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The last couple of years I have conducted a stretch test of a variety of fishing lines. I have now tested 20 lines – mono, co-polymer and fluorocarbon. My initial hope was to go beyond line manufacturer’s claims of “low stretch” because I found it varied greatly, and find out for myself. I’m just an amateur and not affiliated or sponsored by anyone, but this was an interesting exercise for me. It will influence what products I buy going forward. Like anything in fishing, I don’t think any single product will work all the time. I mostly use braid as a main line but usually tie on a leader for low visibility and abrasion resistance. In these situations I may actually opt for a leader material with more stretch to offset some of the no-stretch characteristics of braid. Other times, like when casting crank baits, I want a line with some give so I don’t tear the trebles out of the fish’s mouth. But then again, I don’t want a long hook set with a line that stretches like a rubber band either… I hope you find the results as interesting as I did, it was kind of a fun way to kill some cabin fever the past couple years… -Fry Here are the results, the primary update this year was selecting certain lines to be tested wet vs. dry ~ LINE STRETCH TEST I used a 12 foot piece of each line and hung an 8 pound weight to see how much each line stretched in inches. Below are the results - least stretch to most stretch. All Lines 8 lb Test Lines Trilene XT (Mono) 21-1/4 inches of stretch Yo-Zuri Hybrid (Co-polymer) 22-1/8 Sufix Seige (Mono) 22-5/8 P-Line CX Premium (Co-polymer) 23-1/2 Maxima Treazure (Co-polymer) 24-1/2 Trilene XL (Mono) 24-3/4 Tectan Superior (Mono) 25-7/8 Berkley Sensation (Mono) 26-1/8 Sunline Sniper (Fluorocarbon) 26-1/2 Gamma Touch (Fluorocarbon) 29-1/4 Original Blue Stren (Mono) 29-3/4 Gamma Edge (Fluorocarbon) 31-0** Bass Pro XPS (Fluorocarbon) 31-3/4* Stren 100% (Fluorocast) 31-3/4* Seaguar Tatsu (Fluorocarbon) 32-3/4 P-Line 100% (Fluorocarbon) 33-0* Seaguar Invizx (Fluorocarbon) 36-0** Berkley 100% (Fluorocarbon) 38-3/8 Line snapped once and was re-tested ** Line snapped twice - length estimated Broken Down By Line Type 3 Co-polymer lines average stretch: 23.4 inches 6 Monofilament lines average stretch: 25.1 inches 9 fluorocarbon lines average stretch: 32.2 inches Line Diameter Line diameter can have an effect on stretch, but 9 of these lines all had the same diameter (.009 inches). Those lines are broken out below. The overall results are similar for the 3 different line types. P-Line CX Premium (Co-polymer) 23-1/2 Maxima Treazure (Co-polymer) 24-1/2 Tectan Superior (Mono) 25-7/8 Berkley Sensation (Mono) 26-1/8 Sunline Sniper (Fluorocarbon) 26-1/2 Gamma Touch (Fluorocarbon) 29-1/4 Bass Pro XPS (Fluorocarbon) 31-3/4* Seaguar Tatsu (Fluorocarbon) 32-3/4 Seaguar Invizx (Fluorocarbon) 36-0** ”Wet vs. Dry” The above line stretch test was conducted with dry lines, which raises the question of whether mono, co-polymer and fluorocarbon lines stretch differently when wet? Two lines in each category were soaked for 24 hours and re-tested. Results were as follows: Fluorocarbon lines Sunline Sniper: dry 26 1/2 inches vs. wet at 27 1/8. Berkley 100% fluorocarbon: dry 38 3/8 inches vs. wet at 39 inches. Co-Polymer lines Yo-Zuri Hybrid: dry 22 1/8 vs. wet at 25 1/4 P-Line CX Premium: 23 1/2 vs. wet at 35 1/8 Mono Trilene XT: dry 21 1/4 vs. wet at 28 7/8 Trilene XL: dry 24 3/4 vs. wet at 36 1/2 Overall observations *Newer Co-polymer lines being marketed specifically as “low stretch” for the most part seem to be accurate (when tested dry). *Fluorocarbon tends to be the line with most stretch. *Monofilament tends to be somewhere in the middle, although those with a thicker diameter (i.e. Trilene XT .011 and Sufix Seige .010) did stretch less. *Line diameter may have an effect on the stretch of certain lines, but overall, lines of the same diameter seem to reflect that Co-polymer and Monofilament lines still stretch less than Fluorocarbon (when tested dry). *Mono and Co-polymer lines tend to stretch more when wet vs. dry. Most “catch up” to fluorocarbon in terms of overall stretch, however one co-polymer (Yo-zuri Hybrid) tested lower than any fluorocarbon either wet or dry. *Fluorocarbon lines tend to break easier when stretched to their maximum breaking strength.

Just got off the phone with the owner of Sebert jigs (also a sponsor here) He put a nice jig package together for me to give away as a prize in our fishing club. Very helpful recommending sizes and colors. I am really impressed with the customer service!

16 bfs xg, awesome reel. Got me a new pb crappie, 16 inch, 2.10lbs

Was walking the dog and picked up one of the rusty railroad spikes from the old line they pulled out years back. Decided I was going to give it a whirl and pound it out into a simple fixed blade. Came out pretty good for a quick college try! Might have to scrounge up a few dozen more!

Best catch that wasn't a fish...my wife!

Third cast on the new combo. Supertuned Calcutta 101 on a Loomis GLX 785 CBR Med-Heavy/Mod... I have never felt a cranking setup like this before.

Your issue is with the retailer, not Dobyns. Your're essentially asking Dobyns to give you more money than what the rod was bought for. Imagine the problem they could run into if everybody bought the old DX on closeout, send it back to Dobyns, and then wanted the receive the new DX HP for no additional charge. This really falls along the lines of common sense.

Man, I hope Im reading this right. He paddled through a stretch of water? And is being sued? This is the stuff we go to court for now? What a waste of time and money!! Loosen up people!!!!!

Nothing custom or anything, but it's still a team Lew's lite on a LTB 6'8" MF. This setup is so easy to handle, and versatile to boot!

For the last week or so the squarebill bite at some local ponds has been really good. They have been choking down a Manns baby minus 1 in Fire Shad. Luckily I had a few that color because a big pickerel chewed it off during the day. The pre-spawn feed bag is on and need to take advantage of it.

Nice job, FryDog62 - and now you see why all the "dry tests" people do are fun to look at but somewhat meaningless. Nobody fishes with "dry" lines except during the first several minutes of a given trip. Taking your "wet" elasticity readings and looking at the data another way, you have the two fluorocarbons only averaging a 2.0% increase in stretch when wet, versus a 31.8% average increase for copolymers and a 41.7% average increase in monos. If you had also devised tests that compared these "wet" lines for knot strength and abrasion resistance, you'd see a big decrease in performance that the copolys and monos would exhibit when "wet," very similar to the decrease in performance for elasticity. P.S. - and yes, there is a direct correlation between line diameter and % elasticity, which is why you can't compare equally "rated" lines, but instead have to compare equal "diameter" lines (regardless of rating). -T9

I've never need a lure retriever. Here's why:

thought i would add some updated pics of my tackle that has grown far to much in the off season i picked up some storm twitch sticks and some kvd deep jerkbaits last night. Frogs/Buzzbaits Topwater/Jerkbaits Cranks Jigs/Bladed Jigs Big Baits Big Baits 2

I find it slightly odd that you are blaming Dobyns for your shopping choice. You bought a rod at a discount price, which often means the line is ending and a new model is being introduced, and when it arrived it wasn't what you thought it might be. Now you want someone to pay for your mistake by swapping a previous model rod for a new model rod for no cost? You wouldn't be able to buy a new model rod at the price you paid for your old model one, but you're moaning about being asked to make up the difference? It looks like an extremely generous offer by Dobyns to me. If someone had threatened me with an insinuation that the 30 man bass club would follow my lead on a rod company if I didn't do as they wanted, the offer would have been withdrawn straight away. If you chase bargains rather than making a considered purchase, you're going to lose out sometimes. You have to take that on the chin.

Mike's a great guy. And his jigs are top of the line. On one of the Road Trips, he literally made jigs for me in the cab of his truck by the light of a cell phone. How is that for customer service. :-)

Every time I hook myself, I wish I would have. I've started to do it slowly. I feel if I fight a fish correctly it won't matter if I have a barb or not.

Another reason to stick with #12 yozuri for any non braid uses. Thanks for the testing.

It's stupid to me how they would ask for the value difference if the price originally were the same. Why should they care if you bought it on sale or not, they already sold the rod to the retailers anyways. I would be perfectly fine with them saying how they won't exchange the model, but telling you that they would, and asking you to ship it to them and THEN asking for the price difference is a joke to me.

It has nothing to do with the new rods, well not entirely anyway. The way it works, and this is with all manufactures, is that when you buy a rod from an authorized dealer and you buy it on a sale price, it is assumed you either take the model that is on sale or don't buy it. If Dobyns was going to switch out your rod it would be devastating to them because every time they would improve the line anglers would buy up the discontinued rods at cheap prices no matter what the length, power and action and then trade them in for the newest rod in the power and action they want. The idea is that you got that rod at a sale price because it was an old model in a power and action you wanted to try, it felt light and Dobyns was willing to replace, but they didn't know you bought the rod on a deep discount, they assumed it was a full price purchase, had you told them you got it on sale and when you got it, they would have told you that you would have to pay an additional fee. So remember, when you buy a rod on sale, you are buying that length, power, and action and if you hope to swap it out with the manufacturer be prepared to pay the difference. Now, if you were sending the rod in on a warranty replacement, whatever fee Dobyns charges would have been what you pay but you'd also be getting the same length, power and action back so it wouldn't help anyway.

You have some quality rods. Why would you mount a Zebco on one of them? It isn't going to add any more fun to catching. If it's fun fishing you're after, pick up an ultra light combo. A good one. Spool it up with 6lb. YZ Ultra Soft and have a blast. Don't bother with the Zebco, it'll let you down at the most inopportune times. You'll hear guys that land 20lb.+ cats with one on a regular basis, but they aren't using the line you would be and they don't rely on a smooth drag the way you will.

Alright guys, it's getting close to April 2 and Nitro will be coming out to fish with us on the res! The plan is to launch at Bull Run. Anyone that want to come on out and meet up, please speak up so we can get a plan together to arrange a spot to meet and greet so to speak! If you have a pass and a key, we will be trying to get on the water a little after 7am or so. If you just want to run up the res, we will be fishing around the splits area and can figure out a time and place to maybe sit and float for a lunch break!!

Seems fair to me. If i go to Target and buy something and i bought it on sale and want to swap out the item for a similar but different model, i expect to pay the difference just like if i lost the receipt i would expect to only get a refund or credit of the lowest sale price going back a reasonable amount of time.

Lmao.... that's crazy... I would of ran around like a maniac... I will never forget the time that I was fishing and stepped on a ground bees nest.. I thought I ran into a pricker bush and kept fishing till the pain got worse.. Looked down and I had about 20 bees on my leg.. I threw my rod and started running and took my shirt off and they were all over me.. Sucked...

I wouldn't be buying any boat that needed work right out of the gate.

Well, as you can see, several knots seem to work just fine. The key is this: "If the knot you tie is not PERFECT, it's not good enough."

I bought a Dobyns Champion Extreme online during the Black Friday sales. I got it for about $85 less than MSRP, not a steal but a deal. Anyways I bought it without touching first, my mistake, and let me preface this I've never experienced Dobyns rods before this. For those that don't know they run on the lighter side of power. I bought a ML spinning rod which would probably equate to a L power in some lines. Anyway before the season started I decided it's too light for my needs. For $340 a rod should feel right (once again my fault I didn't touch first). I called Dobyns customer service and at first they were willing to switch me out for a rod of different size and power. So I paid to ship the rod back. Today I get an email that they want an additional $95 to cover the difference in what I paid and the rods cost. I don't know if I'm being tacky but I just can't do it. The rod I sent back was unused with the original tags still on it I don't understand why I couldn't trade it out for what I wanted. I don't know if I'm being unrealistic but I'm a little disappointed in my first experience with Dobyns.

I've done a lot of bragging on my grandson Aiden & his bass catching heroics, well this is my other 9 yr old grandson Evan Trace. After his first full year of competing in gymnastics he entered the Louisiana State Championship competions on Saturday. He brought home 4 silver medals, 3 bronze medals, & a trophy for 3rd OVERALL!!! Plus he brought home the team trophy for highest team overall score of 62.1 (6 events=60.0 plus bonus skills) with a whopping 11.2 on rings!!!

Go out and fish and have a good time, it don't matter what size boat or motor you have. Fishing is fishing not boating.

Dave, I would never Hi-jack a post but if you dont mind , Id like to say thanks to them too. I was actually able just to PM Mike himself right from here. My package just arrived to! Simply explained what I needed. And bang!!! Seberts delivered. Thanks for letting me squeeze that in. And thanks to Seberts from me as well. Lee

I fished the mounds from 10-3 today. Got 8 bites and nothing big. 4 flipping and 4 on a trap. The wind was brutal. I planned on running to mill, but couldn't even round the mainland point at the mounds. I think we could have thrown a trap in the very back of creeks and catch a few more, but we were looking for a DD!

Uuuugh I did that once, they flew straight up my pants!! Stung me up something fierce and so fast all over I thought I was being electrocuted! I had to rip off my belt, literally somersaulted out of my shoes/pants and ran away from my jeans barefoot and swatting like you see in the cartoons- 2ft off the ground the whole time haha wow that hurt... Jewels saved though, totally worth it!!

11 days and counting down, looking forward to the Res, as a fellow NOVA or alumni, it's going to be good being in my old stomping grounds, although the Res was not part of my daily life, places like lake Jackson and others were, mostly it was the creeks that ran around Manassas park and lake Manassas itself, it's going to be a great day and I hope you guys can make it out!! John, thanks again for everything, can't wait to see a great friend slinging a line man !!

Have a 2003 Ranger 185VS and other than just blowing my engine, its been trouble free. However, regular maintenance and tender lover care it expensive and that's what keeps it trouble free, but even with all my care and maintenance I still blew an engine. So as with any mechanical device its a crap shoot.

Went out on the Nashua river from 6 to 7 ish tonight. Got 2 misses on the topwater, Livingston pro sizzle. Threw a jerkbait too, rapala shadow rap in perch color. Caught a nice Pickerel on it, the guy almost swallowed it whole. Couldn't believe it, but I got a crappie on it too.

FF, I'm from your neck of the woods (SE Mich) so I know what you speak of regarding no local Dobyns retailers. That said, I fish with Falcon Cara baitcasters and Dobyns Extreme spin rods. Have owned 6 or 7 DX at one point but am now down to three. I can tell you with no hesitation that Dobyns is as top-notch of a fishing rod company as any of the USA shops including St. Croix, Falcon, and Loomis - all of which I have dealt with - I still own and fish a couple high end rods (GLX, Legend Extreme). But being based on the West Coast, their rods are more popular with West Coast anglers and more retailers carrying their rods are out that way. I've got to agree with the other posters that what you are wanting to do would not go over at most other retail companies. You probably know of people or have seen people trying to do just such thing - buy an item on sale and return it trying to get full MSRP in exchange. I know you are not trying to scam Dobyns but if you look at it from their point of view, they wouldn't be in business very long if they did what you're asking them to do. I say fish the rod for an entire season and then make up your mind to sell it or not. If it's the rod I have (DX702SF) it is an awesome dropshot rod and I've gone through many high end DS rods at that price point. Pair it with a Ci4 2500 and 7 lb. Sniper and it's the ultimate smallie weapon.

I decided to go out again today, even though there was 20-30 mph winds. Completely different fishing from yesterday, the fish were eight to fourteen feet glued to the bottom underneath docks instead of shallower on the steep shorelines and closer to the top. The final tally was one 1.5 pounder, two 3's, a 3.7, one 4.1, two 4.5's, a 5.2, and an egg-laden 5.8 pound bass. All bass were weighed on a portable scale, so the weights aren't just gueses. The wind made boat control extremely difficult, but the fishing more than made up for it. Every one of the bass caught today was on the ned rig fished with a slow drag and dead-stick retrieve, once again disproving the theory that small baits only catch small fish. I also found out that there is a dock at the lake that the owners tied a thin rope between the supports three feet beneath the water ( witch I hooked twice before figuring it out), probably placed there to annoy fisherman trying to skip there dock. But anyway, with todays awesome fishing I should have another report to share here tomorrow.

When I read you title I said to myself..."I can help this guy" ...But After reading Primtime's response I dont think I can add anything worthwhile...So I'll just move on Mike

I was fly fishing for striped bass off South Beach at Cape Cod one spring and hooked something really, really big... it just swam away without even a headshake, peeling the line, then the backing, off my reel. I thought I was going to get spooled when the run suddenly stopped. Out near where I figured my fly was, a seal surfaced. I thought "No way... can't be." I gave the line a good tug and sure enough, the seal took off and the reel started screaming again. I cinched down on the spool and broke him off. Tight lines, Bob

I got a 14 year old who is going to be fishing out the back of the boat with me this weekend and he is more interested in crappie fishing than bass. Me not so much. Im not much of a crappie fisherman so my question is are they starting to move to the shallow water yet? Any particular creeks known as being better for white perch. I’m gonna bass fish but he wants to do the tube jig , beetle spin type stuff for some slabs. Any pointers appreciated. Report for last weekend goes like this. Fished around Big Bass Marina, Yokum, Indian Mounds, Oilwell, Lowes Creek. Probably caught about thirty fish total Thursday – Sunday. Big fish for us was 7.90. Most consistent pattern was 1/2oz weight junebug colored speed craw flipped around wood and buck brush. Caught a few fish on a perch colored square bill, white swim jig and Toledo Perch Santone spinnerbait. My son fished Pirates Cove with a buddy and ther biggest fish went 8-1/2 and they caught two over 5 pounds also. Black and blue Christy Craw.

Since, we're doing handle upgrades.

What's up guys ? I got a chance to go back to little Seneca this morning , it was a rough morning with water Temps back in the 40's and still stained. I still managed to catch a few on swimbaits and spinnerbaits . If anyone goes there later today, post what you encounter as far as temp and activity goes. I was there at 6:00 and the temp didn't budge buy noon, so I called it . Hopefully going back out in a couple days .

Mike's jigs are good lures. Between Siebert's brush jigs and the grid-iron football jigs, 90 percent of my jig fishing is covered. And he has jigs to cover the other 10 percent as well. There is no doubt that there are other good jigs that are top notch, but Mike just happens to make a great variety of top notch jigs with a price that is hard to beat. As for adjustments, I trim the skirts only slightly and this is more of a confidence thing for me than any necessity. I have a certain way I like my craw trailers to look on the jig. As for trimming the weed guards, I think that the jigs are more weedless if I leave it alone. If I am setting the hook correctly the full weed guard doesn't seem to cause any issues.

Only thing I do is spread out the weed guard so it's not as stiff. But that certainly isnt necessary. They are my favorite jig. Siebert brush jigs are the jigs I go with 90% of the time.

I usually weigh my fish by holding it up, guessing the weight and then doubling it... Works for me!

@hawgenvy so a little recap of the trip. It started out decent. We caught 6 fish in the first hour. the biggest being a 3lber. Just p[itching and flipping in the grass on the south end of the lake. Then it started storming. The rain was golf ball size and needless to say, the fishing pretty much stopped. After the storm, we threw senkos and managed to get about 5 more dinks on the boat in the remaining 6 hours. It was a very slow trip. We spoke to a lot of other anglers on the lake and they were all saying the same thing. Artificials was a tough bite. We were supposed to go Sunday as well but we got stormed out. All in all it was great to be on the lake and an awesome trip. Hopefully next time the fishing is a bit better. Best of luck to you.

Love the coat. ?

Leave the skirts alone. They are tied like they should be. The weed guard is of personal preference. I suggest fishing them like they are until you figure out how you like the weed guard. Jeff

I do a lot of times. My fish grips weigh .19 lb....this year. I coulda swore they weighed .21 last year...they were dieting over the winter, I suppose.

MDBowHunter, that's not normal at all, and we will gladly stand behind our product and make this right! The top two photos show a ChatterBait model that has been discontinued in lieu of higher quality, US-made products like out Project Z ChatterBait. On the Original ChatterBait in the bottom pic, the hook eye was not crimped down all the way, allowing the blade to slip off. The hook eyes are closed one at a time by hand, and this one obviously slipped through the cracks - no excuses here, just our sincerest apology. Please e-mail these pics along with your address to info@zmanfishing.com, and we'll replace these with current model ChatterBaits. Thanks for the opportunity to make this right, and our apologies for your experience.

Well, that is not always the case. The vast majority of my success with crankbaits involves swimming the lure OVER and AROUND cover and structure. So for me, vibration and/ or water displacement is "the number one rule of the game".