Flourocarbon

[Craig Plummer]

I was reading through an In-Fish article last night about the advantages/disadvantages of Flourocarbon. I was thinking of spooling my Jigging rod with 14# Flouro to cut back on the visability of the line (I currently use #14 mono), But I dont like the fact that it is stiffer than mono because I am worried about having more backlashes with my baitcaster (Im still learning).

So my question is Do you guys fill your whole spool with Flouro or would you just use a Flouro leader and fill your spool with a differant type of line?

[EBass]

I have spooled all floro and it went well until I had a backlash then lil kinks in the line. I went back to braid for everything. I'll tie on a floro or mono leader if needed, but mostly tie direct with braid then color 12-18" of the braid with a black perm marker. My .02

[Craig Plummer]

bttt

[fishcast]

My opinion is that I do not like flourocarbon lines yet, and I don't use them for main lines yet and definately wouldn't recomend them for leaders.

If it is visibility you are worried about, look at them and compare, I don't think you will notice much if any difference with the human eye between 14lb flouro and 14lb mono.

The other reason is it seems flourocarbon breaks way to easy. I have used two types of flouro and both break way under what is on the label for me.

I have actually tried testing the strenght between 8lb mono and two different flouros. I used 15ft of line and pulled on it slow and steady untill the lines broke. I used a tape measure and regular digital fish scale to see the amount of stretch and amount of weight it took to break it. And I repeated each line test twice and had very similiar results. By the way the only knot I tried was a uni knot with 6 turns which I made sure was wet before tightening. Also I didn't compare diameters of line at all just the box rating.

8lb trilene xt took 11.5lbs to break and stretched 28" until it broke. And both times I tested it the break was about 6 inches from the knot.

The 8lb flouro I tried which I won't say the name of broke at about 5 lbs both times. And stretched 27" before it broke. Both times tested the line broke at the knot. (maybe I should try a new knot but I've tied it for a while and really like the uni)

The other brand flouro I tried was even worse than above and won't even bother listing numbers I found. ALso I only used this line for leaders cause it seemed terrible on spinning tackle. While fishing I had several break offs with my leader when fish took runs that I feel shouldn't have happened.

What I do like about flouros is that they sink faster which can be good sometimes. And I did use the first 8lb flouro I mentioned the numbers with while fishing quite a bit with zero break offs. This line handled real well even compared to mono I thought. This one casted great and worked real well on spinning tackle.

Also when the flouro line gets abraded it seems like its a bunch of little strands that pop one at a time.

Just some opinion and observations. But from what I have seen I don't see what all the hype is about and why lots of people like it so much. Tackle tours HSOforum has lots of good info too.

[Deitz Dittrich]

CP- THe stiffness of Floro will actually help you feel bites... but like you said, it does help if you want to call it that.. in backlashes. The good news is.. On a jig rod, you dont make long casts... plain and simple.. you dont.. or shouldnt.. so backlashing is really not an issue.

On my main jig rod I use 20 lb Floro, and love it!

As for how I spool it. I use mostly whatever I have on hand and then put maybe 50 yards of floro.. I never cast more than 50 yards and when I do start to cast to the end, I recut and put a new 50 yards on. I dont like knots on the line that I am using, just another silly thing to fail, I hate failure, but seem to be pretty good at it.

[Craig Plummer]

What type of knot do you use to connect your flouro to your main line?

[Deitz Dittrich]

It really doesnt matter, as like I said, I never get to it and when I do, I replace.. But I use a blood know or a Uni to Uni knot, which are both very similar. More often than not(or Knot) its the blood... its somewhat simple and has not failed me yet.

an over hand knot works, but leaves too many tag ends which can cause backlases or overuns on spinning gear.

[Hula_Grub]

I use old line on the beginning of all of my spools, then I just blood knot the new "good" line to it.

Seems like a waste when some of the lines I'm using are $15 a spool or more to just throw half of it away. Once I get near the blood knot I re-spool also. Wanna get good at trusting your knots? Try fly-fishing. You can have 7 or 8 knots between you and the fish.