A retraction

[.ghoti.]

A couple of years ago, I put up a post detailing my mistake experience with Tatsu. I won't get into the whole story, just say that the line frayed very very badly fished in rocks and brush, while the mono on two other rods showed no signs of similar wear fishing in the same places. I chalked it up to experience, and said to myself, self, don't buy any more of that stuff.

I recently got a sample of this line to try again. Yesterday I decided to do some testing with a new BFS rod I built on an Immortal blank, an SS SV reel which I had just deep cleaned and polished, and a fresh spool of 10lb test Tatsu.

Walked out on my dock and started casting. To my right is a large downed tree, and to my left is an even larger one. I spent about 90 minutes trying to screw up the line. I drug it over every piece of those trees I could cast into. Was throwing a fluke for a while, and then a jigworm. I even tossed the jigworm over a branch on purpose, then jigged it up and down a while trying to damage the line. It held up very well during all of this; showing no signs of the problems I had seen during my previous experience with this line.

I use two knots to tie on baits; a SD jam knot for baits with treble hooks, and a palomar for everything else. I tried both, and both seem to hold well. I got the jigworm hung up good with both knots. The palomar broke when I tried to pull it loose. The SD knot held, and I broke off a decent sized piece of branch. This line is stronger than it's rated 10lb test. And, it holds a knot better than other fluoro lines I've tried.

I put another reel in my vest pocket before going out. I wanted to try a slightly heavier reel, with a different profile, on this new rod, so I had an Alphas with 10lb mono. I decided I like the SS SV better for this rod. And I decided I like Tatsu better than mono for these contact baits. It has a little better feel for what's on the end of your line than mono. Not a night and day difference, but a real improvement.

So, I have to eat my earlier words. I'm going to try this on more of my contact combos. I see no point in buying line this expensive for moving baits, but I can see myself using this line more for the feel techniques.

Now is good time for me to try this. They are running a buy two, get one free promotion, which I will be  taking advantage of. A spool each of 8, *** will let me rig up about half of my contact combos. I'm not going all in just yet, but i'm gonna give it a good long try this year.

[flyfisher]

Nice review and i recently have the need to replace some line on a few baitcasters that originally had braid but it is due for a change....maybe i should try it too

[Darren.]

Nice writeup.

My question would be, is Tatsu that much better
than other lines to make it worth the extra $$?

I saw the buy 2 get one deal last night on the web,
but was wondering if I am better off using something
like Red Label, or Gamma Touch for leader material.

Have you tried either and is Tatsu *that* much better?

[Bluebasser86]

Good time to try Tatsu right now.

[flyfisher]

I hate mail in rebates.....lol

[offsidewing]

19 minutes ago, Darren. said:

Nice writeup.

My question would be, is Tatsu that much better
than other lines to make it worth the extra $$?

I saw the buy 2 get one deal last night on the web,
but was wondering if I am better off using something
like Red Label, or Gamma Touch for leader material.

Have you tried either and is Tatsu *that* much better?

I don't know if it's $20 better than InvisX or AbrazX, but in my experience Tatsu is noticeably better than either of those lines as line management and memory.  I bought 3 spools of Tatsu at a significant discount from TW during a sale over the winter which made them much more affordable.  No buyers remorse from me. I've had a great experience using Tatsu on my spinning reels and will be trying it out on my casting gear soon.

[Evan K]

We seem to be in the middle of a Tatsu festival on BR, lol.

It's amazingly good line. I'll probably take advantage of the rebate to grab a couple spools of 17 lb. for my jig rod (using Invizx right now, and while it's great line, it doesn't measure up to Tatsu at all for manageability).

I'd say if you use backing you can easily justify the cost of using it over other fluorocarbons.

[Darren.]

1 hour ago, offsidewing said:

I don't know if it's $20 better than InvisX or AbrazX, but in my experience Tatsu is noticeably better than either of those lines as line management and memory.  I bought 3 spools of Tatsu at a significant discount from TW during a sale over the winter which made them much more affordable.  No buyers remorse from me. I've had a great experience using Tatsu on my spinning reels and will be trying it out on my casting gear soon.

Good to know. But I guess I'm still wondering
if - as a leader only - it is worth it over the other
brands in so much as it is stronger for smaller
diameter and more sensitive, etc., than the
other brands.

I can certainly appreciate it in terms of being better
for spooling your reel as a mainline, but I use
braid for that.

[kickerfish1]

You may have just gotten a bad batch. About every line manufacturer seems to have some slip through the cracks. Glad the 2nd try was a charm. I have been using it for about 4 years now. Outside of the price it is my favorite line. The sale/special certainly helps.

Thanks for putting up the follow up review.

[BassThumb]

11 hours ago, Evan K said:

We seem to be in the middle of a Tatsu festival on BR, lol.

Seems like that.

Tatsu is a stellar fluorocarbon. Easily the best I've used. Honestly, one would be doing themselves a great service to give a spool a try, especially for jigs and T-rigs. I have a 66-yard distance measured out in a local park where I go to respool my reels with expensive lines. That way I can spool three reels equally with a 200-yard spool. At $13 or so for a reel-full of line that'll last AT LEAST a season -- the only fluorocarbon that can be stretched for more than a season -- Tatsu isn't that expensive. The initial purchase price just seems rough.

In addition, Seaguar is a Bass Resource sponsor, so it gets pushed hard by some of mods at times, but they're justified in doing so.