For those who have left Fluorocarbon

Did you go to mono or co-poly? Have you noticed a difference ? Less bites?

What's steering you away from flouro?

The only time I have left flouro Is for mono to top water fish and I use braid most of that time for most applications. I will never leave flouro for the above choices.

its not flour carbon...

Don't leave flouro! Too many advantages.

I left it and had my rear kicked by my buddy, so I tried another brand that most here seem to like. I also learned to tie a new know that Zona had shown on one of his shows. So far, it's been a better experience. I did learn that if I get a backlash and the line kinks, just to put the rod down because the line will break in a matter of a few cast.

But yes, I saw a difference in the fish catches not using fluorocarbon. It was at Amistad though, which is really clear.

you've been posting about quitting fluorocarbon line since I first joined this forum Frank

shhhhh

Was talking to a pro about it one day. He uses fluorocarbon because his line sponsor wants him to. But he told me that in his opinion he did not feel that it is necessary in most of our Texas lakes because of the water color.

I would agree with this mostly. Fluorocarbon has it's issues. It cost a LOT more than mono. It is stiffer in cold weather, it is less forgiving once kinked, it is harder to cinch down when tying a knot, etc. But with all its disadvantages, I still feel the benefits outweigh the issues.

It provides better feel of my bait and helps me feel the bite better at the end of a long cast. It is just another tool in our arsenal of fishing tools. If you feel it helps you get more bites that translates into more fish in the box, then use it. If you've had a bad experience with it, don't.

I caught a zillion fish back in the 70's & 80's on fluorescent blue Stren, brown Maxima, and Trilene Big Game. I'm still waiting on the scientists to perfect transparent aluminum so we can have 100# test with zero visibility and 10# diameter!

This is why I left it.

Here's my first experience with fluorocarbon line versus mono.

About 20 years ago we were sitting on a deep water hump at Fork. I had two customers with me. I had purchased a spool of Seaguar 20# fluoro and spooled up two reels. The other reels I had 20# Big Game. I used it a lot back then because it was cheap & strong. I rigged my rod with a 1 oz bullet weight on a C-rig. I had two other rods rigged identically, same weight & bait.

I had my customer using one of the rods with Big Game. I started throwing the one with the new fluoro. a bit later he hung up and had to break off so I handed him my rod. As soon as he began dragging the lure across the bottom he said, "Why do I feel all the bumps on the bottom with this rod?"

He was looking at the rod to see if it was different than the one he had been using. It was also identical. I finished rigging his rod back up and flung it out there. I picked up on the line and started dragging it back... Seemed normal... We traded rods back. As soon as I got the rod back with fluoro, I noticed the difference in feel.

I have been using fluoro ever since for bottom bouncing techniques. There is a noticeable difference in feel. That alone give me more confidence. Fork rarely has more than 3 foot visibility these days so I don't think fluoro has a big advantage over mono with regard to being less visible.

Confidence is the key word here. If you are confident that what you are doing will catch more fish, then it Will Help You Catch More Fish. Plain & Simple.

And to answer your other question:

Yes, this is what I do when it is 100 degrees outside nowadays. I sit on the sofa in the air conditioning and type about how good I used to be.

See you on the lake in September!!

+1

It'll still be hot in Sept, bro. Keep fishing from your armchair until Oct. I'll join you, too. I feel a 20lb sack coming in Aug...haha!

On your question about switching: yes I pretty much changed to co-poly for almost everything. McCoy's Mean Green is my favorite. All the listed reasons above were why I couldn't get completely comfortable with fluorocarbon line. I liked the sensitivity and limited visibility of the fluro but everything else sucked about it. Tried different brands and settled on Seaguar as the best but it was actually the "least bad" fluro to me. McCoy's co-poly has the increased sensitivity over mono without the extreme "brittle" feeling, less blacklashing and real low memory. I like it especially on my "feel" baits like worms, jigs... but it works well for cranks, spinnerbaits, topwaters....pretty much everything. I still have braid on my Carolina-rig main line and frog rod. Still use 20lb regular old Big Game for swimbaits but on everything else its pretty much co-poly for me. Like Ken said above^^^"caught a zillion fish on fluorescent blue Stren" for more years than lots of y'all have been alive so maybe we fishermen overthink this line thing(ya think?). If there was no such thing as monofilament fishing line right and I invented it I would make a millions $$$. It would be the next greatest, must have, fish catchingest arsenal for that everyone would buy. :-)

Ken , pm sent.

senko95,

It isn't "its" either. It would be "it's."

But, we get what you meant; we get what others misspelling fluorocarbon mean, too.

You are going to have long and restless nights if you think you can correct spelling errors and grammar here. It'll be about as frustrating as . . . fluorocarbon.

Brad

I fish 90% braid... about 3-10 trips i notice a difference. But some lakes i think it matters more consistantly

It is senko9S. But, we get what you meant...

Co-polymer P-Line CXX or Premium. Both very good lines. They seem to bite just as well using P-Line as they do with Fluorocarbon based on my on the water testing at Lake Fork.

I still use fluorocarbon line for my drop shot, C-rig, and other baits where I want the best bottom feel I can have like a football jig, swing head, and shaky head.

Lmao! True! It's too dang hot!!

I was catching 60 fish a day at PK on 15 lb big game, in 20+ Foot visibility. Just use what you have confidence in. When I'm not getting bit the last thing I think of is it's because I'm not throwing fluorocarbon

Leave it? I never even started it. Tried it a few times and felt the advantages didn't outweigh the problems with it.

Never liked it and as long as it stays as stiff as it is these days I never will.

I'm an analogy guy, and I have always felt that golf is a great parallel to fishing.

Ideally, you want to keep a full bag of clubs, and learn every one of them. They all have their specific purpose, and they all will do one particular thing better than any other club.

Same with gear choices in fishing.

Going fishing without a spinning reel is like going to the golf course without a putter. Going fishing without a baitcaster is like going to the course without a driver.

Line choices are the same. I always tell people that they should learn all of the pros and cons with the different types of line, and learn to utilize all of them appropriately.

Keep a full bag of clubs, and learn all of them.

So, to answer the question, for me, I use all of the different types of line and try my best to use the right one for the right application and situation.

A lot of people who bash fluorocarbon line are really "cheap" in everything they do in life, thus they can never get past the cost.

Honestly i just bought my first spool of flourocarbon, I've been flipping with big game for years and I'm tired of the memory. 20 pound big game is awesome for about a week. I don't mind the stretch but and it's strong. But it's like flipping a slinky after a week. I do stretch it out on the lawn but it gets right back to slinky pretty quick.

I switched to braid and like it but in Abilene area there are muddy lake which I'll keep the braid. There are clearer lakes where I feel the braid is too visible. I just used fluorocarbon this weekend and was impressed so far. The only thing that has kept me away are the horror stories.

I'm cheap on certain things and the price has kept me away as some has mentioned. But I think that pros use it for a reason. I'll weigh in my 2 cents after a few months

You think Fluoro won't turn into a slinky???? It's memory is a primary drawback!

Most vegetation you might flip should be so cluttered under the surface that the braid gets lost in that clutter. If you flip sparse wood, I could see concern on the angler's part, but never saw a survey indicating what the fish think.

Learn to tie a blood knot. Put a 25# leader at the end of braid. Said leader should be short enough that you don't typically pull it into the tip guide with each flip. (That won't hurt a properly tied blood knot, but it does get annoying when flipping.) This will give you a few feet of leader and lets you retie numerous times before you will need to put a new leader on the rig.

My personal choice is to use P-Line 25# CXX copolymer as my leader (in cases where I do use a leader while flipping) since it offers advantages over mono such as Big Game, including sensitivity. Any decent copolymer will exceed pure mono in traits we would like for flipping, in general.

I've left fluorocarbon for straight braid. Similar prices and since we live in Texas, the water clarity isn't too much of an issue. When it does become an issue, I use my leftover fluorocarbon as a leader.

I put blue Big Game on a couple rods just so I could see my line better. The rest have fluorocarbon . It seemed to me that there is a distinct difference in feel between it and fluorocarbon. The fluorocarbon seems to give me a better feel of the bottom. Both were 15# test.

I have about $130,000 invested between my truck and my boat ...... Fluoro sucks!

All I can say is 2 guys with equal skill fishing in the same boat and 1 is using fluro and the other isn't....you will find out real quick which line catches more fish.

I was told when I was 13 by a pro - "line is the absolute cheapest thing you will ever find in fishing. Always use quality line."
I have found that, even with the high cost of some line, that this has been absolutely true. Your line and the knot is the only thing keeping you connected to your $7 spinnerbait, $15 topwater, $20 crankbait and your $50 swimbait. Yet we complain that a spool of floro cost $25.

I have seen that proved wrong many times

This!!!!!

Been using fluro for years and learned quickly that if you kink it you have trouble. On the other hand it's tough, castes easily, and strong enough that anything over 20lb is overkill. Have used the boat to break it off a stump. With the exception of top water it's fluro for me and see no reason to give it up.

line memory sucks with Flouro , but the advantages of low stretch , low visibility are worth it , especially when it comes to confidence . Someone on the forum had some really good advice on using Flouro on spinning rods ---- take out your rod/s the day before a trip , take out about 120 feet of line and tie it to something so you can " stretch " out the line . Also carefully run a wet wash cloth over the lines as it is stretched out , affectively taking out all the memory .
I tried this and took my son in law out for his first ever bass fishing trip . Basically a complete novice . Not one time did he have " loop" problems and unspooling issues on all three spinning rods he used --- and he ended up catching 10 nice bass and is now totally hooked on bass fishing

I've gone back and forth, back and forth. Every time I come back to Fluoro for a reason. The benefits outweigh the negatives.

mono - topwater popper, worm, walking spook type
braid - frog
flouro - Crig with mono leader
flouro - worm, jig, crank bait, drop shot, shaky head

Does anyone paint the last 3ft or so of their braid if running straight? I would much rather run straight braid than floro like i have. Minus things such as drop shot, shakey head, ect.. Im talking more for my Texas rig, jig, and swimbait rods.

Fishing line is the ONLY item that physically comes in contact with every aspect of a fishing "system".....the reel, rod and hook/bait. Someone told me that many years ago and I've used nothing but Flouro and Braid ever since. Braid for most types of top water baits and Fluoro everything else.

life is short and there's never enough time on the water, use whatever make senses for you!

Wow.

I switched to suffix siege 17 lb. Great feel, little memory, takes the abuse of all these stumps I fish around, only use floro for leaders sometimes

Sounds like a quote my EX-girlfriend used to tell me.......no wonder I never married her.

I love fluorocarbon line. I use it for almost all my fishing. I love how much more sensitive it is than mono!!!
Yes it does cost more, but it's totally worth it in my opinion.

I hated fc for years because it was bridl, until I found out a uni knot is key! I have a hard time breaking off if hung up and its pretty sensitive. All that aside I will use braid mono and fc, they all have a use

Well I agree with that!!!

I use Invizx. Not the cheapest but I simply have more confidence in it than many other lines.

Crankbaits and cold winter fishing I'll throw P-Line CX Premium. Frogs in garbage I'll use braid. Everything else is Invizx.

Exactly what I do.

Not true at all.

Flouro is like an expensive high maintenance girlfriend. You have to tell her often how much you love her, how purdy she is, constantly shower her with love and attention. If you can stomach the effort, you will usually end up with a smile on your face. See

Bring your braid or mono and come fish plastics with me and see what happens

Im sure all the BASS guys last week were whacking the smallies on mono or braid

only the cheap a## ones and the ones that think they always know more than anyone else

I am trying to like it. Not there yet. Too many break offs

Simple solution.....experiment with different types of lines and see what works the best for you. Flouro has proven itself to me too many times. Don't care who is sponsored by what brand...I know from actually fishing it in my boat and comparing it to mono and copoly side by side that flouro outperforms in a lot of areas.

Saying that mono was good enough years ago is like saying you would rather have the old school flashers instead of side imaging and the detailed depthfinders of today if you are a ledge fishermen or you would prefer a sculling paddle instead of a trolling motor. Things change and products get better. Its not all marketing to me.

I just bought some seaguar invizx. Still trying.... right now braid is working well..

Mark all I need is a Vexilar flasher and a paper graph and I will be alright

I don't use braid or mono for plastics.

So what knot should I be tying, I hear palomar is that good with Fc. Please advise

This question typically requires its own entire post that will generally get about 2-3 pages of responses. I will tell you I use nothing but Flouro and braid and I tie a simple palomar every time but you've got to make sure its tied correctly. The most important aspect is to always pull the tag line tight before cinching the knot down tight.

New to the forum. I'm from San Antonio. What's up guys?

What pound test are you guys using for normal t-rig's? Like 1/2oz or less. I bought a big spool of 12# Invisx during the TW Xmas sale and the abrasion resistance is terrible. I have to re-tie after every fish and I break off a lot more than normal.

Thanks Chris.

+1

Some guys tell you a palomar will slip on braid but it just cuz they haven't learned how to tie a palomar knot correctly yet.

I think 12 is too small for most bottom bouncing baits like worms or jigs but that is just my opinion, especially Invisx. Berkeley 100% 12# is marginal. Berkeley 12# is the same diameter as 15# Invisx. Pound for pound Berkeley is stronger because it is larger diameter. I like both.

I use 15 Invisx for most moving baits except for topwaters of course. I am just not comfortable using less than 17# for worms or jigs. If the brush is new and thick I would not go below 20 pound. Even with 20 you are asking for trouble if you are after bigguns IMO.

Palomar knots use too much line for big lures. For such expensive line like fluoro you should use a Perfection Loop. It gives the lure more action as well.

That's what I figured. I see most guys are using 15+. I'll prob go with some 17# and see how that works. I do have a large spool of 15# red label also.

Frank looks like you need to spend less time trolling and learn how to tie a knot.

Red label and plenty of line conditioner is best fc for the money

I'll take 12# mono over 17# fluoro

Here ya go Frank!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8drKsdf5E

Thx!!!