LINE WARS

Comment

Comment by jim cosgrove on June 6, 2016 at 4:50pm

8lb is not excessive at all if the line behaves like less than 4/i have fought big fish on it because i have hooked them fishing for something else.kind of like when fishing for medium/small saltwater fish,sometimes  you hook a shark.the nano has yet to fail but a few hooks have and so have a couple small reel have been  destroyed.i feel the nano casts better than mono as it does not have spool memory .i dont use spinning gear very much anymore unless we are fishing deeper than 10.anything above that i am throwing flies.

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on June 6, 2016 at 4:44pm

Some of all, yes.
 Stren is in there, too, and some others.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on June 6, 2016 at 4:35pm

Berkley, Maxima, and Trilene by chance David?

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on June 6, 2016 at 4:31pm

All my lines are stored in the house, in a cool, dark cabinet.

If there is any degradation, it isn't detectable, at least in use.

I don't use braid for much of anything, except the occasional bush hook.

Comment by Bruce Tomaselli on June 6, 2016 at 4:23pm

Interesting discussion.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on June 6, 2016 at 4:10pm

Jim, 8lbs is a bit excessive for ultralight, is it not ;-) LOL But I know your feeling about not letting your line breaks during a nice battle. It takes more time, but I still play at 4lbs and less. I encouraged my family to use 6lbs and less for the practice of patience on the ultralight. Wife hates that idea.

Nanofil is not braid. It's a copolymers that designed to have a hybridization of mono and flouro, with a very small diameter.

Gin clear water can be a problem, since the coloration of the line, aside from the natural surrounding, can spook a fish if fishing pressure is miniscule. Over and over again, our waters, from gin clear to green as slime, all the way to muddy as liquid crap, they don't care. These waters, of course, have high fishing pressure, regardless of the abundance of food resources.

Like you've indicated Jim, the high end test pounds braids are the ones that will last. The lower end test pounds (8lbs and less, even some 10lbs as well) will merely be expensive investment with minimal returns.

Comment by jim cosgrove on June 6, 2016 at 4:03pm

i use mono and fluorocarbon mostly for fly leaders and tippet.so joining different line diameters with knots i know right away if the line is done.i have some that is pretty old but is still like new.these are cortland camo line.some of the clear mono has deteriorated .wonder if the added color helps preserve it

Comment by jim cosgrove on June 6, 2016 at 3:54pm

leo been using 8lb nanofil for a few seasons on ultra light gear.my catch rate has doubled or more.really not sure nano is a braid tho.has the low stretch and very thin dia, of braid,but handles more like mono.have caught 100s of fish on the same spool.a bass around 6lbs and had a carp probably over 30 hooked in the tail i found out after fighting him for 15 minutes and the hook broke just as i got him to the boat.i will have to disagree ,at least where i fish that line diameter and color do matter alot.but i fish some pretty clear water.and i also mostly flyfish anymore and 4lb is the biggest tippet i will use for panfish flies as anything bigger screws with the motion of the flies.small braid is a pain.for my bigger bass gear i use 30lb braid and have never broken off even big catfish in the rocks and it lasts for years.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on June 6, 2016 at 3:48pm

UV is the primary source of degradation. However, your second enemy is oxygen, follows by water. So, unless you vacuum pack, and add absorbing silica beads to remove all moisture, degradation remains. UV breaks the plastic down at 15 to 20% a year. Moisture and oxygen break the plastic down 5 to 10% a year (based on formulation). Best thing to do is to test the line's strength by using twice the weight of the test pound, with a 5 ft length. If it can't hold up twice its strength, there's degradation in the line already.

So far, my 4lbs to 8lbs are still going strong after 3 years of dark cool place storage. 2lbs crapped out by the 3rd year. 10lbs and up still hold strong after 5 years.

Comment by John Sheehan on June 6, 2016 at 3:42pm

All my mono surplus is stored in a dark garage , how worried are you that it degrades when kept in a cool place? I haven't fared poorly that way and am money conscious also . If I break line too easily or break off a fish I 'll reconsider what I've used .

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