GET WIRED WITH AFW's SMOOTHLINE
suggests Chas Crosby

As well as using my normal lures I sometimes like to go fishing with smaller lures on one of the rivers that's quite close to where I live; it has a good head of chub and perch, mainly small and medium-sized ones, but one or two bigger specimens as well, here and there.

To get the best results on this particular river, I've found that I have to use quite small lures so that I don't spook the fish as the water's not very deep, maybe 4 or 5 feet, maybe a bit more in places, and it's often quite clear.

On this particular nice little river, I use small spinners, plugs and spinnerbaits that probably weigh less than 1/4 oz and some are less than that, and this is where I first ran into problems with my normal and otherwise OK 15 lb 7-strand trace wire being a tad too thick and heavy and not quite supple enough, and affecting the buoyancy and action of my small plugs such as 5 cm and 7 cm Rapalas etc.

Always use a Wire Trace
You can't avoid having to use a wire trace even if you are "sure" that there aren't any pike where you're fishing. I used to think like that but I've had a good few surprises from pike, and big ones too, that have just popped up out of nowhere and grabbed my perch or chub lure — you've probably experienced exactly the same things!

That's why I originally started to look around to try to find some alternative trace wire to go with my light lures and my main line braid of 10 to 12 lb. I found that I could almost get away with using my usual 15 lb Drennan 7-Strand but not quite as it still affects my small lures quite a bit.

Then I thought I would be clever and try carefully untwisting 2 strands of the 15 lb 7-Strand to make a thinner, lighter wire of about 10 lb — amazingly this worked very well but it was so fiddly that I gave up in the end.

As well as this neat little untwisting trick of mine, I also tried some other wires including some single strand ones but I just couldn't get on with them at all. Eventually I came across some new wire called AFW Smoothline that claimed to be "super-thin"; AFW stands for American Fishing Wire Company. It's about twice as expensive as normal Drennan 7-Strand but it sounded as though it was worth a try so I ordered a spool of 15 lb and I'm very pleased that I did ! It's not that it's that much thinner lb for lb of BS (see Table) but it does feel smooth and it's a lot more supple.

No need for swivels ?
Also, at about the same time I decided that I didn't really need the extra weight and visibility of two swivels when I'm fishing with small plugs and so I do without them both completely! Instead I use a Drennan ring at each end of my traces (something I read about in an article by Dave Smith & John Worzencraft ~ thanks guys!) and I use a split ring instead of a snap lock link to connect my little lures to the Drennan ring. This works brilliantly and my lures never ever come adrift with that split ring — you should try it!

Twist, Crimp or Knot.
With these American Fishing wires you can join them to your swivel, link or Drennan ring with a twist or a crimp whichever takes yours fancy and what's more, with the ones which have a large number of separate strands e.g. 49, you can actually knot the trace if you prefer.

Of course the crunch factor is which method is stronger, more flexible and longer-lasting in the rigours of prfequent casting and catching of lure fishing. Personally I prefer to use a belts-and-braces method with I like to think gives me the flexiblity of a twist couple to the strength of a crimp - I twist-up the trace and afterwards I use a mini-crimp, uncrimped, slid over the main wire and the tail-end of the trace, and fill it with waterproof SuperGlue.

I guess one way to tell and check which is the best method is to check them on a breaking strain machine after they've had the same amount of use. It's very difficult to get consistent results to start with though! Maybe I can persuade Nick's firm to do some proper checks for me?

Of course the key to the whole thing is this AFW Smoothline wire and to give you a better idea, a 10 metre spool of 15 lb costs about £4.25 and I measured its diameter with my little micrometer as 0.23 mm. This compares with about £4.65 for 20 m of normal 15 lb 7-Strand Drennan which has a measured diameter of 0.26 mm.

WIRE	Claimed Diameter	Measured Diameter	Cost per metre
Drennan 7-Strand 15 lb	0.24 mm	0.26 mm	0.23 p
AFW Smoothline 15 lb	0.21 mm	0.23 mm	0.43 p

Now I know that looking at the figures you might say that the Smoothline isn't actually a whole lot thinner than the Drennan but in fact it's more than 10% thinner and therefore proportionately lighter, and with small lures every little counts in my opinion. What's probably as important if not more important, is the fact that the Smoothline is more supple and has less affect on action and buoyancy . (By the way, the prices migth have altered a bit sign I wrote this article)

B.S. Tests
Naturally you also wonder whether these wires actually break at the poundage that they claim, especially the thinner ones. Well I haven't got access to any proper measuring equipment so I tried to get a very rough idea of the BSs of these two 15 lb wires using my weigh scale — of course, I know that it's not a very accurate method but I think it does give you a rough comparison.

I've read that you're supposed to do a test three times at least so this is what I did. Of course I had to fix the wire to my weigh scale somehow so I wound it round about 10 times and then twisted up the tail and did the same at the other end which I attached to my pulling pole! Suffice to say that the results were all over the place but at a guess I would say that the Smoothline did break below the Drennan but not by much and certainly not enough to worry me — after all I'm only looking for a wire of 10 or 12 lb. Once I did also try the 10 lb AFW Smoothline but it was too thin even for my liking so I'm sticking with the 15 lb wire.

AFW Smoothline for all small, and medium lures ?
In fact, I now use the 15 and 20 lb AFW Smoothline for all my small and medium weight lures of up to about 1.5 oz (45 gm) and generally it's been OK. Sometimes it does get pig-tailed or kinked up more quickly than my normal wire on some snaggy venues but it's easy enough to tie on a new trace.

As for the extra cost over and above my normal Drennan 7-Strand, I think that on balance it's well worth it just for the extra confidence it gives me that I'm catching more fish with my small lures because it's a tad thinner, a lot smoother and more supple, and has less effect on lure action and buoyancy.

Obviously for bigger lures on bigger venues I use a different, much heftier wire but for the rest of my lure fishing, I find that AFW Smoothline suits me just fine and it may suit you too, so why not try some? I think you'll be pleased!

Chas Crosby.

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