Fishing Line

Jlawsen

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
810
I'm not a pro and don't want to be so after weeding through thousands of articles on fishing line and spending a lot of money trying just about everything I decided to pass on what I figured out -

I carry 6 rods, two Steelehad rods spooled with lead core, a fly rod, spinning rod, bait caster and ultra light. I've been all over the place trying to nail down the line that I like to use either as a leader or spooled up. The FC's are nice and sink well but knot tying is their down fall and when you get into the lighter stuff 6-8 lbs, any sort of backlash and you have to clear it immediately and carefully or you risk the line laying over and cutting itself. Braded is pretty much a single purpose line. You only use it in heavy cover because it's just too visible for anything out in the open.

Just to be clear, my rods are G-Loomis, Sage and Shimano. My reels are Diawa, Shimano and Sage. Let's forget the Sage that's my fly rod and the Steelhead rods. My ultra-light is a Loomis 7' single piece with a Shimano Core 50/51, my baitcaster is a heavier 7' Loomis GLX with a Diawa Steeze, My Spinner is a GL3 with a Shimano Stella. All my gear is setup correctly and I can cast them all well.

What this all boils down to is what line does a guy use when he wants to go out fishing on a Saturday morning and have fun?

I've settled on one of the new nylon lines. Sunline is what I finally decided was what fit my needs best. The Sunline mono does stretch a little but has far less strength loss at the knot. It's more susceptable to abrasion than braid but a lot tougher than FC. Break strength vs. line diameter is a lot better than any of the common off the shelf brands. The 10 is like a 6 so it gives you a 10lb line that you can spool on an ultralight without any noticible difference except maybe a few less lost fish.

The one place that it is somewhat lacking is that it floats so if you're throwing sinko's you need to be a little quicker on the trigger for those soft bites. The curve in the line that is caused by the boyancy can result in a delay when setting the hook.

All in all though, the new Sunline is pretty nice stuff and I think I'll be using it for this season.. Next season, who knows, maybe they'll have a light weight FC that solves the knot tying issues. Oh... yes I do know how to tie the FC knot with no name.

I'm just a guy that goes fishing to relax and have a little fun. If you're really into it then I suspect you'll argue my findings.
If you want to go ahead. I'm only writing this one post on this subject so don't expect a response from me.
 
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