Best Modern Low-Stretch Copolymer / Mono (Life After Defier Armilo)

[MN Fisher]

15 minutes ago, rangerjockey said:

Would anyone fish flouro on a crank bait rod if money were on the line ? I've been doing it for 10 years or so.

I use Invisx or Tatsu 12 and 10 lb.

 

YZH on crank rigs for me...been doing it for years.

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

Would anyone fish flouro on a crank bait rod if money were on the line ? I've been doing it for 10 years or so.

I use Invisx or Tatsu 12 and 10 lb.

 

Another thing taken out of context

 

 i said "Just think, would the masses want to fish treble hooked crankbaits all day if money was on the line with fluoro?"

 

You would prefer fluoro, i would prefer hybrid. The masses would and do prefer mono.

[Mike L]

Sure!

I use Sniper or Shooter for everything except 3 braid presentations. 
I don’t use co poly and won’t use mono

 

 

Mike

[FishTank]

45 minutes ago, rangerjockey said:

Would anyone fish flouro on a crank bait rod if money were on the line ? I've been doing it for 10 years or so.

I use Invisx or Tatsu 12 and 10 lb.

 

 

I have gone from mono to FC for cranks like everyone one else I know.  I have caught several big ones on 5 and 6lb. And countless 4 to 5lb largemouth on 10 and 12lb FC.

 

I've tried several over the years and I like Tatsu and Sunline Invisible the best. I caught a 25+ blue catfish on 12lb Invisible last year.

[FryDog62]

19 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Seems just one for all lines...and I was mistaken...YZH came in 2nd behind Trilene XT

@FryDog62 - Chris, you want to chime in here?

 

Yes, your recall is correct… Fluoro stretches a little less initially, especially on the hook set. That’s its advantage in terms of a stretch test. Mono stretches about the same or a little less - until it gets wet, then it absorbs water and stretches more. I soaked the mono samples overnight and they stretched a lot more… an advantage to have some additional shock absorption when fighting fish near the boat. 

 

Overall, YZH and XT stretched the least. My guess is they don’t absorb water because Yo-Zuri is half-blended with fluorocarbon, and I believe XT’s exterior coating. 
 

FWIW, I use a fair amount of fluorocarbon today (much more than in the old days when I was biased against it) because of uniform sink rate, less stretch on the initial hook set, and no leader knots to fail or slow you down tying. However, when I do use braid to leader, I use a lot of YZH and Trilene XT as leader material. They are tough, abrasion-proof lines. 

[Hulkster]

I know its not 'low stretch' but Sufix Siege is the best mono I have ever used. Its limp enough to cast great on spinning gear yet tough and strong too.

 

Its the only tough line I've ever used that works very well on spinning gear as well as standard baitcasting gear. 

[MN Fisher]

38 minutes ago, Hulkster said:

but Sufix Siege is the best mono I have ever used

If I use a mono for either mainline or leader - it's going to be Siege.

[woolleyfooley]

23 hours ago, MediumMouthBass said:

Monofilament has alot of stretch, not great for setting hooks when the line is out far, not much sensitivity either. Nor does it have good abrasion resistance. (also has a severe issue with line memory, although removing the spool with the fresh mono on it and soaking it in hot water will fix this most times, however after awhile it starts to get bad again deeper in the spool.

 

Fluorocarbon is very stiff and has some stretch or none of it depending on brand/series of line of course, its more sensitive and does better at setting the hook at distance (although braid would be the best for this). Usually has better abrasion resistance than mono, but gets sliced right through by pickerel, and doesnt hold up to rocks and zebra mussels as well as fluoro in the 20-40lb + range (again this is brand dependent). But everything budget friendly is junk, even some of the "good" stuff that costs $20 to spool 1 reel usually has some bad reviews too.

Some people have 0 issues with fluoro, where others its a nightmare and a mess if not treated properly. It also can be more prone to breaking (again depending on which brand).

 

Hybrid takes the best of both and combines it, while negating most of the issues that each type of line has at the same time. Just enough stretch to catch fish on moving baits (especially treble hooked ones), but enough stiffness and sensitivity to fish Texas rigs and jigs on the bottom.

YZH for me atleast has the best abrasion resistance ive ever used in all types of line, i fish many places with rocks and chain pickerel too. One place even has zebra mussels, which are known to destroy line.

 

It barely ever breaks either. Like when you are stuck in rocks and wood and are unable to retrieve the lure and have to pull on it to either get the lure unstuck or break the line. With mono/fluoro the line would often break within the first few tries and the lure would be gone. Hybrid is a tough line, im usually trying to pull the lure out for a few to 10 minutes (but im usually using 10lb +). It does break, but it takes alot more stress and time. More than often though i get the lure back still tied on, cant say the same with the other lines....

 

Plus if you tie the line somewhat not right the line can be what some guys call a burn? And the line gets very weak in that spot and will usually break very easily.

 

And it handles the elements and time very good, i would change my spools out yearly with mono, or twice a year with fluoro. I just changed the YZH out on a few reels this year after 1-3 years of use, being left out in a hot car most of the year, or in the cold garage the rest. And they had a ton of UV exposure as well.

They were still 100% functional, but from fishing the river they were very discolored, hence the new line being put on them.

 

For everything i mentioned, and the cost of $11 for 600 yards (which is usually $5.5 when i buy it on sale i just cant beat it.

 

Thank you for the detailed reply. So do hybrid lines float like mono? Or sink like FC?

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, woolleyfooley said:

Thank you for the detailed reply. So do hybrid lines float like mono? Or sink like FC?

I don't know about the other 'hybrid' lines - most of them are just a core of mono with a FC coating, so should be termed 'coated line' - but in my experience, YZH seems to be neutrally buoyant.

[rangerjockey]

15 hours ago, MediumMouthBass said:

Another thing taken out of context

 

 i said "Just think, would the masses want to fish treble hooked crankbaits all day if money was on the line with fluoro?"

 

You would prefer fluoro, i would prefer hybrid. The masses would and do prefer mono.

Do you have any data to support that last statement about mono ? I don't know anyone who fishes mono on crankbaits anymore , and I fish once in a while.

I've fished YZH, Maxima,CXX, Mean green and on and on. Other than cost I see no advantage over flouro. 

If you want the the maximum depth out of a diving bait ,any line with a larger diameter and that floats ain't the answer.

[LrgmouthShad]

Invisx is great cranking line

[The Baron]

I'm a fan of the copoly lines, for both price and performance.  A big part of "performance" for me is manageability and low memory.  I do run some fluoro, having most recently been using FC Sniper and that's been working well for me.  I've not tried Seaguar Invizx or Tatsu.

 

For copoly, I've been using Suffix Advance and Berkley Fluoroshield both with good results.  I was going to try some YZH when I was looking for heavier line (15# and 20#) for glidebaits, but the fella at the local bass specialty shop suggested Fluoroshield and I've been happy with it.

[king fisher]

When I'm not using Braid, or Fluorocarbon, I prefer Maxima Ultragreen, and if I could only use one line it would be Ultragreen.  Luckily I'm not limited to one line, and use many different lines for many different techniques, and species of fish.  

[Catt]

Well! Y'all know my opinion!

Berkley Big Game 15#

 

I tried every line mentioned above & none has the abrasion resistance or shock absorption of Big Game. I have zero issues feeling bites on long cast on deep water structure. I have zero issues getting solid hook penetration even with jigs.

 

If it ain't braid you will have issues with memory, I've found the less you fish the worse memory gets. 

 

I really liked Maxima Chameleon or Ultragreen, problem was availability. MacCoy Mean Green would be next.

[MediumMouthBass]

8 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

Do you have any data to support that last statement about mono ? I don't know anyone who fishes mono on crankbaits anymore , and I fish once in a while.

 

You want a 30 page spreadsheet? And me open a call center and ask 50,000 people to do a survey?

 

Youtube, reddit, and on here even its whats always recommended for beginners to casting reels.

(And most people stick with what they know, kind of like the post i made a week or two ago about using different brand reels, majority of guys said they stick with the the brand they started with or whats treated them good with no reason to switch or change).

The majority of Americans using mono seems pretty much common sense, its what everyones been using for decades when the only other option was junk fluoro (which for many people left a bad taste) and if they had family that fished mono is what they more than likely grew up with (again back to using what you know). And its dirt cheap, most people arent blowing their paychecks on fishing gear like we are. Most people walk into a tackle shop and spend $6-12 on a spool of line that has around 500-1000 yards, who in their right mind would pay $20-30 for a couple hundred yards that may only do 1-2 reels of fluoro sitting next to that?

 

And then pair that with all the negative and very bad PR fluoro has, theres many more people than just me on here that hate fluorocarbon. Some people do check forums and reviews and see that.

 

Most people (the majority of bass fisherman) arent on here, nor on other forums. They dont have 30 different rods and reels, 50 3700 trays full of all the newest and greatest baits. We are the minority. And for the guys that do, do some further research or whatever you want to call it on learning about bass fishing. That go on youtube or other places, the most commonly talked about line for moving baits is monofilament. Seems pretty cut and dry to me that if its whats recommended the most and is the cheapest it would be used alot. Why would i argue with you about this if i hate mono? (and i really dislike mono almost as much as fluoro) Because its common sense.

 

And to add, id bet $5 that everybody who fishes locally that doesnt have a boat over $15k or more than $2-5k in rods and reels (if i had to guess id say thats about 70% of the people i share the lakes with) uses either #1 Big Game, #2 Suffix, #3 Trilene for everything. Ive seen many guys fishing with mono for Texas rigs and jigs even. The guys that do use fluoro mainly use Vanish, because its around $10 a spool. Which adds even more fuel to the fire, because that line will once more leave a bad taste for fluoro going forward.

[Mobasser]

I need a light line for clear water. I like 6 lb P Line CX. It's strong, and handles good. I liked YZH initially, but even in four pound it was wiry, and developed memory faster on size 2000 spin reels. So for now, I'm in with P Line.                         On my casting reels, I'm using Big Game. It's worked well for a long time.

[rangerjockey]

41 minutes ago, MediumMouthBass said:

You want a 30 page spreadsheet? And me open a call center and ask 50,000 people to do a survey?

 

Youtube, reddit, and on here even its whats always recommended for beginners to casting reels.

(And most people stick with what they know, kind of like the post i made a week or two ago about using different brand reels, majority of guys said they stick with the the brand they started with or whats treated them good with no reason to switch or change).

The majority of Americans using mono seems pretty much common sense, its what everyones been using for decades when the only other option was junk fluoro (which for many people left a bad taste) and if they had family that fished mono is what they more than likely grew up with (again back to using what you know). And its dirt cheap, most people arent blowing their paychecks on fishing gear like we are. Most people walk into a tackle shop and spend $6-12 on a spool of line that has around 500-1000 yards, who in their right mind would pay $20-30 for a couple hundred yards that may only do 1-2 reels of fluoro sitting next to that?

 

And then pair that with all the negative and very bad PR fluoro has, theres many more people than just me on here that hate fluorocarbon. Some people do check forums and reviews and see that.

 

Most people (the majority of bass fisherman) arent on here, nor on other forums. They dont have 30 different rods and reels, 50 3700 trays full of all the newest and greatest baits. We are the minority. And for the guys that do, do some further research or whatever you want to call it on learning about bass fishing. That go on youtube or other places, the most commonly talked about line for moving baits is monofilament. Seems pretty cut and dry to me that if its whats recommended the most and is the cheapest it would be used alot. Why would i argue with you about this if i hate mono? (and i really dislike mono almost as much as fluoro) Because its common sense.

 

And to add, id bet $5 that everybody who fishes locally that doesnt have a boat over $15k or more than $2-5k in rods and reels (if i had to guess id say thats about 70% of the people i share the lakes with) uses either #1 Big Game, #2 Suffix, #3 Trilene for everything. Ive seen many guys fishing with mono for Texas rigs and jigs even. The guys that do use fluoro mainly use Vanish, because its around $10 a spool. Which adds even more fuel to the fire, because that line will once more leave a bad taste for fluoro going forward.

I don't know about about the 15k in a boat part those kayak guys are pretty serious. 

Writing 5 paragraphs about something doesn't make you right. or the guy on Reddit or wherever 

you get your knowledge besides time on the water.

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

Writing 5 paragraphs about something doesn't make you right. or the guy on Reddit or wherever 

 

I could care less about being right, its literally common sense man.

And again, i have no skin in the game. I have a hatred for mono.

 

Look it up on google. Mono is the most sold fishing line there is.

 

But im sure you cult following fluoro lovers will say thats still not true. Gooday sir.

[BassKat]

I'm the OP and it's appropriate fluorocarbon is included in the feedback. For me, because I do not fish clear water, FC visibility advantages are moot, especially when it may be prudent to upsize FC's diameter to compensate for FC's knot-strength issues. Then, because of tests that have been performed by TT and others, it appears the line-stretch of average FCs versus copolys is not a clear advantage, especially when the deformity (lack of copoly-like rebound) that plagues FC is baked in. From a sensitivity perspective, because FC does stretch, I deduce that it's sensitivity advantages may come mostly from its "stiffness" versus copoly. To me, that's an expensive trade off because line manageability leads to casting accuracy. If I can consistently hit limb-trunk intersections and other precise targets with a better casting line and am getting more bites even though I may be missing a few extremely light bites, am I really better off with the stiffer line? This relates to the art of fishing a bit for me. A big plus for FC for me may be abrasion resistance. Most, important of all for me is price. Based on my studies of FC lines, I tried and really like Tatsu and I think that would be my choice of FC, but I just cannot afford Tatsu. I use Sniper on my jig rod and do like it. The more I've tried FC versus copolys, the more I've realized I need to heavily investigate the very best affordable copoly available due to my outlook on these variables. For me, it is all about finding the copoly that gives me the lowest stretch and very best abrasion resistance without too negatively impacting my accuracy due to its stiffness level. 

[FishTank]

I took a deep look at the mono I was fishing a few years back as I got tired of spending time respooling, loosing baits/fish, and pulling line off that was damaged to retie. I fish weekend tournaments 7 months out of the year. I fish a total of 9 months out of the year. I also kayak fish during the week and off weekends. All told, I might fish 20+ hours a week. I also have 4 weeks of vacation and 7 fishable paid holidays. Usually, I spend 2-3 total weeks of that time fishing everyday for about 6 hours.  Needless to say, I have had the opportunity go through a lot of line. 

 

Here is some simple math for me when it comes to mono vs fluorocarbon.......

 

This is just one example of two lines I like and use.....  

I was going through Sufix Seige $4 per reel per month. I would have to retie it on the water often so I was missing casts. I would spend about 15min per reel to respool once a month which drove me nuts.  So, I was spending $28-$36 a year per reel. 

 

Go to the opposite extreme.... Seaguar Tatsu. It can run, at retail, up to $50 for 200 yards (crazy right) but I will never pay that. I always buy it on sale or find some kind of deal. I am usually around $35-$40 a spool. With Tatsu, I have reels that have had it on there for 4 years and it's still good. No lost time respooling, no wasted time on the water cutting line to retie, less lost lures and little to no break offs.  So at $40 per spool ($20 for per reel with backing) and let's say, I average 2 years per spool (not 4 years) that's  $10 a year per reel.

 

I don't believe most people fish the same way I do and might not have the same results I did with line but when you add the money up for me, most fluorocarbon is cheaper in the long run than mono. 

[MN Fisher]

11 minutes ago, FishTank said:

I don't believe most people fish the same way I do and might not have the same results I did with line but when you add the money up for me, most fluorocarbon is cheaper in the long run than mono. 

I swap out the YZH on my rigs about once every three years. Since I only put 65-70yds on top of the backing, a 600yd spool will give me 8 re-spools. So $11 into 24 years is $0.46 a year per reel that I use it on.

[Mike L]

Gentlemen 

I came close to closing this thread but didn’t for now as there is good information that can be helpful for folks who want to learn and hear about others experiences. 

That said, back off on the veiled criticism of others. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

[BassKat]

Thanks, FishTank, that's an absolutely relevant additional factor. However, I very regularly fish incoming storms and throw baitcasters in sustained 30-35+mph winds with even higher gusts. This leads to a good number of overuns and I lose confidence in fluorocarbon afterward. I also opt for bank fishing in storms which leads to losing a lot of lures and line. Even if I'm in a boat, I fearlessly fish structure so there's a constant loss of some amount of line going on. 

[FishTank]

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I swap out the YZH on my rigs about once every three years. Since I only put 65-70yds on top of the backing, a 600yd spool will give me 8 re-spools. So $11 into 24 years is $0.46 a year per reel that I use it on.

I use to use Hybrid. Road Warrior got me started on it years ago. It never lasted more than year for me but all in all, it was good line. I always liked the gray color they use to have. 

 

Looking back, I did buy a bunch of it in one purchase and it was all bad. I have not gone back to it since but that was year ago.  I would guess it has probably changed over the years.  I have since moved on to other lines l like better. 

[Catt]

16 minutes ago, FishTank said:

No lost time respooling, no wasted time on the water cutting line to retie,

 

So you never retie Flourcarbon?

 

After 4 years of normal retieing hooks or lures you still have a full spool?

 

Interesting 😉