Fluorocarbon line is junk!!!

[Roy]

That's got my vote for post of the year Roy. Well done.

 

Gee thanks Dan! Just don't tell me that the prize is fluorocarbon for life.

[fishindevil]

roy your the man !!!!

[Billy Bob]

I think Roy just made all the Bull up.....

[capt bruce]

OK, for all the folks reading this and who are relatively new to fishing, please do not use fluorocarbon as a mainline on your reels. Regardless of what you may have read, seen or heard of, fluorocarbon is one of those marketing jokes gone awry. You can and may however use a short length of the stuff ..say 12" to 48" as a leader between your mainline (monofilament or braid) and your live or artificial bait. The small calibers of fluorocarbon such as 4lbs or so are mainly used by people who think that a fish has the intelligence to become alarmed at having a piece of dental floss attached to their dinner of plastic with treble hooks. The large calibers such as 100lbs or so are mainly used by muskie fishermen who are concerned about the damage that a steel leader can cause to a fish rolling on a leader during combat.

 

There are literally hundreds of brands of monofilament lines and braided lines. For monos, go with a standard brand such as Stren or Trilene. For the braids again, go with the standards although most are almost the same. Don't be fooled by all the colourful boxes on the shelves...some manufacturers will go to great lengths to make you buy their inferior product. If you see packaging with beautiful holographic images that looks like it's worth more than the line, it probably is. Use common sense.

I allso vote for this as" POST OF THE YEAR " sorry dude as I bought a spool of this ,50 pound test seagar, for pike leaders when fishing down the street at lunch, I do not need the reward , spool will last at 6 foot leaders a long long time ..

[SGP]

I only wanted to give a slight warning to fishermen about fluorocarbon line. I saw long ago that the stuff is crap. I've since then tried out other fluorocarbon lines and was very disappointed.

 

Ok....All of my fishing is done with line from 2 to 6 lb test (most of the time with 4 lb mono) except for when I use braided line for long lining or for pike or deep saltwater fish. I have been fishing with very light lines for over 40 years.

 

I make my own fly fishing leaders up to 18 feet long and 3/4 lb test. Yes.....350 grams.

 

No....I don't want my line to fall to the bottom. I only want my bait to fall to the bottom and I want that when I pull on my line, the bait hops off the bottom and not drag on the bottom.

If you want more abrasion resistance, use some good old fashioned Stren Original. It won the contest in the abrasion resistance test about 10 years ago. Or buy Berkley XT or other "tough line" that is harder and less elastic than Berkley XL or all the fluorocarbon lines.

 

I don't care if someone wants to use fluorocarbon line. I just wanted to warn against all the lies that the companies who sell the stuff say about it.

 

 

Yeah...good idea...let's base a decision (and a statement) on a test that was conducted "about 10 years ago"...because I'm sure there haven't been any technilogical improvements with fishing line since then LOL.

Edited December 16, 2011 by SGP

[solopaddler]

It's been discussed before:

 

http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49494&st=0&p=534038&hl=fluorocarbon&fromsearch=1entry534038

[Guest chase4chrome]

Braided black line, red & white bobber, #4 hook, fat nightcrawler....Biob's your uncle.

 

Line Schmine...it's freakin location, location, location...

 

This post has legs man

 

LOL

[SirCranksalot]

Braided black line, red & white bobber, #4 hook, fat nightcrawler....Biob's your uncle.

 

 

LOL

 

Yep. Been there, done that. Used to catch lots of small brookies on it when I was a kid. But a bobber was like training wheels---once you learned to detect a bite they were just a hindrance that produced slack in the line. I guess that's why I had an aversion to using floats for 'bows, buts it's hard to resist when you see so many 'bows being caught floatfishing..

 

 

 

[Garnet]

Guess I was the only guy awake in chemistry class!

 

Mono is a 2 molecule product that means it floats and very porest. Will adsorb water and sink in time, also very stretchy.

 

Co polymer is a 3 molecule product so less porest less stretch and sinks easy.

 

Fluorocarbon is a 4 molecule product,harder, shiner finish, therefore less stretch, less likely to nick and stiff, more pron to coil, harder to mange in cold weather.

 

All the specter braids float.

 

If you try to use any these products and don't consider there built in characteristics you will have poor results.

[Billy Bob]

Guess I was the only guy awake in chemistry class!

 

Mono is a 2 molecule product that means it floats and very porest. Will adsorb water and sink in time, also very stretchy.

 

Co polymer is a 3 molecule product so less porest less stretch and sinks easy.

 

Fluorocarbon is a 4 molecule product,harder, shiner finish, therefore less stretch, less likely to nick and stiff, more pron to coil, harder to mange in cold weather.

 

All the specter braids float.

 

If you try to use any these products and don't consider there built in characteristics you will have poor results.

:good:

[Spiel]

Guess I was the only guy awake in chemistry class!

 

 

 

Perhaps, but I'm thinking you slept through English.

[Roy]

Perhaps, but I'm thinking you slept through English.

 

HAHAHA You're a sick dude Chris, but I love ya like a brudder.

[Snidley]

Actually some braid does sink, I have some called Stren Sinking Braid. It's crap however. As far as shiney flurocarbon that is true but the shiney aspect is most pronounced with nicks and kinks and it is for this reason there are coloured flurocarbon lines. The thinking is that with some colouration the nicks and kinks that show up in clear fluro as bright anomalies will be disguised by the colouration. I am not a scientist so I can't say if this is in fact the truth or more marketing hype. That said it has some logic to it...if you buy the whole Flurocarbon advantage to begin with.

[Garnet]

For all lines mono,co polymer, and flouro color just adds to the dia.

 

The flouro theory is it's clarity is just a couple hundreds off water color. If that theory was correct 4lb and 30lb should be just as effective down at the river.

 

Also with all the water colors available in nature it's probably junk science.

 

Flouro still has a big place in my fishing season.

[carll2]

on our northern tea stained lakes here in quebec i use fireline crystal , the only time i use a flouro leader is fishing clear laker or speck lakes or on great bear lake you can see bottom in 40feet so i use a 30lb leader of fluro...it definately does make a difference imo

[Dabluz]

on our northern tea stained lakes here in quebec i use fireline crystal , the only time i use a flouro leader is fishing clear laker or speck lakes or on great bear lake you can see bottom in 40feet so i use a 30lb leader of fluro...it definately does make a difference imo

 

In those conditions, I use 4 lb clear mono, maybe 6 lb clear mono if the lake trout average over 6 lbs.

 

A good reel and good rod handling techniques prevent line breakage.

[solopaddler]

on our northern tea stained lakes here in quebec i use fireline crystal , the only time i use a flouro leader is fishing clear laker or speck lakes or on great bear lake you can see bottom in 40feet so i use a 30lb leader of fluro...it definately does make a difference imo

 

 

In those conditions, I use 4 lb clear mono, maybe 6 lb clear mono if the lake trout average over 6 lbs.

 

A good reel and good rod handling techniques prevent line breakage.

 

Yeah, not happening on Great Bear. My buddy Dave has trolled deadbaits bigger than 6lbs up there LOL!

Edited December 4, 2011 by solopaddler

[Familyfisherman]

I saw that testing some time ago and was glad to read it.

 

The way I'm interpreting those results, it seems that some of the flouros do a better job of keeping up with the claims -- BPS in my opinion seems to be amongst the leaders, and is often cheaper to buy, so that's the one I favour...even though I don't like BPS products, pricing, etc in general.

 

One thing that really effects performance is age -- flouro doesn't last nearly as long as braid. I'd suggest 2 things to increase your success with it:

 

1. Test knots before use, and wet the line when tying knots, and

2. Buy smaller spools of flouro and only use them for one season. Performance will be optimal, and you'll spend a bit less on smaller spools, and have less to throw out at the end of the season.

 

That said, as a leader material I've had no real issues to speak of, although always test knots to save frustration when landing fish.

[archie_james_c]

In those conditions, I use 4 lb clear mono, maybe 6 lb clear mono if the lake trout average over 6 lbs.

 

A good reel and good rod handling techniques prevent line breakage.

 

 

Dang you're one hell of a Laker taker.

 

Flouro's junk, I knows it. It's expensive's all hell and don't work for to save your life.

 

[wantabigone]

I totally agree, I bought 20 pound test to tie my own worn harnesses for walleye and the line broke on every 1-3 fish. The walleye were only 18 inches!

Crap and not worth the money. My 8 pound mono held up to over 50 fish!

[carll2]

Yeah, not happening on Great Bear. My buddy Dave has trolled deadbaits bigger than 6lbs up there LOL!

 

 

yeah we use musky baits up there and 80lb ppro...definately not comparable to quebec lol

[Sailor Joe]

Yeah, agree, Floro is industry hype in an effort to find new profit margins. There's no money in mono anymore because of its low cost. So invent something new and mark-up the price. Claim that it's invisible and watch the hens come to roost.Don't be duped. Sustenance fishing around the world uses mono and they do it to feed their families. They don't waste money on Floro and they are still able to catch fish feed their families. They're catching more fish on Mono then their duped recreational counterparts.

[Snidley]

Actually flurocarbon was first used by the Japanese longline tuna fleet. Not exactly subsistence fishing but fishing for a living, a very good living, just the same. I'm not sure I would be emulating poor hand to mouth anglers in any case.

[Headhunter]

Well, the consensus seems to be that Floro as a main line sucks! That's ok, I like it... I also like liver and onions! (or bacon!)

HH

[Guest chase4chrome]

 

I am loving this post--has great legs and then some...