CORTLAND COUPLE:
SPECTRON® SuperBraid and
CAM-O-FLAGE™ SuperMono
reviewed by George Easton, Snr.

"Cortland's a big name in the States (where I come from!) that I reckon that we're all destined to hear a lot more about in the UK in the future — well-known for their top-drawer fly-lines, and now merged with Masterline UK, their range also includes some braids and monofil lines that you can't afford to ignore if you want to get the best from your fly and lure fishing"  says George Easton Snr., who, along with a few of his new-found English lure-fishing friends, myself included, has been trying-out a couple of Cortland's Superline offerings for lure anglers.

Cortland USA and Masterline UK
With all the writing and talk that there's been about braids and monos, I was very grateful to be given the chance to review a couple of samples Cortland's SuperLines for Nick and the guys because I've been using Spectron braid for a good while now and so I think I've got a got handle on it compared with some other braids that are available.

I'd fished on and off for about 40 years before I left the States and first came to the UK and although I also enjoy fly-fishing a lot, I must declare my true fishing colours as being mainly a fisherman for big predators and by that I mean big muskies, European pike, Walleye, zander and catfish — I fish for them with lures and baits.

For my fishing lines at one time like most Americans, I only used monos like Big Game, XT or just plain and simple Maxima but as soon as they were on the market in the USA, my friends out there and I all changed to braids because of their advantages: high tenacity, small diameters and very little elongation. OK, so I guess they do cost more, but they're usually worth it, I reckon. I guess I've been fishing in the UK now for over ten years and it's certainly taken a while for the UK to catch up with the USA for fishing braids.

Getting ready
If you're fairly new to braids you may be a bit nervous at first because of what you've read about them, but don't be — just take care to spool-up properly; don't fill your spool as high as you do with monos and if necessary, use some backing line to get the level right. Knots are crucial with braids so follow the manufacturer's instructions to the letter — most all of them recommend Grinner or Palomar knots — and wet them well while tying; most anglers do this as a matter of course anyway. Also set the drag on your reel a bit slacker than normal to allow for the fact that braids have very little elongation and to allow some slip to stop any big shock loads on your tackle.

Braids are fine with either a multiplier reel and baitcaster setup or fixed spool reel rig, whichever takes your fancy I use both, all the time, but for big lures you definitely need to go for a baitcaster setup.

SPECTRON SuperBraid
As I've already said, I've been using braids for a long time, including SpiderWire, Iron Thread and Spectron and several others, so last year I was very pleased to be able to compare Spectron with Cortland's Cam-O-flage monofil for Nick and all his surfing visitors.

Using this 15 lb B.S. superbraid which has a diameter of less than half of the 14 lb BS Cam-O-flage mono, casting is obviously very much easier and you'll notice right away that with the Spectron braid, you can feel almost everything that your lures are doing and when the fish strike.

Big Lures and JerkBaits
I've got to say that usually I fish with pretty big lures and jerkbaits so I normally use much much stronger BS lines, so I also gave some of this Spectron braid (and Cam-o-Flage mono) to to some of my English friends who fish with much smaller lures than me for them to check-out too — they agreed with me that these superbraids and their lower stretch than monos are essential for fishing with smaller lures too because they transmit everything back and forth along the line.

Using this 15 lb braid with what I would call small lures, we all caught plenty of fish from our various venues: pike, perch and chub mainly. I've also got to admit to cheating a bit by using my own 80 lb braid with my jerkbaits to get some idea of comparison on some larger waters — the 15 lb Spectron sure is quite delicate stuff compared with what I normally use but I guess it's just fine for small lures. If you fish big lures like me, go for much higher strength e.g. 50 or 80 lb BS

CAM-O-FLAGE SuperMono
To be completely fair and to get the best comparisons we could with the 15 lb Spectron, we all also used some 14 lb BS Cortland Cam-O-Flage mono with some medium weight lures. I'd not seen this Cortland SuperMono line in the UK before and I hadn't used it either, and so I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to get hold of over here, easier now, I guess, since Cortland merged with Masterline — by the way, Masterline also sell Cortland fly-lines and these just happen to be the ones that I'd been using for years back in the States.

OK, so apparently the reason why this mono is called Cam-O-flage is because it's made-up from a whole mixture of colours and, although it's not easy to judge just how effective this is without a few years of fishing with it, from what I could see when the water was clear enough, which wasn't often, it seems to blend in quite well, but what the fish can see, I don't know. I don't normally fish with lines this light but plenty of good-sized pike certainly took my lures while I was using this mono, with a trace of course. I found that it cast fairly easily but even better when I added some fly-line line lube to help which is something that I always do routinely these days but it was not nearly as good as Spectron braid.

Cortland Conclusions
I have to admit being a bit careful with my cash now that I'm on my pension, and I must say that initially, even with its obvious advantages, 300 yd of 15 lb. Spectron braid at over UK£25 seems to me to be quite high and I'm not very impressed with this compared with the equivalent price in dollars that I was paying in the States.

Cortland's Cam-O-flage SuperMono is also more expensive than my usual monos — for example, 375 yd of the 14 lb. BS costs around £8.50, maybe less if you're lucky. As to whether it's worth this extra, over and above what I normally pay, it's very hard for me to say — I'll let you know in due course when I've had a more chance to give it some extensive testing but none of us liked it as much as the Spectron braid for our lure fishing though — no surprises there!

And guys, you shouldn't forget that monos have the edge on braids when it comes to resistance to snags but whether you fish with big lures and jerkbaits, or small and medium lures, braids are something that you've just got to try or you'll be missing out big time ..... but keep a very close eye on the cost though, and always compare prices. Good fishing!
George Easton
with very many thanks to my friends and their
smaller lures (nothing personal, you understand !)
who helped me check-out these two lines.

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