Fishing line

Fishing line is any cord made for fishing. Important parameters of a fishing line are its length, material, and weight (thicker, sturdier lines are more visible to fish). The refractive index is also important—lines with a refractive index similar to water are almost invisible to fish. The most important parameter in deciding what line to use is its strength. This is the amount of weight the line can hold before snapping. One must balance the trade-off between strength and visibility.

Around the 1900s fishing lines were made from linen, silk, catgut and more rarely cotton. Modern fishing lines are almost entirely made from artificial substances, including nylon, polyethylene, Dacron and Dyneema (UHMWPE). The most common type is monofilament, made of a single strand. There are also cofilament and fused lines. Braided and fused lines are now readily available.

Monofilament fishing line

This is the most commonly used fishing line, is fairly cheap to buy there are hundreds of brands on the market. They most commonly come on plastic spools with lengths from 100 meters up to 1000 meters, with 300 m being the most commonly sold, as it will fill most reels with a bit to spare.

Monofilament fishing line strengths

Measured in pounds (lb) or kilograms (kg) or newtons (N).

This is the rating of what the breaking strain of the line is i.e. what pressure it will take before breaking or snapping. Monofilament fishing line has a certain amount of give before it will break which is an advantage when setting hooks or casting but the slit downside to this is that you are less in contact with your hook.

There are lots of breaking strains on the market from 0.6 lb right up to and past 800 lb (big game fishing) when selecting the line you must think of what type of fish you might be going to catch and select the appropriate line. Say if you are fishing from the shore and are going to catch fish up to 15 lbf it would be a waste of time and money to fish with 100 lb line .

Shockleader line

Shockleader line is probable the most important thing to remember whilst shore fishing with large weights.

Shockleader is a length of monofilament line that connects your reel line to your sea fishing rig. It acts like a shock absorber as casting a weight can put a lot of strain on your main line.

You use a shockleader to stop ' snap offs ' which is when the line snaps. A shockleader should always be of a heavier breaking strain than that of your main line on your reel.

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Shockleader loaded on to a reel.

Here are some guidelines on what to use to your weight -

2 oz of lead = 20 lb test line

4 oz of lead = 40 lb test line

A tapered shockleader is a length of mono line that is tapered i.e. starts at 15 lb test and then progresses in strength and thickness to 60 lb test.

The benefits of using a tapered shockleader on these types of reels is that the knot is a lot less in size and thus reducing the snagging when it goes through the line feed arm.

On some makes of fishing reels there is a line layer, a device that lays the line evenly using a bar.

Braid Fishing Line

What is Braid Fishing Line

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Braid Fishing Line.

Braid is a fabric spun into line using microfiber technology containing thousands of micro spun fibres. It has almost zero stretch and almost zero line memory unlike monofilament line. Once only used by the specialist anglers, has now become common place within the angling circle.

An example of how thin most braids can be is a 30lb breaking strain braid line is the same thickness as most 6lb mono line. As there are lots of makes of braid line on the market always check the diameter to make sure.

Can I use it on any type of reel

Yes you can use braid on every style of fishing reel but must remember that it has no give, meaning that a Shockleader maybe require if casting larger lead weights.

Tip - If you are use heavy leads or have played a big fish it is always advisable after your fishing session to recast out using a light lead and re spool you’re reel. This prevents any binding on to the reels spool.

The advantage of fishing with braid

It’s thinner and has almost zero, thus you are much more in contact with your bait and the fish. If saltwater fishing you will be able to use much lighter leads to hold the bottom. The reason for this is that braid is much thinner than monofilament line and offer less resistance in the tide.

Disadvantages of braid

Braid can be less resistant to abrasion, so if fishing very rocky or reef marks you may require a mono leader

Tip - Be careful of your fingers as being ultra thin can mean your fingers can get cut.

See also

• Monofilament line

External links

• Fishing line confusion
• Articles on Shockleader and Monofilament fishing line by - Sea Fishing Online
• Article on Braid Line by - Braid Direct