Why use flourocarbon?

[CALVINIST]

I have never used it, but want people's input as to why they use it over mono or braid. And why do people put fluoro leaders ahead of their braid on certain setups? Just wondering...

[SWMuskeye]

For me, there's a couple of reasons.

1. Confidence when lindy rigging or live bait riggin. I feel that I get more bites using the stuff and fish are less prone to see it.

2. It has better abrasion resistance than mono. And when fishing heavy rocks like on mille lacs, there's less retying or fish nicking the line because it is tougher and doesn't become so brittle.

I personally don't use it much in front of braid, but rarely do I fish braid unless I'm going for pike or muskies either.

I would be interested to hear from those who fish cranks for walleyes with flouro leaders to see what success they've had.

[PerchJerker]

I only use flouro in a couple situations. One is for live bait rigs, the other is for a leader between super braids and my crankbaits.

For live bait rigs, the no visibility and the stiffer line that's more abrasion-resistant can be nice. But I prefer mono over flouro if the water is stained.

I almost never use a flouro leader between my super line and my cranks - the only times are if I'm in ultra-clear water, or if I'm running heavy superbraid (like 50 or 65 lb) for the larger line diameter.

I've seen heavy flouro leaders for muskie fishing but have never tried them.

I've tried flouro in some other applications like jigging and slip bobbering but in general I don't like it very much. I'll go with a low vis mono or copolymer line unless I really want the no visibility of flouro.

[Kyle Sandberg]

Can someone please describe the difference between mono and floro. I never understood it.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Florocarbon is much harder to see underwater than mono, it has more abbrasion resistance, has less stretch and it sinks. The sinking property can be good for fishing jigs or cranks but anytime you dont want your line to sink below the water such as bobbering or fishing some topwaters mono or braid might be a better choice. One of the biggest negatives of floro is its stiffness/memory but if your willing to shell out some money you can get a floro that has less memory than cheaper versions.

[CALVINIST]

That helps alot. Thanks!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Turn up described it perfectly. There are some applications that Floro really seems to shine. Clear water applications or times when its really nice to get lighter lures down deeper. I also like it for flipping shallow cover for bass as its stiffer and has more sensitivity.

Floro is tougher on knots, I always go a couple pounds heavier than I normally would when using floro.

Also- there are very few pure mono's left on the market. Most of them are copolimers. A combination of monofiliment and something else, some times its a combination of mono and floro at times as well.

[fishtank]

Simply put, Fluorocarbon has nearly the same light refraction properties as water. If I can remember correctly on an article I read on refractive gauges, Water is about 1.33, Mono is over 1.5 and fluorocarbon is 1.4, meaning it has the closest light refraction properties to water. You can either have clearer line, or stronger test vs. Mono. I would only use as a leader. Flouro line doesn't spool as well as mono.

[Joel Taylor]

I really noticed a difference with this stuff when using fly and dodger combos for salmon.

It's a little stiffer for whipping that fly behind the dodger.

The real difference is the strength through previously mentioned far superior abrasion resistance.

The salmons teeth always ride the lead when using flys for salmon and the treble hook often rolls so the leader wraps around the back of the treble and gets pinched between the tines.

This year when we have been getting chinook after chinook all day long you really see a difference, the flurocarbon lead lasts atleast 3 times as long as standard mono and seldom snaps when pinched badly.

Pretty crazy stuff I would recomend in any abrasion situation.

[Central Bassman]

Do you guys get Floro wet before you put it on your spool and make sure it is wet when trying knots?

[TurnUpTheFishing]

When tying a knot, yes. Spooling, no.

[Superduty]

I use flourocarbon when I want to have twisted line on a spinning reel or if I don't care if I break off a big fish on my flipping gear. Maybe I am stuck in my ways, but I hate the stuff and don't think it has ever gotten me extra bites. I've tried many brands. Even the most expensive stuff. I won't mention names....it all failed IMO!

[Central Bassman]

I really like that stuff for almost everything but i really like it for fishing deep water on my jig worms/shaky head rod. The new berkley stuff has worked good for me so fare this year!