why flurocarbon?

[jay590]

i was wondering people use flurocarbon leaders and not mono. what are the pros and cons? why is fluro more expensive?

Jay

[spaniel]

the reason people use flurocarbon as leaders as it has alot more abrasion resistance than standard mono, flurocarbon is invisible when submerged into water and its alot thinner for its breaking strain.....

[Newby]

G'day Jay590,

I don't use Flurocarbon as a leader, I use my 4lb Flurocarbon as a main line. Pretty much because of what Spaniel said and some times I can just use it with no leader at all. I suppose you can use no leader with any set up though... Anyway, flurocarbon all the way!

Cheers, Newby.

[Piscineidiot]

Uh, Newby,

Using 4lb fluorocarbon all the way through, you don't need a leader unless you're fishing in rough country. Though I must say, it's quite an expensive thing to do.

Fluorcarbon's more expensive because of what it is. More abrasion resistant, apparently less visible, but also a good deal stiffer than mono, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your purposes.

It also doesn't degrade in sunlight like standard mono tends to do. Do be careful though, as because it's so hard and stiff, it has a tendency to fracture if you 'jar' it from ripping a lure out of a snag or whatever.

Owen

[Newby]

G'day Piscineidiot,

Yeah I only use a leader when I need to with the 4lb flurocarbon. I only use one when I know my line is going to be thrown up against rocks and whatnot. When it comes to sandy bottoms and flats, ect I just use it strait up.

[Superduperman]

Dnt forget it has a negative boyuancy so it makes lures float to the surface slower. Plus, Flurocarbon is a cool word...who wouldn't want to use something with a cool name!

[Newby]

Superduperman:
"Plus, Flurocarbon is a cool word...who wouldn't want to use something with a cool name!"

Now, who can argue with that lol!

[yellow door 1]

I have used seaguar, nitlon, vanish mainline flouro - not the leader) and momois.

The best line out of those was also the most expensive. The Momois is the stuff I would use around pylons. Compared to the others it has no faults. Any leader that comes back scuffed up is a good leader. Most just snap as soon as they come into contact with barnacle.

I should qualify that statement with the fact that I have only used 6lb -8lb Flouro carbon and some would say thats too light for pylon work (other would say its too heavy ). But the 7lb Momois took much more punishment than it should.

Then I went through a long phase of working snagless river banks from a boat where leader strength is far less important. Now that we are fishing pylons again I have decided to dust the cobwebs out of the wallet and stock up on the Momois again.

What I am trying to say is - using high quality flouro is not all that important if you can afford to let the fish take line and there isnt anything sharp in the way


Originally I switched from mono to flouro coz of the "invisable factor".

During extensive tests with unweighted livies in clear water, we mucked around with leaders ranging from 2lb to 20lb mono in the docks and finally arrived at 6-8lb. It could handle the odd touch against the pylons but still get an acceptable amount of hits.

(Needless to say the 2lb mono got the most hits and the 20lb - the least)

Then we tried flouro carbon and it out fished mono in the same breaking strain easily. It got to the point where the bloke forced to try mono wasnt geting any hits and the bloke with flouro was getting heaps.

When the mono was swapped for flouro carbon the results were instant.

So in short - In my experience, flouro gets more hits and the good quality stuff is more abrasion resistant.

The tests we conducted were in spots where leaders dont have much of a chance. How any leader can survive contact with the barnacles is beyond me but some do perform better than others.

These are spots where lightly brushing a pylon with bare feet does this.

[yellow door 1]

to blokes that look like this

[Newby]

Yellow Door 1:
"I should qualify that statement with the fact that I have only used 6lb -8lb Flouro carbon and some would say thats too light for pylon work (other would say its too heavy ). But the 7lb Momois took much more punishment than it should."

I only use a 6lb leader around any structure and strait 4lb flurocarbon when I know I don't need any leader at all. I only ever used 8lb leaders when I was knew to the sport and didn't want to loose my friends plastics. *I'm still pretty new to the sport anyway*

Nice foot mate, that would've been fun.

Cheers, Newby.

[yellow door 1]

Yeh I'm currently using 6lb nitlon but every time I get smoked it costs me baby vibes. The noodle stick I have been using isnt helping but once the drag starts running it only has to last 2 seconds before the line pops.

I have lost confidence in that breaking strain which means I am being an even bigger pussy when reeling them in. That just lets the fish regain its composure and set itself up for a power dive with too many metres of line off the reel.

Someone with confidence in that breaking strain would lose far fewer fish coz they would push it to the limit.

I tied on some 8lb Vanish the other day and the confidence was restored. I was ready to yank the heads off what ever came my way. Pity the big boys didnt show.

[Newby]

Yellow Door 1:
"Yeh I'm currently using 6lb nitlon but every time I get smoked it costs me a baby vibes."

Thats why I prefer plastics. Not that I've got a huge range of lures anyway. But to loose $10 worth of lures is just one lure. To loose $10 of plastics is usually a packet of 12- 15 tails. Wich takes a long time.

I've never been smoked by a bream lol. And I don't really know what that means, fish runs for a long time and distance?
But it's never happend. I'll give the bream a little bit of slack but not much. They tire and I bring them in, they normally have a few poxy runs after that but nothing worth sweating about. But I'm land based. Probbably a heap of difference in the two.

[yellow door 1]

Originally posted by Newby
I've never been smoked by a bream lol. And I don't really know what that means, fish runs for a long time and distance?

Yeh being smoked means different things to different people.

It all comes down to your drag setting and how far the fish has to run before it gets to something it can cut you off on.

Getting Smoked on 2lb leader is very easy to do because of the light drag. It gets progressively harder to get smoked with every notch of drag you tighten.

I'm not sure if you have ever tied a set of scales to the end of your line and dragged it down until it gives line when a kilo of pressure is applied.

I use 4lb fireline (breaks at a Higher strain than that) and if you have a kilo of Drag you have to be very careful not to cut your hand when dragging the fireline out with that amount of drag pressure.(if you have girl hands like me)

I dare not drag line out by the 6lb flouro carbon leader coz it might weaken the knot or over stress the leader. So i only pull the fireline out when I need to free up some line.

For me - getting smoked is what happens when a fish does a power dive. It rarely happens on the strike. Usually the fish is bewildered for a second and if the fish comes straight to you. You can just crank as hard as you can so the fish cant turn his head.

But if at any stage the fish gets the upper hand and turns his head - thats when you are in danger of a smoking.

Because we cant raise the rod tip all that high under the docks and in some cases - not at all - there will come a stage in the fight where the fish may get a second to turn around. If you are using light leaders and a fish starts to drag line from the reel, the weaker amoungst us - ( i am definately included) have a tendancy to let them run. Sometimes it works - other times you lose vibes.

In short - a "smoking" is when the fish takes drag at a steady rate until your line hits something and snaps

[Newby]

Ah awsome, so being smoked has nothing to do with tabacco and a lighter.


Well that's never happend to me, I never want it to happen to me either. It sounds alot harder when in a tinny/ boat than it is shore bashing.

[yellow door 1]

Originally posted by Newby
Ah awsome, so being smoked has nothing to do with tabacco and a lighter.


Well that's never happend to me, I never want it to happen to me either. It sounds alot harder when in a tinny/ boat than it is shore bashing.

Trust me - you would need more than one packet of King Size "Tally- ho" to roll this "Camberwell Carrot".

Fishing from a boat is a blessing and a curse.

Especially if you are designated "electricity motor operator". Depending on what you are hoping to achieve in a session - being in charge of the electric has the potential to be the best place to be.

When you are working banks or structure that can be worked from any angle. Front of the boat is definately where its at. (If there is a selfish individual working the electric.)

In fact in most situations front of boat would be the place to be.

There is one exception to the rule that even the most selfish electric operator couldnt exploit with out a beating. It just happens to be the style of fishing, we fish 95% of the time. And thats "Pylons"

Absolute truckloads of fish available but the one thing that makes it difficult, is keeping the edge of the boat close enough to the pylons. In every session, making sure each of the 3 individuals on the boat, has an equal shot down their chosen corridor is of utmost importance.

To make that happen take skills I wont get into. But when you're a pro, you make it look so easy, that the sacrifices you make often go unnoticed

......... Re - "Well that's never happend to me, I never want it to happen to me either."

The day you accept that lures are going to be lost is the day your catch rate will increase (this comment relies on many variables)

When I started, I was scared to let my single tailed grubs hit the bottom coz I was scared of snagging up. The very first time I "dead sticked" (let the lure lie motionless on the bottom) was the day I caught my first bream on plastics.

I switched to plastics coz bream were getting too easy on bait. I can still catch more "big" bream on bait than I ever could on lures. And it costs 10c a hook.

Every now and then I drift back to the bait but everytime i do it just reminds me that catch and release fishing isnt supposed to be like shooting fish in a barrel.