Not too long ago fluoro carbon lines were being enjoyed only by fly fishermen who used them as leaders, specially when fishing the dry fly when invisibility is all-important. Nowadays, however, coarse fisherman have realised that there is some potential in these lines as hook lengths.
The property that makes fluoro carbon lines attractive is their near invisibility in water, which can be ‘seen’ if you lay two wet lines across the back of your hand, one an ordinary mono and one a fluoro carbon mono, the fluoro being very difficult to see while the conventional mono being easily seen.
The technology behind fluoro carbon lines is PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) which has a refractive index close to that of water. But the advantage of fluoro lines doesn’t end there. It is also a very dense line, having a specific gravity of 1.78 against that of ordinary nylon monofilament which is 1.15. This property makes it sink faster and then lie on the bottom tighter, therefore offering less chance of spooking wary fish.
Yet another advantage of fluoro carbon lines is that they are waterproof and more reliable. Ordinary nylon mono absorbs water and can lose up to 15% of its strength. There is also less stretch in fluoro giving better hooking power and more ‘feel’ when legering.
All the above properties obviously apply to Sufix Invisiline, plus a great deal more reliability than some fluoros on the market. I’ve used most of them now and I can tell you that some are noticeably inferior to others, breaking at unexpected times, resulting in the angler denouncing fluoro carbon lines generally.
Last season, particularly when fishing for tench and barbel, my results were far superior to some of the anglers I fished with (anglers of equal ability) and one of the main differences was that I used fluoro carbon hooklengths while they stuck to conventional ones, or braid. Significantly, their results improved dramatically when they made the change to fluoro. I know one season doesn’t prove anything, but there was enough evidence to convince me and my angling pals that there is indeed an advantage to using fluoro carbon.
Sufix Invisiline is distributed by Relum and comes in breaking strains of 4lb, 6lb, 10lb, 13lb, 15lb and 20lb in 20m length boxed packs. It isn’t cheap at £ 5.95 a spool, but should last quite a while considering you would use it only for hooklengths.
