Hydroelastics

[Chris OSullivan]

Are these any good? I have 4 top kits and at the moment have individually rated elastics in them.

Just coming back into fishing after a long spell and noticed that Hydroelastics are available and have a range rating (i.e. 6-10, 12-16, etc).

Do these work well, what I mean is if I use Hydro white (6-10) will the smaller fish be bumped off due to the elastic or is the elastic that intelligent on how much it stretches?

 

[Alf James]

Chris, small fish will still be bumped off on a white hydro elastic, especially if you're using a barbless hook. However, what I like about hydro is that it is capable of handling a wider range size range of fish than normal elastics.

However, you can get into trouble if you hook really big fish on the white or even black elastic as it just seems to stretch forever - I've had carp on the white hydro that have stretched a couple of metres of elastic to over 12 metres or more. I've seen anglers with their arms at full stretch with 10 metres and more of pole sticking straight up in the air trying to land big fish at their feet on hydro elastic. In these instances it's just too stretchy to give you sufficient control over the fish and a surefire way of breaking your pole if you try to land fish with that much pole in the air.

Personally, I only use the blue (5-8) and white (6-10) hydro elastics. I find these really useful for bream, chub and good sized roach. I prefer to use the pure white latex elastics now on the market for bigger fish such as tench and carp. These seem to to have more stretch than convential silicone elastic but nowhere near as much as hydro. However, I have a lot of fishing friends who swear by the black and red hydro elastic. Therefore, I think you'll need to give them a try and make your own mind up.

 

[Chris OSullivan]

Thanks for the comments Alf, I think as always its down to try the stuff out and see if it works for me.

Thanks again...