LINES for MY LURE FISHING
by
Mike "The Pipe"  Greenhalgh

I've got a "thing" about lines for my lure fishing — they're one of the most important parts of my tackle but I've found out to my annoyance and cost that they can be one of the most difficult things to get right; you'd think it'd be easy!

When I first started chucking spinners around I used the same Maxima nylon mono that I used for my deadbaiting. But after some very annoying break offs when I was lure fishing with Maxima, I wised up to Berkley's Trilene Big Game mono which did the biz for me for a good few years.

Then along came this Silver Thread AN40. It was a "copolymer" mono that was advertised as being specially designed for lure fishing so I thought I would give it a go. It was quite supple which helped a lot with casting and I used it quite happily for a couple of seasons.

I bought another spool of AN40 for the next season but right away I had two or three very annoying break offs with line off my new spool. I couldn't find out why. Someone said that it may have got weakened by uv light or the spool might have been "old before it was sold". I don't think I caused the problem myself because I check my line every trip and bin the first couple of feet or so when they start to look weary or get damaged. Anyway I was well hacked off with those break offs so I binned that AN40 and went back to my Berkley Big Game mono and SteelStrand wire.

Next up on the market came a new line called Corastrong sold by Cormoran. This was a braided line like the old Dacron and silk ones. People said that it was so tough you could use it for lure fishing without a trace, and like a complete twit, I believed them and bought some; it wasn't cheap either. After a couple of bite offs I quickly realised that it was naff instead of wire so I binned it and went back to my faithful Berkley Big Game mono and SteelStrand wire again.

Soon afterwards a mate of mine turned up with another braid called Spiderwire on his spool. It was something else - very thin, very expensive and supposed to be very strong. Being so expensive it was way out of my league but when Berkley came out with their own braid called Gorilla braid which was a whole lot cheaper, I went for it.

This Gorilla braid wasn't half what it was cracked up to be; it had some sort of coating which was supposed to help with casting but instead it just came off all over my rod rings, so this went into the bin too. By then I was getting pretty fed up with the break offs and problems not to mention the cost of all the different monos and braids I had tried for my lure fishing.

Then someone suggested I try FireLine. This was another type of braid called fusion but as it was from Berkley, I thought I'd give it just one more try. It was cheaper than Spiderwire but a lot more expensive than my usual Big Game mono.

I used FireLine fusion for about a season but it seemed to fray quite easily on snags and branches etc so I turned it round on my spool mid season but when the fresh end kept getting frayed, in the bin with the rest it went - I'd just about had enough of braid, fusion or what have you!

That Christmas I went to stay with my cousin in the States. We got talking about fishing and I was moaning about my unhappy experiences with braid and fusion lines when he showed me a spool of braid called Herculine from a company I'd never heard of called Sufix. He'd been using it for a while and was very happy with it. It looked good and in dollars it was fairly cheap too so I bought myself a couple of spools to bring back home with me.

I'm very grateful to my cousin because this was a turning point for me and my lines for lure fishing as far as braids were concerned! I've been fishing with Herculine ever since and was very pleased when at last it became available through Relum in the UK. Normally I use 30 lb Herculine and 30 lb wire for my home made traces.

Since being converted back to braids by Herculine I've tried several other braids: I treated myself to some Spiderwire which has to be the dogs whatsits and so it ought to be for the money. It's very thin for its strength and you have to watch it as far as getting frayed and rubbed over rough snags. It is the biz though. But I can't afford to use it for my everyday lure fishing. I tend to use it mainly when I'm fishing lightweight lures.

I've also tried out Whiplash (very good), Spectron (good), Ripcord Si (smooth), PowerCable (supple but thickish) and PowerPro. Probably PowerPro is my favourite when I'm fishing large lures, jerkbaits and so on, but as far as everyday braids go, good old Herculine is still my Number One All-round Line for Lure Fishing. In fact, though I never thought I'd hear myself saying it, I don't think I could go back to nylon monos now and I've heard a lot of other lure anglers say the same. Mike Greenhalgh.

Nick's Notes: Another fan of Herculine !

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