Home | Lines
Lines
My latest line! believed to be reliable, efficient and cost effective
Fireline Stealth
Camo
Braid
in 125yd spool of 20lb (9.1kg) strength. Review to follow after
using it for a while!
A favourite
Utility for Calculating Line Capacity courtesy of
Jon Furman.
Thanks to J.Norre , the original contributer of this most useful
freeware
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Lines are often the
most neglected aspects of a fisherman's tackle. They "seem" to frequently
cost "relatively more" than the other equipment such as rods, reels
etc because they have a much shorter shelf life than other items just
mentioned. Some of us still own and fish with equipment that is 20/40 years
old, in fact not as a matter of necessity, rather more due to the sense of
pleasure and pride one gets from using old reliable unbeatable gear. Today
the business motive is not focussed as it was in the 50/80's on quality at
any cost. Today we live universally in the throw-away world where materials
used in the mass market items are inferior to that used in earlier times.
Consider the cheapest entry level reels from the 40's on, they are still
quality devices.
Even starting from the more primitive attempts at
fishing before rods and reels were de rigour, the hand spun natural
materials of hunter-gatherer societies and the cat gut of our grandparents
generation, did wear out and had to be cared for to make it last.
In the last 50 years or so normal monofil lines
however, irrespective of cost, either then or now, were meant to be replaced
because they did wear out. Let us not even consider the cost of
sophisticated braids and gel spun lines for the moment.
Lines are exposed to harsh environments such heat
and cold, dust, salt, corrosive or less then perfect Ph waters, rough
abrasive surfaces of sand and rock, twisted and stretched incredibly (we
hope) and frequently stored in a tightened state in less than suitable
circumstances.
Fly lines
once again due to their relative high costs are more likely to be treated
with a little more care and concern and may even experience the privilege of
being rewound and stored more gently. Much more care needs to be exercised
with
matching the fly line type and also
choice and purchase of lines due to
line weight specification
needed for a particular rod as it is the line that takes the fly on its
journey to the mouth of a hungry fish rather the heavier lure used
with casting and spinning rods.
Knots are a subject of many books but general fishermen tend
to have their favourite few such as the blood knot and fly fishermen their
own again. With the invent of the new finer, stronger lines, we all had to
adapt in order to take advantage of their attributes. Even manufacturers had
to adapt the hardware with tougher coating to avoid wear from these tough
new lines.
ABU fishing lines such as Abulon I have had very little to do with ; I guess primarily
because it was not available or actively marketed where I lived
in rural Australia. Anyone very knowledgeable on this subject
and who wishes to contribute and document this aspect of ABU
for the website, I would greatly appreciate.
