Tackle Talk: Fishing Line

“I’ve got a Line on You” — Spirit, circa 1969

I go back and forth between trying to analyze (read “buy”) each and every new “can’t fish without it” innovation that hits the market, and remembering that I’m surrounded by an army of successful professional fishermen who catch a lot more fish than I do with 10 year old technology and hand-me-downs. I know some of the new stuff is better, but also know that much of it is just new. Trying to figure out where the real improvements are is the central conundrum.

One area of fishing technology that’s been moving the fastest over the last few years is line. For the last 30 years or so, monofilament has been the dominant line among sport fishermen — its ease of use, practicality, and reasonable price have made it the mainstay for all of us. But technology marches on, and a myriad of new choices in line composition add to the always hotly-discussed issue of color, making the question of “which line should I use?” all the more debatable. While our staff of test engineers (Juan, Chris, Kelly, and myself) hasn’t done comprehensive or quantitative analysis, we’ve made some observations over the years, and certainly have opinions.

Monofilament

We’re still monofilament advocates for 98% of the situations we see in La Paz. From the many brands of mono we’ve traditionally recommended Maxima, in the Ultragreen color — a premium line with very good knot-tying attributes, sufficient toughness, and still limp enough to cast. What makes it our #1 choice for all-around line is that it’s the most successful offering when trying to catch the Pargo Lisos that dominate our late winter and early spring fishing. After you’ve watched a group of these red beasts pick through a pile of bait, leaving behind only the one with your hook in it, coupled with their Mack-truck-like runs for the rocks once you do hook one, it’s hard not to respect the combination of great eyesight, wariness, and strength that makes these Mullet Snapper our most challenging fish to boat. Over the years we’ve used this species as our yardstick for which line to recommend, and Maxima has consistently been the winner.

During the times of year when we’re not fishing for pargo, the choice is less clear and perhaps less critical — stick with well known brand names such as Ande, Berkeley, Jinkai, Stren, or Maxima, in traditional colors like blue, green, grey, or smoke. Saving a few bucks on fishing line while preparing for a $1,000+ vacation will sooner or later result in the loss of fish, perhaps a lifetime catch. Respool your reels regularly (we change ours 2 to 6 times a year), and cut off the last few feet of line often during the fishing day — run your hand along the line feeling for nicks, kinks, or roughed up sections.

Spectra

Many line makers offer versions of this woven, small-diameter line. While it originally came to vogue on the long range boats because you can load a much larger amount of line on a given reel, I believe Spectra does have its uses in La Paz. I switched the tackle I use for large tuna and marlin over to Spectra after having a Penn 6/0 reel loaded with 50 pound Maxima spooled in under 30 seconds while fishing for big tuna one day — undoubtedly the largest tuna I’ve ever hooked, and not a feeling I want to experience again. When using Spectra you must do some things differently: a very sharp knife or good pair of scissors is what I’ve found to do the best job for cutting it, knot tying is different, and your guides always need to be in good working order, as the line’s small diameter can cause extra wear.

Fluorocarbon

Fluorocarbon technology produces a line with a refractive index very similar to water, making it next to invisible when used for fishing line. It’s expensive to produce, so its usage has been almost exclusively limited to leader material. The place we’ve found fluorocarbon to be of certifiable value is when tuna fishing, especially for the big ones — instead of putting a mono top shot on the end of the Spectra, we’ve taken to tying a leader of fluorocarbon directly to the line from the reel. In several dozen trips comparing this setup with a straight 50lb Maxima Ultragreen setup fished at the same time, we’ve had 2-3x more fish with the fluoro. Good enough for me.

That about exhausts our current thoughts on line. There’s much more out there that we haven’t tried, and any of you with additional or contrary experiences should feel free to share them with us.

Thanks for reading,
David Jones