About Fishing Line

In the Dorling Kindersley "Fishing Encyclopedia" (1994), all such lines were called by a single word, monofilament, but just 2 years later the no less authoritative "The Fishing Sourcebook" already mentioned two types: monofilament and copolymer lines. Today a third class has joined them, high-copolymer lines. These three types differ in chemical composition and manufacturing method. This is the classification used by manufacturers:

1. Monofilament - line made from polyamide, traditional nylon, with a certain strength and knot resistance and a high stretch coefficient. Elastic line lays well on the reel, so it is easier to cast with. It is used for spinners (they catch the air in flight) and for lures with low specific density, such as wobblers (they need to be "accelerated" on the cast). This line absorbs the fish's jerks, easing the load on the reel's mechanisms, but because of its softness it is prone to abrasion.
2. Copolymer - made from a blend of several different polyamides. The process of drawing the filament from this material has a whole range of technological features designed to protect the surface of the line (making it strong, including at the knot) and to give it specific qualities for use in particular fishing conditions. On the whole they are stiffer than monofilament lines. They are suitable for jig spinning. With these lines it is easier to set the hook, and they tangle less. Note that the stiffer the line, the more precisely it transmits every jerk, meaning the greater the load on the reel's mechanisms and the faster its service life will be used up. If the line is elastic, jerks are absorbed to some degree; if it has no stretch at all (like braided line, for example), you need to choose more reliable tackle.
3. High-copolymer. The production of these lines is an even more complex cycle aimed at improving strength, reliability and long-term retention of the original characteristics under various weather and operating conditions. To keep the terminology simple and to distinguish them from copolymer, we will use the name "high-polymer". As a rule, the various highly specialized lines belong to this class, because it is precisely the new technological processes that make it possible to give a line quite specific properties: the required refractive index or adhesion to water, the ability to sink quickly, not losing its qualities under prolonged exposure to sunlight, not icing up in winter, and so on.

Thus, each class has its own properties, which can become either an advantage if you took them into account when choosing, or a drawback if you did not pay attention to them when buying. The following characteristics are considered important: elasticity, breaking strength, diameter, memory (presence of residual deformation), resistance to external factors and sensitivity. It is usually hard to achieve the maximum in all respects at once, and you should think in advance about what you expect from the line. For example, to withstand external factors, the surface of the line is made tougher, but it becomes stiffer as a result; larger-diameter lines are less sensitive than thin ones; residual deformation in a line matters more when fishing with a reel than with a "fixed" rig, and so on.

The higher the quality of the line, the less you have to sacrifice some properties for others. If the filament is drawn quickly at the factory, focusing only on quantity, it turns out uneven in diameter (uncalibrated) and in internal stresses. Good line is drawn slowly, especially in diameters under 0.1mm. Such line, if it is of proper quality, can be quite expensive. Sometimes the level of a brand as a whole can be judged precisely by the quality of the thin line in its range, but remember that a number of manufacturers specialize in line for a specific purpose, so the absence of very small or, conversely, very large diameters in the range does not always reflect the manufacturer's rank. Line manufacturers are large companies producing fiber (cord threads), which is then used in many fields, from the textile industry to fishing. There are few such companies in the world, and they can afford expensive high-tech equipment that ensures the required composition of the raw material, however complex it may be, a quality monofilament drawing process, its processing, including dyeing and spooling, and quality control. Line production is a multi-stage process, and judging the quality and properties of the final product by the raw material alone is rash.

Many companies simply order line under their own brand from the manufacturer, but that is not bad at all, since in this case too the whole cycle is concentrated in one pair of reliable hands. A huge number of firms, including in Russia, buy line from the manufacturer on large bobbins and then wind it onto standard spools. There are many pitfalls here too: is it leftovers from the main production, what spooling machines are used (high-quality ones are very expensive), are they cutting corners on equipment for checking the quality of the finished product? That is why the phrase "line spooled at the manufacturer's plant" is a plus, guaranteeing that the entire production cycle was carried out on equipment of the same quality, and, as mentioned above, that quality is usually quite high.

The strength of a line is also affected by its colouring, and how much the strength drops depends on the colour (the trickiest one in this respect is black), which is why it is so important that the dyeing process is carried out in strict compliance with the rules, especially for multicoloured lines. At the same time, the strength of sections of different colours is practically the same. In general, the colour of a line is chosen according to the surroundings so as not to scare the fish off. But there are also special research programmes that study the spectrum of colours seen by particular species of fish. For example, the Americans found that zander see yellow better. As a rule, the authors of such studies are cautious both in their conclusions and in their recommendations, stating clearly under exactly what conditions the testing was done, but for anglers, ignoring publications like these would be short-sighted.

There are several ways to give a line the colours it needs. For example, the company Hi-Seas (USA) has the know-how to produce a multicoloured camouflage line. Four colours (blue, green, red and black) are added at the initial stage of raw material preparation, and not one after another but all at once. The Duality Polymer (TM) technology used for this does not produce the complete blending of all the colours into one that you would expect, but only a partial mixing. The result is a line with smoothly and continuously changing shades, where not one of the four original colours stands out clearly. Such a line blends into surroundings of ANY colour like a chameleon.

It is common knowledge that ultraviolet rays, as well as low temperatures, are bad for the properties of a line (it loses strength and elasticity), so manufacturers that have solved this problem by using special surface treatment technologies always point it out. If the surface of a line is smooth, it is less prone to abrasion and the current drags it less (since it has practically no grip on the water). A Teflon or similar coating is often used for this. With the arrival of all sorts of high-tech production processes, it has become possible to create highly specialised lines — for example, sinking ones. A line may sink simply because it has soaked up a lot of water. Nothing to be happy about — it loses a lot of its strength (up to 15 %). To create a quality sinking line, the surface is first made resistant to water, and only then are other methods used to make it sink. By the way, paying a high price just because a line sinks makes no sense. Originally all lines have a density comparable to that of water. When a line heavier than water appears, it is something the company takes pride in. More often, special compounds and coatings are used for this, which make the surface wettable, and so the line sinks. Over time the line loses this coating.

A characteristic such as the "memory" of a line matters when fishing with a reel, and especially with a light spinning rod and a small reel. The line comes off it in coils, and it needs to straighten out as quickly as possible, "forgetting" that it was wound up. This property is called low memory" or "no residual deformation" and is achieved mostly through the original chemical composition, but also through line treatment processes.

Proper spooling is done with the right tension, which lets the line be stored for a long time without losing its properties. Continuous winding from spool to spool lets you buy exactly the length you need, which matters when you need more than the standard 100 metres, and besides, it guarantees that the raw material was not leftover scraps from the main production. Of course, very expensive high-quality line may be sold in separate packs. The question of how much money you can spend on line is a pretty tricky one. But remember that line is a consumable that has to be changed regularly. So before shelling out a big sum, think about whether you will manage, and have the time, to make use of everything such a line can do.

It is worth thinking about what breaking strength you need. The urge to buy with a margin is understandable, but you need to take into account the recommendations given on the rod and the reel, and on top of that the conditions of real fishing. Let's say you have a rod about 3 m long. You hold it roughly half a metre from the butt. Now let's recall the rule of the lever: for such a line to break, a load of 18.5 kg has to be applied to the rod tip. It is easy to work out that then, at the point where you hold the rod in your hands, you would have to hold more than 100 kg. Your hands will absorb the shock much sooner, and the reel's drag will kick in. On the other hand, in the water it is much easier than on land to handle a weight of even 70 kg. So such a line (given that its price is quite reasonable) is enough.

You often come across lines whose stated and real characteristics do not match. As for lines certified for competitions, here is a warning from Mike Leech: "Your line must break below, but never above, the test stated on the label. So for sport lines it is customary to state a breaking strength slightly above the real one, protecting the angler from trouble when the line is checked after the competition, when even a slightly higher (than stated) breaking strength means the trophy is not counted." And this raises the question of what matters more: the real diameter matching the one on the spool, or the real and stated breaking strengths matching. Experienced anglers believe that for thin lines matching diameters matter more. If the real diameter turns out to be bigger, it can affect your casting, and a wary fish will immediately notice the fraction-of-a-millimetre difference that your eye missed at the shop when you trusted the label. A small discrepancy in breaking strength, on the other hand, can be made up for with skill when playing the fish.

How do you check a fishing line? To find out how soft it is, you can lay it on a sheet of glass: if it lies perfectly flat, it's soft. Pinch the line between your fingers and pull about a meter of it through with force - if it curls into a spiral, it has a high residual deformation. The diameter can only be checked with a micrometer. And a breaking test is best done on a length of at least 1 m. Manufacturers don't rely on feel for quality control. The highest-quality lines are made on production lines designed in advance not only for each type and diameter but also for a specific set of characteristics, meaning the same machine is never recalibrated for different lines, and so errors and inaccuracies are ruled out.