What's your favorite Braid??

[TinarooTriumph]

P-Line Spectrex IV... some of the best line I have used. Platil Millenium Hotfiber is up there too.

Theo.

[snelly1971]

Finns Finns and Finns ...I love the stuff..

Mick

[Latitude]

Nitlon PE for both

As good and as thin as Yamatoyo but half the price. Same manufacturer as Jigman but goes down to 4lb. I use 10lb, 15lb and 20lb on the three outfits I use the most now.

[Maxg]

A few years back I did some tests on GsP braids, knots and abrasion resistance. The lines were both Dyneema and Spectra braids and Fusion, which is similar to Fireline.

The test was to rub the lines across a textured brick and the test showed instantly that if you want abrasion resistance then do not use GsP braided lines under 20lbs.

Currently I use 30lb braid on my light/heavy spin gear and wouldn't use anything else. I actually, today, use 30lb Spiderwire that is about 10 years old on my light spin gear, and 44lb Gudebrod SST which is about the same age on my hefty spin gear.

The Fusion was a total dud. Like Fireline.

I did the tests because at the time the lines were new and not a lot was known about them, that hasn't changed much it seems.

I tested knots, just about every fishing knot you can use in fishing and they all failed the tests. Knots like biminins even with 70 to 100 twists failed below 90% and at 30 twists like one uses in mono simply pulled up the line like a loop knot. This kind of thing occured with biminis until it had 70 twists.

These days I use a coaxial splice which involves stuffing the braid through a piece of braided mono and splicing the line back into itself. Then its glued with Loctite 406 CA glue. It is 100% every time. While GsP cant be glued, unless you oxidise it, Loctite 406 is a thin wicking type CA glue than saturates the braid and when it dries it creats a very solid block that locks the GsP briad to the braided monofilament with a very high shear strength.

Because the GsP braid is inside braided mono which is spliced into itself, like a loop, there are two saturated blocks in the system. Bit difficuly to explain but if you think about it it becomes clear.

This connection is used on ALL of my braided lines, fly/spin whatever. I just do not use knots anymore because they just don't work in GsP braids.

Basically, when the testing started, it was all about SWF backing lines but it got into my spin gear as well. The only mono I use is in SWF leaders and short leaders on my spin gear.

The point about 30lb GsP braid is that it thinner than any decent mono line you can use for any fishing aplication, and you can handle it. Very thin GsP braids are so thin mostly you can't see the dam stuff and knots are totally rediculous because they are very hard to tie properly.

The knot problem with GsP braids is that the stuff is very thin, very slippery and very stiff. Like it has a very high modulus and a very bad critical radius, which means that in knots it slips and squeezes the turns in the knot and the fibres exceed that critical radius and break. The thinner the line the greater the problem. You might find that a GsP line may break at the specified breaking strain but I'll bet that it will not be that breaking strain when you tie a knot in it.

Knots break between 48% and 90% depending on the type, and how its put together, but DSM say quite openly that there isn't a knot known that tests at 100% in GSP braid.

You can do tests on knots yourself but you need to know that the load rate should not exceed 100mm/minute because of the very low stretch of 3.6%.
IGFA knot testing machines have a load rate of 400mm/minute which is useless on GsP braids. They are designed for mono and Dacron. I just thought I'd pass this on.

The line to use, to replace those funny braids is Bionic Braid. basically because its braided from Super dyneema, is a round braid, most braids are not round, it has 8 carriers, like the bundles of fibres and 8 pics, the number of plaits per whatever,
and has a high abrasion resistance. It also breaks a bit above the norm, like 30 breaks at 42lb but has the diameter of 30lb standard braids.

GsP like Gel Spun Polyethylene was invented and patented by DSM HPF in Holland and its called Dyneema. It is licensed to Toyobo Co in Japan who make it and they call it Dyneema and Allied Signal which is a Honeywell Company in the USA, thats called Spectra, but its the same stuff.

Spectra is braided or whatever in the USA, Dyneema is braided or whatever by Toyobo in Japan.

The limitations on the braiding process like Spectra in the USA and Dyneema by Toyobo in Japan is because of license limitations. Actually these days DSM don't produce any and they are supplied from Toyobo who send it to DSM who sell it world wide. In Australia it is braided by Australian Monofil who braid Superbraid and Bionic Braid. Its good stuff. There is nothing better than Bionic Braid.

Cheers MaxG.

[Piscatory Pursuit]

I don't know if you guys can get this stuff in Oz but Power Pro is fantastic braid. I use it on spins and bc's. I've tried Fireline and alot of different braids and I always come back to Power Pro.

Good Luck!

[Little grey men]

I loaded up my baitcaster with Fins after tangling Fireline. ( Thanks to all the Ausfishers for the advice ) The thing casts a mile and stay's on the spool quite nicely. I'm loving it. I take that baitcaster on every trip.
Fins is my favourite so far.

[basskid]

i have been using 10lb avani sea bass pe on my little bass outfit which consists of a chronarch and on my spin outfin i am using 4lb trout pe on my twinpower and i am loving them both i got both 150meter spools for 65 buks and and thae casting distance is just unbeleivable trust me alot of bream tournies use 10lb avani sae bass for bream cause it is so thin

[imnotoriginal]

I use the fireline xds at the moment and I love it. It's got all the benefits of normal fireline but even better. The only problem with it is your knots must be very good, near perfect, or they will slip! But it doesn't burst into windknots as easily as normal fireline, it lays limp and flat the same way fireline does and I believe it's slightly thinner and casts further. It was $30 a spool at that mart that shan't be named last I checked.
Joel