Best fluorocarbon line/leader material ?

[lost a lure]

Almost forgot in all this excitement, 8lb Berkley Vanish for jigging walleyes. I Have not used it for trolling or the leader material. It gets scuffed up on the rocks.

[GAMBLER]

If vanish was used for trout and salmon on Lake Ontario, tackle shops would be the twice as busy as they are now. It has poor knot strength, and it had very little abrasion resistance compared to other brands.

[Paul Czarnecki]

Surprised no one mentioned Gamma so I will. Gamma fluoro and gamma edge fluoro are the best fluoro lines I've ever used and I've tried most if not all of them. And it's made in the US in Franklin PA.

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[Sk8man]

I'm totally with Gambler on the Vanish ....and have to try the Gamma Paul mentioned it is one I'm not familiar with and the "Made in USA" sounds great.

[Tim Bromund]

I've mostly used Seaguar and been happy with it, but last year, based on Paul's recommendation, I bought a spool of 20 lb Gamma Fluoro and gave that a try and it was great as well.  I know Pete Alex carries it at his Great Lakes Tackle Shop webstore, not sure where else it is available.

 

I also concur on the others opinion of Vanish.  I'm a Berkley line guy and use their lines almost exclusively, but Vanish is junk.  The only thing that vanishes is your tackle and your money to replace the lures you lost.

 

Tim

Edited March 12, 2014 by Tim Bromund

[brucehookedup]

Seaguar has always been good stuff. The last 2 years I have been using trilene flouro wih great results, all the way around.

[scobar]

Colville's Outfitters on rt 5 in Hamburg has the new Seaguar Salmon line. I bought it but not used it yet

[lineman49]

Colville's Outfitters on rt 5 in Hamburg has the new Seaguar Salmon line. I bought it but not used it yet

  Was just in there 2 wks. ago buying other stuff, never thought of the fluorcarbon at the time

[FleetTracker]

Seaguar just came out with a new yellow label called STS specifically for salmon and trout applications.

http://www.seaguar.com/freshwater/fluorocarbon.html

I like this new stuff and am excited to get it wet this year. I put the 15lb trout and steelhead as leaders on all my spring brown and walleye rods. 30lb salmon for dipsey leaders, rigger rods, and coppers. Also tied 50+ flies and 25+ cutbait rigs this winter using this stuff. I really like it. Cinches really well and appears to have great knot strength. We'll see how it performs this year. Doesn't break the bank either.

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[lost a lure]

Surprised no one mentioned Gamma so I will. Gamma fluoro and gamma edge fluoro are the best fluoro lines I've ever used and I've tried most if not all of them. And it's made in the US in Franklin PA.

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[Gator]

So what's the big difference between the Seaguar Blue Label or Premier and the STS lines? When you factor in the amount of material you receive, ie 100 yards versus 25 yards, the STS is at least four times less expensive. A guy shouldn't complain when something costs less money, but it makes me wonder...why?

[Trouthunter]

gamma is the best have tried them all gamma all the way

[orangediablo]

Been using Seaguar for the last 3-4 years and have yet to have a problem.

[hermit]

This is from the Seaguar website:

 

5. What are the differences between Seaguar fluorocarbon Leaders and Seaguar fluorocarbon Lines?

a. Strength - While both are strong and will withstand the lb test listed, leader and tippet are stronger over shorter lengths and are not designed to be a long, main line product.  The main lines are designed to take the impact load over a much longer distance, transferred throughout the line.

 

b. Double Structure Technology - Our TATSU line, Blue Label (FC) and Fluoro Premier leaders,  and Grand Max, and Grand Max FX tippets are all Double Structure, a Seaguar exclusive process that injects two different molten resins through a special die.  The resins are extruded as one solid piece.  The harder, inside resin contributes to the Tensile Strength, while the softer, outside resin creates greater Knot Strength.

c. Price - Leaders and Tippets are more difficult to produce because of double structure and the resins involved, therefore line is less expensive and leader/tippets cost more.

d. Resins - Since Seaguar is the only fluorocarbon brand in the world that makes its own resins, different exclusive resins are used for all of our products. The resins in our line are different than the resins in our leaders.

They're saying the manufacturing process, basically.

 

Also for very narrow lines like Premier (their thinnest per rated strength) it's difficult to keep the tolerances low, whereas a thicker line rated at the same strength could have more variability in the actual diameter.  I've bought some cheap stuff (never again, BPS brand fluoro) where you could run the line through your fingers and it noticably varied in thickness.  It was also overall thicker than premium line.  

 

 A side note, I've had good luck with Seaguar main lines, but tried some Grand Max 5X tippet last year that I hated. Knots popping like crazy and outright line failures.

So what's the big difference between the Seaguar Blue Label or Premier and the STS lines? When you factor in the amount of material you receive, ie 100 yards versus 25 yards, the STS is at least four times less expensive. A guy shouldn't complain when something costs less money, but it makes me wonder...why?

Edited March 14, 2014 by hermit

[lineman49]

This is from the Seaguar website:

 

They're saying the manufacturing process, basically.

 

Also for very narrow lines like Premier (their thinnest per rated strength) it's difficult to keep the tolerances low, whereas a thicker line rated at the same strength could have more variability in the actual diameter.  I've bought some cheap stuff (never again, BPS brand fluoro) where you could run the line through your fingers and it noticably varied in thickness.  It was also overall thicker than premium line.  

 

 A side note, I've had good luck with Seaguar main lines, but tried some Grand Max 5X tippet last year that I hated. Knots popping like crazy and outright line failures.

 

    Good info. thanks!

[Gator]

I guess I should have spent a few minutes and researched it myself. Thanks for doing the work for me...

 

Have you ever used the site LMGTFY.com? It stands for Let Me Google That For You. I recently asked a similar type of question at work--where the answer was readily available on line--and my colleague sent me a link that plugged the search term into that site for me. 

 

It sounds like the STS material might not be the best for fly and Dipsy leaders. But it could work for copper.

[Dukdog]

I don't fish the big lakes a lot but I'd been running 30# flouro which is what was recommended to me for Lake Michigan when I was working out there. Last year Lake O's big kings tore the crap out of it and I lost a lot of tackle within seconds of being hit!!  We had several big boys on and only managed to land  3 over 20 including a 32#!!  That's because I switched all my leaders over to 50# the second day of our trip!  I found out 30# is just to light for me!    The new Seagar Salmon leader is nice,  I have some but haven't run it yet,   too much ice here in Maine yet!  

[Paul Czarnecki]

I don't fish the big lakes a lot but I'd been running 30# flouro which is what was recommended to me for Lake Michigan when I was working out there. Last year Lake O's big kings tore the crap out of it and I lost a lot of tackle within seconds of being hit!! We had several big boys on and only managed to land 3 over 20 including a 32#!! That's because I switched all my leaders over to 50# the second day of our trip! I found out 30# is just to light for me! The new Seagar Salmon leader is nice, I have some but haven't run it yet, too much ice here in Maine yet!

If you're breaking 30# fluoro "within seconds of being hit" you've either got total junk for line or you're being entirely too hard on them. I run 16# Gamma fluoro in the spring and 20# the rest of the year and do not break any fish off. Buy some 20# Gamma fluoro and back your drags off a bit.

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[Fishtails]

Gamma is great and I have never used Seaguar and been disapointed in it . Both are the obvious top two choices in flouro leader fishing line.

I started using Hi-Seas a couple years ago which nobody seems to ever mention probably because They are owned by AFW and their target audience is saltwater and the bass community. I don"t know how others feel about it but like the previous mentioned lines it has performed very well for me. I won"t put it in the Gamma class, but it doesn"t cost as much either, yet has never failed us since we started using it. Just another option to consider for the price consous fishermen.

http://www.afwhiseas.com/Fluorocarbon-Clear-50-Yard-Bracelet-s/2179.htm

[jekyll]

I don't fish the big lakes a lot but I'd been running 30# flouro which is what was recommended to me for Lake Michigan when I was working out there. Last year Lake O's big kings tore the crap out of it and I lost a lot of tackle within seconds of being hit!!  We had several big boys on and only managed to land  3 over 20 including a 32#!!  That's because I switched all my leaders over to 50# the second day of our trip!  I found out 30# is just to light for me!    The new Seagar Salmon leader is nice,  I have some but haven't run it yet,   too much ice here in Maine yet!  

Where have you been breaking 30# flouro, dipsies, riggers or junk lines? Don't use it on dipsies, It should be fine for other techniques.

[Dukdog]

I always ran snubbers on my dipsys on wire line. Last year I read a post about getting better hookups without a snubber so I eliminated them. All my break offs came on dipsys!! The snubbers went back on and I went to 50# to atop the wallet bleed! The combination worked!

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[BAZOOKAJOE]

Use mono instead! 

[Silver Fox]

Use mono instead!

Who asked about mono?

[LakerTaker]

I use 50 pound Fireline braid with a 30 pound Pline fluorocarbon leader on dipsies and 30 and 20 pound Pline fluoro for down riggers. Used snubbers for a few seasons on dipsies but don't feel I need them.

[Tomkatt1]

I agree with Paul...if you're using 30# leaders and having break offs your doing something wrong. I don't use snubbers and use 20# leaders and have no problems.

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