I tried a bunch of things....loosening drag, trying different knots (I usually use palomar) and it still breaks EVERY time. It has broken at the hook, as well as at the connection between the lines. Is it the line or is it me?

[wallyboss]

Flurocarbon is very brittle if you don't wet the knot well. It heats up and gets brittle.

[DANIMAL]

Thats happend to me before with a spool of mono, it was probably sitting on the shelf too long. If you bought it recently you should try to take it back.

 

Try wallyboss's suggestion first.

Edited July 1, 2008 by DANIMAL

[Sinker]

Vanish is a PITA IMO.

 

You really gotta wet the line on your knots, and pull them tight slowly. Then give it a good hard yank, to make sure its not gonna snap.

 

I have no use for vanish anymore......just a headache if you ask me.

 

Try some seaguar if you just want fluoro leaders, or P-line for a fluoro mainline. Those are the best I've found so far for ease of use, and strength. They cost a little more, but last much longer.

 

Sinker

[pokerdemon4]

Seaguar premier fluoro leader material. Try it. You wont be dissappointed.

[Whopper]

I agree with sinker. I've been using Pline and Maxium and never had a problem, I do six foot leaders joined to my 8lb Berkley fire line and luv the set up.

Use the uni to uni to join the lines also

[blaque]

ive had this problem a few times also with vanish, it is a shelf life thing if you ask me.........i cant explain it any other way......Ive had it solid and strong and ive had it break tying knots over and over again even after lubing the knot. It has shyed me away from buying it again. Ill mimic the seaguar flouro recommendation, seems to have much superior strength against knot heat and abrasions. Also tried out "Gamma" flouro during steelhead season and it seemed just as reliable. There all up there in price though. But hey , not havin to re tie , especially on those 10 degree days on the stream, is worth every penny.

[philly86]

I bought the vanish once and never used it again, its just a pain to deal with. ive been sticking with the maxima, hasn't let me down, i like to used the triline big game high lb test for my pike set ups as well

 

philly

[Roy]

Vanish is a line...decent (I suppose) as a line but not a leader. As others have said, get yourself some Seaguar. You'll never go back to anything else.

[Greencoachdog]

If you going to use the fluro for a leader, use the leader material.

 

I use Vanish for a mainline and really like it, but it just doesn't hold up as a leader.

 

Seaguar is the best leader material, stay away from the pink Yo-Zuri crap though... the fish hate it and breaks easily on snags.

[blarg]

i recently had the same problem with vanish, wasn't worth the trouble imo.

[Burning Babies]

I'm still playing with options for my flouro / superline connection, but the one I've been using recently has worked well. I'm using the standard uni / uni knot, but doubling the superline by using a rapala knot to increase diameter the flouro has to wrap around and reduce the strain on the outside bend of the flouro knot. I also add a few additional wraps to the superline uni knot to prevent slipping. I haven't broken this connection yet.

 

I'll also add that my previous experiences with Vanish have been very negative.

Edited July 1, 2008 by Burning Babies

[Cudz]

I used a vanish 3' leader and tied it to my 30pound fireline. 10 casts and the vanish snapped and I lost a brand new custom painted lucky craft pointer 100 ($35)!!!!!!

[bbog]

I wouldn't waste another minute on Vanish.

 

A well lubricated uni-uni knot with any quality fluorocarbon should work fine. Enough said!

[jace]

Vanish has had a problem with brittleness more so than the other FC lines. ...which is one of the the main reasons so many FC line makers concentrated on the hybrid/co-polymer FC products for the first few years. The other reason is pure FC line was so expensive that nobody wanted to try it.

 

I'm pretty sure Vanish has been discontinued or it will be soon becasuse Berkely just came out with a a new FC which claims to be better. It's also in the gold box, it's a little pricey at the moment but it's also 100% FC line.

 

Apparently Cabela's FC line is good and inexpensive. I've never tried it myself but it gets good reviews for knot strength and not as brittle. I only know it they have one because it comes up in a lot of FC talks. I don't know who makes it for them. I think it's called Tri something.