Leader - Mono vs Flouro

[Funchy]

G'day all,

Would like your opinion on mono trace vs flouro. I am yet to be convinced flouro is all that and a bag of crisps! Have tried both but have not seen a stand out difference with flouro that justifies the cost. Input please?

[Sevric]

Hi Funchy,
I am with you on this. I still have and use fluorocarbon in certain circumstances but am unconvinced it makes that much difference; i used to use it exclusively. In my opinion mono leader ties a better knot but is not as durable among the rough stuff and teeth. Considering the cost of good quality flouro verses mono i do not think there is that much to be gained. Simply checking the leader following a capture or fouling the bottom and if necessary tie a new knot. For me problem solved. The purchase of a good hard wearing mono such as Penn 10x or schneider klear as a leader replacement is the best plan.

[NAGG]

I like to use FC when fishing light / finesse - shallow water or clear water .... Certainly it is less visible to fish.
Is it worth the extra coin ...... probably in the above mentioned situations . The use of FC did really take off for me in my impoundment barra fishing - It was difficult to tie in 80lb & was less resistant to abrasion ....... ended up with using Schneider clear mono.
If I was bottom bashing - I would just use Schnieder mono.
I still use FC in my lure casting ..... probably because I have confidence & really dont see an issue in paying a few dollars more ( the stiffness / less stretch is good when lurefishing too).

Chris

[Jason Killen]

I agree with Chris it is great for clear shallow water but it does sink and it can effect the action of some small topwater lures. Also in low light conditions FC is not invisible and is often not needed as the advantage of being almost invisible is not there. In everything in fishing the use is situation specific. I have used FC when I have had to go finese fishing for hardfished and wised up barra. FC is more abrasion resistant in lighter classes so instead of using 60-80lb leaders I have dropped to 25lb flurocarbon which has stood the test of the rough mouth of a 1m barra. I wasn't fishing lighter to make the line less visible it was to improve the action of the lure. FC and Mono both have their place but in a lot of situations mono will do just fine.
Cheers
Jase

[MudRiverDan]

Yes clearer water and certain species like bream the clear fluro.
I use mono for bait and mono leader for flathead fishing.
I recently bought some fluro but it has not improved my catch rate.

[Jackson 53]

I like to use Nitlon Fluorocarbon in 6lb and 10lb in the estuaries and have found even the 6lb is very abrasion resistant when catching larger Flathead. Maybe Flathead are not leader shy but I'm confident that it improves the hookup rate for Bream and Whiting in clear water. At around $24 for a 100 metre spool its not going to break the bank.

For surf fishing I use 25lb Platypus Super 100 as a leader (with 12lb Platypus Pretest as my main line) which is thin but strong and Platypus Platinum in 50lb for deeper water fishing.

[tunaticer]

Dirty water I will use anything as a leader, often times it is Tortue or Schneider, But if the water has more than 60cm of vis I use Nitlon DFC.

[Blythy]

Hey Funchy,
For all my lure fishing I use fluro, I had a 75cm GT take me around a oyster covered pylon with 10lb fluro on and still managed to land the fish, if it had been mono I would just about guarantee that I would have lost the fish and the $20 lure, after that I was sold, I only use mono now for heavy bottom bashing (greater then 60lb), for me it's not worth loosing 1 fish for the sake of the $20-40 per year that I would spend on fluro.
Good luck with it,
Blythy

[shortbags]

Been using Fluoro leader for years know and would only use Mono in a situation were the leader needed to float,Popping etc
Fluoro has many advantages , better knot strength because of its harder exterior , better abrasion resistance , and the fact that it virtually disappears under water .
I use A lot of Sunline product because of price and quality, they also have many grades of quality , and different construction methods to cater for all fishing styles.
Ranging from single resin process , basicly one pieice very stiff and tuff.
Double resin process , two stage build, core line with exterior coating , more soft and better shock whilst still very abrasion resistant.
Tripple resin process , three stage build process, core line with two exterior coatings , improved values on previous grades.
So they are vastly improved from a standard mono line , and are actually built to be leaders , unlike some of the mono lines people try to adabpt for leader.