Notes from the crew — by David Jones
Your fishing line represents one of the most important parts of your fishing system. It is literally what connects you to the fish, maybe to a personal best. It is the part of your system that wears out the fastest and is subject to the most abuse. Why then does it seem to be one of the least talked about and last considered pieces of most people’s fishing tools? I say most people because one of the ways I can tell the experience and level of expertise of a new fisherman is the emphasis they put on their line choices. Our very best fishermen are conversant in the different makers and colors — whose line casts the best, whose is toughest against the rocks, etc. At the other end of the scale are the guys who brag about how much money they saved buying their line at a big box store. Choosing line is important, and can be confusing. Here’s what we’ve learned, what we think, and what we’ve talked ourselves into.
Bait Fishing
By this I mean if you’re either still fishing with live or dead bait, or slow trolling live bait. For years we here at Fishermen’s Fleet recommended Maxima Chameleon Green — it’s absolutely the best monofilament for catching very touchy fish like pargo. I’m not sure if that’s universal or specific to here, but year in and year out I’ve proven to my own satisfaction that this line was the best mono for fishing the pickiest fish we have. I say “was” because there have been some changes. Nowadays, with the advent of fluorocarbon line, it’s different — a couple of meters of fluorocarbon tied to the end of your mono makes a big difference in any of our shallow water situations. Tuna, pargo, yellowtail all hit the fluoro on days when no mono will do the trick. There are many companies that sell premium quality lines at very reasonable prices; we here at Fishermen’s Fleet have chosen to deal with the folks at Izorline. Their products are developed by fishermen, for fishing, with different kinds of mono and a palette of colors. If you’re at all confused by their range of products, call them and ask.
Non-Mono
Here it starts to get pretty detailed. In the last few years there’s been a lot of people experimenting with “alternative” lines. Spectra, hollow Spectra, Hi-Vis, and fluorocarbon all have their jobs to do in your fishing system.
This article runs longer in David’s original notes than what survived in the archive — if you have questions about line, just get in touch.
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