What’s My Line For Fishing?
By Bob Jensen
It’s this time of year when people who fish gather in a variety of locations. It might be at a sportshow, maybe a fishing seminar, sometimes at a bait shop. The talk will start with current subjects like the Super Bowl, college basketball, families, or almost anything else. Eventually the conversation will turn to fishing. In late winter and early spring, fishing equipment will be a popular topic. One area that gets lots of attention is fishing line.
The line that we fish with is so important. Your line is the only connection between you and the fish. In today’s fishing world there are three primary types of line, and they all have their own personalities and features.
Monofilament has been the go-to line since most of us have been fishing, but braided and fluorocarbon lines possess desirable qualities and have become popular in recent years. In a very unscientific poll, it appears that most anglers still mostly use monofilament. Monofilament handles well on a reel, it has some stretch which provides forgiveness when fighting a fish, is usually less expensive, and has the trust of most anglers.
Braided lines are often favored when we’re after largemouth bass in heavy cover. Braid is resistant to nicks from the vegetation, and with its no-stretch feature, an angler can get quicker control of a bass in heavy cover. 50 and 65 pound test braids are what many bass-chasers use when fishing in shallow vegetation.
Braid is also favored by walleye anglers who are trolling crankbaits in deeper water. Braid is smaller in diameter than mono or fluoro in similar weights. Smaller diameter has less water resistance, so a crankbait trolled on braid will run deeper than a crankbait trolled with the mono or fluoro of equal pound test.
Fluorocarbon is tough stuff, very sensitive, and nearly invisible under water. It also sinks faster than mono, so it can be an advantage when fishing deep water. If you go with fluoro, practice your knot tying. The knot that you use with mono might fail with fluorocarbon.
More and more anglers are using a combination set-up when it comes to line. They’re using braid as the primary line with a fluorocarbon leader between the braid and the bait. The braid is super-sensitive and doesn’t stretch, but some anglers are concerned that the fish can see the braid easier and it might spook them into not eating the bait. Whether or not braid spooks the fish is another story, but to eliminate the possibility of the braid alerting the fish, these anglers tie a two to three foot length of fluorocarbon to the braid, then tie their bait to the fluorocarbon. Because of fluorocarbon’s hard-to-see quality, the odds of scaring the fish are significantly reduced. With the braid/fluoro arrangement we get superior sensitivity and hooksets as well as minimal visibility to the fish. The braid/fluoro set-up is best when a slow moving technique like jigging or drop-shotting is being employed.
I often have the same thoughts about modern fishing lines that I have for modern boats, motors, electronics, rods and reels: How can they get any better? But they always do. I wonder what the next improvement in fishing lines will be?