Tatsu is actually pretty great...

[bwjay]

I got some 15lb Tatsu FC on sale over Black Friday which is the only reason I bought it. It's dang expensive. My main plan for it was to use for football and flipping/pitching jigs, though obviously I would use it for other things but that was my intention. My previous history with FC as a mainline was 14lb Sniper which blew up on the 10th cast and I had to cut over half the spool off, so I was still pretty hesitant to try FC as a mainline again. (Trying 12lb Assassin right now and it's behaving, just not as tooth resistant as I'd hope!)

 

I spooled up the Tatsu on my Bantam HG last month and started using it recently. I was not impressed by the amount of memory in the line; quite a bit of coiling right off the spool. It didn't cast great either, and it took me a while to dial in my reel to avoid backlashes/overruns at all costs, which meant less casting distance of course. After I got it dialed in, though, I was able to start backing off the spool tension a little, keeping braking on the higher side. Then I took it out for Memorial Day weekend and ended up throwing jerkbaits on it the entire time. I would have used 12lb Assassin from my other combo, but I didn't have that rod with me.

 

The Rerange 110 casts like a dream with it, and you know what? All that memory works itself out within the first 10-15 mins of fishing, and the line actually becomes fairly limp. I was surprised at just how pleasing it became to fish with straight fluoro. Working a jerkbait was no problem with no guide wraps to speak of (except 1 or 2 in maybe 10 hours of jerkbait fishing). I found that the line has just the right amount of stretch and pairs nicely with with my Helium3 (6'9MHXF) which I THOUGHT was too soft of a rod for jerkbaits (how wrong I was!).

 

I didn't observe much memory/coiling causing the jerkbait to move when I paused it, and the Rerange suspends basically perfectly with it. I did also nut up and finally threw my precious Vision 110 (risky biz in pike territory) and though it didn't get as deep as the Rerange, I caught 3 species in 5-10 mins on it. It was a dreamy setup if I'm being honest. I haven't used jerkbaits before due to being limited to the bank, but now I am love with them.

 

I'm officially sold on Tatsu. Once the coils work themselves out, it becomes very well behaved. Even though 15lb line is a bit heavy for jerkbaits, it worked great and gave me some extra confidence that I MIGHT not get bit off by a pike. I will likely still use the 15lb Tatsu for jerkbaits in the future because of how well it performed.

 

Two thumbs up for this truly premium fluorocarbon. 

[dodgeguy]

a lot of lines do that. when first spooled they stink but as they get used to being on your reel they handle better.

[Teal]

Pretty good review.   Nice job

[roadwarrior]

[Fishingmickey]

I am a Tatsu fan also. I love the 15# for spinner baits and chatterbaits. I find that Seagar Invisx is another fine fluorocarbon too. 

FM

[Tywithay]

It's far and away my favorite line for spinning reels in 6 or 8. All told the price isn't too bad because it'll last a few seasons.