Truly high abrasion-resistant
MONOFILAMENT LINES
— nylon, co-polymer, tri-polymer & hybrid —

Brian Barwell & Mark Essex
help you Pick a Piece from the Pie-chart
of the Planet's Premium Monofilaments

INTRODUCTION
Despite the tidal wave of multi-filament braided lines mostly based on Spectra or Dyneema HPPE (high performance/pressure polyethylene) that has swept the lure fishing arena over the last few years, some lure anglers still prefer to use a tough, abrasion resistant monofilament for their lure fishing; and by monofilament, we mean exactly that — many anglers and writers incorrectly use the word mono or monofilament to mean nylon monofilament only, when there are, of course, many other co-polymer, tri-polymer and hybrid monos available.

That said, these mono-line lure-anglers are surely in the minority, some using fixed-spool reels and others using multipliers. In my opinion, it is also a tad questionable whether, when you're lure-fishing, you really need truly high abrasion resistant lines such as those needed when fishing for carp or pike with baits at long range over gravel bars and beds of swan mussels.

But on the principle that fish~welfare comes first and that it's far better to be safe than sorry, we've been looking at some such monos with truly high abrasion resistance, and it'll come as no surprise that we turned to the high-AR speciality monos that are now viewed as essential in safe specimen carp and other demanding forms of fishing, though not specifically lure-fishing.

It should also be said, indeed emphasised, that high-AR is only one of the many factors to consider when choosing & buying a top-drawer mono; cost, wet knot strength, tenacity (breaking strength/diameter), wet castability, low temperature suppleness, memory, colour, elongation under strain (stretch)and dynamic shock-load resistance, are most of the main ones — but here we'll be concentrating solely on truly high abrasion-resistance.

We'll also be focussing on nylon, co-polymer, tri-polymer and hybrid monos, rather than pure fluorocarbon ones, because they're the subject of a separate Article in the Tackle Test Section.

CHOOSING HIGH-AR MONOS
There was a time, not that long ago, when the many misleading claims and marketing hype about alleged high-AR monos muddied the water so much that it was just about impossible to sort-out the facts from the fiction & the fibs.

Nowadays, under pressure from Trading Standards Officers, and responsible Trade Organisations such as EFFTA, many fishing line marketing companies have had their lines and claims tested, some by themselves, some by their manufacturers, or even better, by independent internationally-accredited laboratories.

Of course the actual performance of the line in-use in the field is what matters most, but to get fair and meaningful back-to-back comparisons, properly-conducted statistically-significant lab tests are vital in supplying facts to help form a true and more complete picture of the performance parameters of a fishing line.

That said, I'm very much indebted to Mark Combat, an experienced carper and all-round angler, for allowing me to include his recommendations for truly high-AR monos, based not only on his years of fishing (including specimen carp to nearly 40 lb) and much experience of the rigours of sea-fishing, but also on years of working in a tackle-shop ..... and believe me, they're the guys who really know what's what: what's works, what doesn't, what people like and buy, and what they complain about!

It would almost be true to say that, as with the HPPE braids of a few years ago, there's been an equally large tidal wave of claimed high-AR monos hitting the market, mainly aimed at specimen carpers and bait-fishing pikers.

It is true to say that, irrespective of which polymer(s) are used in their extrusion, be they monofilament or multi-filament braided lines, when it comes to truly high abrasion resistance there's no substitute for a good meaty diameter, and this is why the high tenacity, high strength, but low diameter HPPE super-braids, for example, are far less abrasion resistant than their monofilament counterparts, BS for BS, despite what product claims and marketing hype to the contrary you may have read!

Of course, you can always chose the option of selecting your line by diameter and not BS, thus achieving as huge increase in BS, for the same diameter, and while maintaining fairly-good abrasion resistance. But for those anglers preferring truly high-AR monos, they need look no further than modern high-AR specimen carp and other high performance monos.

Furthermore, as well as local tackle-shops usually having a good range of lines, with mail-order and the advent of the Internet and on-line ordering, it's now possible to get just about any line you want from just about anywhere in the world.

TRULY HIGH-AR MONOS
Line-choise is a very personal thing and although we'll be talking about our own personal favourites later-on, what we're mainly trying to do in this article is to give you a very good idea of what's available in the world angling arena as far as truly high abrasion resistant monos are concerned.

Personal preferences based solely on personal, empircal, fishing findings are all very well and for many anglers, are what count for most, at the end of the day, but such a trial-and-error process can be costly, dangerous to fish, fisheries and other wild-life — we think, from bitter experience too, that the best choices are made by also using results from proper, back-to-back, statistically significant, professional, scientific lab tests ... rubbing one piece of line over a dry rusty nail, a house-brick or the edge of table, tells you virtually nothing!.

We are lucky-enough to have exclusive access to just such professional, scientific results from the Laboratories of the Editor's Company, and have combined these with the many other AR-test data that are in the public domain.

Combining all these results gives us, and you, what we believe is one of the most comprehensive and authoritative assessments of premium high-AR monos, and we acknowledge with thanks the providers of these data and their permission to share them with you.

We should also say that although here we are primarily talking about high-AR monos for freshwater fishing, we have also included and evaluated some of the best high-AR monos that have been developed for the rigours of sea-fishing applications.

Mark & I have been specimen fishing for many years, and only in the last decade or so have I also turned my hand to lure-fishing. Over this perios, as you can imagine, like you, we have tried-out a vast array of lines, line being probably the most important element in fishing tackle together with good knots and sharp, strong hooks.

MY PERSONAL PREFERENCES
So I'll be the first to nail my colours to the high-AR monofilament mast ! I have to say straight-away that, although my current favourites may not be of the very latest generation of premium monos (many of which I have also tried), they are still serving me well and are also backed-up by some very good independent lab test results.

PradCo's Silver Thread Excalibur has been around for quite a while now, but I believe that it's still as good as ever and can easily hold its own in the high-AR stakes. Apparently, for legal reasons concerning the name Excalibur (maybe King Arthur's descendents have objected), it isn't sold in the UK but of course there's nothing to stop you doing what I do, buying it directly from the States.

Together with Excalibur, two of Sufix's offerings in the high-AR mono market have also become firm favourites of mine, although they are a tad wiry especially in very cold weather: they are Tritanium and Synergy.

I have been using Synergy for quite a bit longer than Tritanium and have used it and Excaliber for a number of years for my lure-fishing .. before I discovered the high-tenancity Spectra and Dyneema multi-filament braided lines, and switched to them but realising that their abrasion resistance was much inferior.

More recently I have been trying out Drennan's ESP and Nash Bullet XT, together with ProFish's GhostLine. Also, the Editor, Dr Nick Caine, kindly agreed to put these lines through his Company's Laboratories for some pukka testing to complement our practical fishing tests.

Naturally I had to include Berkley's Trilene Big Game as the classic high-AR benchmark mono; one of Mark's favourites, Fox Soft Steel (see below), was tested too.

To be honest, GhostLine and Tritanium have some seriously high-AR but they are not the most supple of monos, which I guess isn't unreasonable as you can't have one line that is everything: everything is a compromise.

Nash Bullet XT and Drennan's ESP perform promisingly and so we'll be giving them some more stick for the next couple of seasons to see how they compare with our current favourites.

In the meantime, we reckon that they're more than well-worth your consideration as truly high-AR monos.

STATESIDE SELECTION
As well as buying what lines I fancy trying from my local-tackle, and by mail-order and over the Internet, I'm also lucky-enough to travel back-and-forth to the States quite often. On my various trips over the last few years, I have picked-up several other interesting high-AR monos which I think have been well-worth evaluating.

P-Line and Stren's Sensor both came highly-recommended to me by some good fishing friends in the States and so far, they have performed OK. As yet, I haven't had the chance to fish with a newer claimed high-AR mono, G-power, from hook-manufacturer Gamakatsu, but to judge from the lab tests of its wet abrasion resistance, it's got to be worth a try too.

Also from the States comes Spiderwire's monofilament offering called SuperMono. I had some of their very early samples which I have to say were nothing very special, and certainly not super, but I am hoping to try-out their latest incarnation of this particular mono which, I am informed is "a whole lot better" — we shall see !

EUROPEAN MONO
We mustn't forget European lines either .. and there's one particular European mono that's been around for decades and is still in high demand, in the USA too; it's good old Tectan, which, I have to confess, I haven't used for years, but as the result of the preliminary lab-test results that we've seen, I think I'll be giving it a go before too long.

But that's enough from me .... it's time to hear from Mark with his personal preferences ..

MONOS WITH HIGH MARKS
Mark goes for high-AR monos with good all-round performance coupled with value-for-money, and as such, two lines are top favourites with him, Berkley's long-time classic Trilene Big Game, and Fox's comparatively new contender in the high-AR stakes, Soft Steel. [Fox also have their other high-AR contender, BarBuster mono — Editor]

ROCKING-HORSE MANURE MONO
And then there's Mark's Rocking-horse Manure Mono ..... the one he'd give an arm & a leg for: Berkley's Trilene Premium Strength Tournament Gold. Apparently, for whatever reason(s), Berkley no-longer manufacture this ace high-AR mono, but fortunately there are still some stocks remaining to be had around the world.

Mark also rates Shimano's tri-polymer hybrid high-AR mono, Technium, although I haven't tried it myself, nor have we access to any independent lab tests of it, but if Mark rates it, that's good enough for me, and for you too I hope. It's not cheap, though, he hastens to add!

OTHER HIGH-AR MONOS
Another hybrid line that we've used which seems to have quite satisfactory wet abrasion resistance is the one from lure-manufacturer Yo-Zuri (see left): I have to add though, this this line isn't cheap so I have my doubts about its cost-effectiveness compared with the many other high-AR monos that we've used and had tested. We 'd be very interested to hear from anyone who's used this hybrid line for any length of time, and how it performs compared with other high-AR monos that they use.

SUMMARY
So there you have it! If you're a lure-angler who's dead-set on using premium high-AR monos, or indeed if you're a serious specimen angler fishing with baits for carp or pike at long-distance over gravel bars and other abrasive underwater features, we hope these few pointers will help you avoid any costly (to the fish and/or your pocket!) mistakes and to chose the truly high-AR monos that best suit your needs.

However, in chosing which high-AR monos are best for you, we strongly suggest, though, that you don't just consider their abrasion resistance but also compare and constrast their other important parameters: cost, colour, suppleness (especially at low temperatures), memory, wet-castability, wet knot-strength, tenacity (diameter for BS), elongation under strain (stretch) and dynamic shock-load resistance.

And if you have any comments or questions, you can contact Mark and/or me, Brian Barwell, via the Editor's e-mail address :-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for that, Brian & Mark. For your Piece of the Pie-chart of the Planet's Premium High-AR Monos, please try your local tackle-shop first; failing that, have a look on the 'Net, and, as Brian says, if you need any more help, just e-mail us at:-

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