Fluoro vs Braid - double blind experiment

[RK]

Hiya -

Thought I'd share this. A friend conducted an interesting on the water experiment with fluorocarbon and braid last weekend to kind of see just how much difference line visibility made in certain situations.

Here was the setup: 2 anglers fished identical lures (a 5/8 oz jig and pig). One rod was rigged with 17# fluorcarbon, the other with 50# braid. Body of water was a fairly clear (secchi disc reading +/- 6 feet) lake, and they fished weedlines in 12-15 FOW.

After every fish, regardless of which rod it was caught on, the anglers switched rods. So it was front of the boat, back of the boat, and different anglers.

The end result was the rod with fluoro outfished braid 15-2.

I realize this isn't anything overly scientific, much less earth-shaking, but I thought it was kind of an interesting experiment. I've firmly believed that fluoro gets more bites in clear water for a while now, so this head to head comparison kind of confirmed that. I still think braid doesn't make much difference in heavy cover where there's a lot of background greenery, but in relatively open water situations...maybe a different story.

The one possible other variable here is drop speed - but the diameter of the two lines was within .002 in., so I can't see it being an overwhelming factor.

Anyhow - thought I'd pass it along.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Duffman]

Thanks Rob! Interesting info.

By the way, you're on the "This guy seems to know what he is talking about" list that I mentally keep on HSO guys. I'm pretty much guaranteed to learn some little tidbit of info from your posts.

[mainbutter]

RK, while the volume of the lines may be similar, fluoro is very dense, therefore much heavier.

[EBass]

Great - now I need to buy more Floro. Thanks RK

[Meat-Run]

RK thanks for that "unscientific" research as it does make me think about using fluro more often as I have a few coworkers that wouldn't fish without it. Now if I can just teach my self how to tie these two lines I could increase my success.

thanks,

mr

[thatoneguy]

I do get more strikes (it seems) jig fishing with fluoro, but I also (without a doubt) lose more fish with fluoro. I haven't done enough of it to tell which way that tradeoff works out yet though.

[Nick Kuhn]

In Wisconsin (or the St. Croix) you could really pull this test off with a 3 way swivel and two identical lures.

[RK]

In Wisconsin (or the St. Croix) you could really pull this test off with a 3 way swivel and two identical lures.

I'd end up with a huge tangle, and probably hook myself in the back of the head trying to cast it

Mainbutter - we did talk about the diameter vs. density thing, but with a 5/8 oz jig on a relatively short cast, I don't know if the sink rate was dramatically different. It's possible, of course...

All in all...even for pitching plastics, I hold out on switching to braid until the cover gets pretty heavy later in the season. Early on, when the water's clear and the rushes aren't up all that high, I use fluoro if I think I can get away with it. As soon as I start getting fish wrapped up in the rushes though - out comes the braid.

Cheers,

RK

[NTW]

Thanks for sharing that RK

[goblueM]

great idea to switch rods every fish, to control for angler variability. neat test, thanks for sharing!

[Ray Esboldt]

I have even got to the point that I will throw flouro up in the rushes if I am only going in the first 5 feet. And, if thought I could get away with it, I would throw it if I fish inside the rushes. After being reluctant for several years, I am now a true believer.

[IBFishin2]

Great experiment! Switched to flouro 2 years ago and catch ratio has improved. Never thought about switching anglers though.

[cjac]

Good stuff! I'd put money down on those 15-2 odds in Vegas.

I too am using fluoro a lot more this year, and there is a bit of a learning curve using it compared to braid or mono. Couple tips from another RK post that I'm stealing/echoing his comments:

1) Fill the spool as usual and then strip off a couple yards

2) KVD line conditioner helps fluoro "behave" on the spool, just made an order for some

[AwesomZZ]

That's interesting. For the past 2 years, I've been trying to justify why I should use fluoro instead of braid or vise versa. I've never found that I caught more fish with fluoro but that I've caught about the same amount with braid. Just last week, using 14lbs Sunline Flouro while fishing with 2 other guys. They were using braid. We all pitched to the same spot one after another, but I got the 5 pounder out from under the dock. I thought perhaps it was fluoro, but 2 hours later, in a totally different area, with 65lbs power pro braid, chucking a chatter bait into the open water, caught another 5 pounder. So now I'm like its not the line....its AwesomZZ skillz. The debate between fluoro and braid continues for me....

[kg2]

I scrapped the braid after years (when did Spiderwire first come out???) on everything except my flipping rod, my dock skipping rod, and my frog rod. Fluoro and mono on the other dozen+.

Wouldn't a "double blind" experiment require that the user not know what type line they were throwing?