Relum's Sufix HERCULINE BRAID
reviewed by John Worzencraft

With their suppleness, high strength, low diameter and low stretch, braided main lines based on Dyneema® and Spectra® high performance polyethylene (polythene) micro-filaments are a natural choice for lure-anglers. Based on Spectra® HPPE, the renowned SpiderWire braid was one of the original, and is still one of the best braided lines on the market, but with a price tag to match !

The arrival of Sufix's Dyneema®-based Herculine braid, marketed in the UK by Relum, created a lot of interest because of its similar performance to SpiderWire but at a much lower price ! Here's what lure enthusiast John Worzencraft has to say about Herculine braid:-

I've been an enthusiastic and very satisfied user of Herculine braid ever since it first became available in the States and then, later on, in the UK. While I personally tend to use other lines for large lures, jerkbaits and for sink & draw, I think that Herculine braid is excellent for medium and lightweight lures.

It also offers very good value-for-money — for example, a 100 metre spool of 30 lb BS costs about £11 and what's more, the measured ( not "claimed" ) diameter of 30 lb Herculine is only 0.35 mm which means that, with a bit of line lube (see below), you can cast a very wide range of lure weights, a good distance and with improved accuracy and presentation, assuming of course that you've got a suitably matched and balanced rod & reel set-up.

Bouquets at Both Ends of the Scale
Probably the biggest advantage of these HPPE braids is that you don't have to sacrifice strength for diameter and visibility to predators, and just as important, this also means that you lose fewer lures. For jerkbaits and other mega-plugs, you can use 80 and 100 lb BS braid with its diameter being much of a problem at all, certainly when you compare it with a normal nylon monofil of the same BS.

At the other end of the BS scale, with braids like Herculine with a BS of 15 or 20 lb (with their ultra-low diameter, there's no real need to go much lower!), you can cast lures of much smaller size and lower weights than would otherwise be possible with a mono of comparable BS.

I must say that I very much enjoy the ability to occasionally fish with lightweight lures, thanks to Herculine, SpiderWire, Whiplash and similar Spectra™ and Dyneema™ braids, several of which, by the way, other lure anglers have reviewed here on Nick's web-site. In fact I would go so far as to say that HPPE braids have probably been to lines what carbon fibre has been to rod technology .... and cost too, unfortunately.

Good All-round Braid
Something like 50 lb BS Herculine is a good all-round braid especially if you're new to lure angling or fishing new, un-charted venues where you never quite know what you're going to encounter, fish~wise or snag~wise, and even at that Breaking Stress, its diameter is still only 0.6 mm !

And as I've said, for certain venues that demand smaller lures, you can safely drop down to 30 lb BS without significantly increasing any risks, especially if you're an experienced angler and have got your reel's drag set on the loose side.

Brickbats
With all low-stretch braids such as Herculine, it's advisable to set you drag properly, very carefully and on the slack side because there's always the danger of very high transient shock-loads being transmitted to your tackle, sometimes sufficiently high enough to break your rod, if you lure comes to a sudden halt, for example in a snag — these HPPE braids are very unforgiving in situations like that!

Also, the green pigmentation added to braided HPPE filaments soon wears-off to reveal the white fibres and if this bothers you, you can easily restore its colour to whatever you want, be it black, green, blue or brown — I use those special line-marking pens and I usually use black.

With Herculine, as with all low-diameter braids, you have to keep in mind that, despite some patently false marketing claims to the contrary, these HPPE braids don't have the same degree of abrasion resistance as a modern 3rd or 4th generation nylon or copolymer monofils of comparable BS.

Knots are Critical
Knots are very critical with these braids! If you stick with the one(s) recommended by the manufacturer then you won't have any problem.

For example, Sufix recommend the Palomar knot while others recommend the Grinner — both are very good for braids, so long as you tie the knot very carefully and lubricate it before you pull it tight. I also like to finish-off my knots with a drop of high-viscosity waterproof SuperGlue. None of these things is a particular problem with braids as long as you are aware of their few shortcomings and brickbats, which I reckon are far, far out-weighed by all their advantages.

Lubrication!
For quite a few years I've been using (and recommending) line lubricants for braids! These are normally used with monofils but I find that they're also very effective at increasing casting distance when you're using braid and light lures — fortunately Relum, suppliers of Sufix Herculine, also market the excellent (in my opinion) Rod Hutchinson line lubricant appropriately called Slick Horizon which very much lives up to its name.

Big Advantages
Because of their low diameter and high strength, the big advantages of Dyneema™ braids such as Relum Sufix Herculine are that they enable you to cast a much wider range of lure weights, much greater distances with increased accuracy and presentation, and as I've just said, you can increase this even more with a liberal soaking of line lubricant. Enjoy your fishing!  John Worzencraft.

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