rockchalk06

If I've had anything to do with this success, I will apologize before hand cause your gonna be broke soon! Lol they are addictive. When your hot with them, it's like legal crack!

My favorite is the Berkley Havoc Subwoofer. So far that has been the biggest producer. It matches every North Star Jig I have. I really like the Rage Tail Menace and Shell Cracker too. Both have tons of action.

Normally on my 40 pound braid to 20 pound leader, a 9 and 9 makes for a really smooth knot for me. It took me about 6 or 7 tries to get it perfect on the fluoro to mono knot. Seems fairly smooth and strong so I think it will work out good. I'm still learning on how to set the drag properly, but I think have it set pretty good. Last year I landed a 17# Wiper on 12# fluoro cranking off the rocks and ended up in a 45 minute fight. He ended up stripping off almost 60 yards before he wore out. It was the first time I've had a fish that big, on that small of line. I have heard of people doing it all the time, but never really believed it until I did it first hand. It kinda made me rethink the way I went about choosing a pound test.

Line twist is not the biggest problem with braid, but I use a swivel with a fluoro leader when I fish a weightless fluke or jerk bait just incase. I usually run 40 pound PP slick in Timber brown with a 12# flouro leader. I have yet to break a fish off with it.

This is probably the best advice! The fall for me, usually means breaking out medium to shallow craw colored crankbaits. Squarebills and 6-8 foot cranks in a red craw pattern work the best. I also focus harder on jigs that time of year too. I go with something that has a lot of action when sitting still. Like a hair jig or a Black Series jig from North Star.

Try using scents. I prefer JJ's as a dye and Megastrike as a gel. WRB also said you have to think about the prey that's in the lake. Does it have a crawfish population? Jig/Craw your imitating a craw fish. He also mentioned you may not know where the bass are located. If your not an expert on the lake, being shore bound wont let you use electronics to actually see the fish and where they are held up. You may not be in the same location they are. Looks for signs of the Bass busting bait fish on the surface. That's a good indicator. Back to breaking out your confidence bait or a search bait. If you can't get hit on your confidence bait or a search bait, chances are they fish are not in that area or are active

You will. The knot will be your weakest point. But, when you use a leader, you have to sacrifice the strength for the abrasion resistance and stealth that a leader provides. I seldom use braid for just the strength. I prefer it for the line management, longevity and NO LINE MEMORY lol

Its for the operator to see. Most bottom contact baits require you do keep track of your line. If you have a jig on the bottom with some slack and the bass picks it up, you may not feel it, but you can see your line move.

Imagine it like this. Braid is like your T-shirt. Run it against a brick rock or stick. Its made of fibers. They will catch, fray and pull apart when ran against something hard. Fluoro has a harder protective covering over it. It's more slick and does not have fibers to hang up. Its also guides smoother through the line guides and slides over brush, rocks and libs easier. I'm no expert, but I think that kinda explains it. hopefully someone one can explain it better. But yes, Braid is more supple, soft. It does last a long time, provided its not drug over rocks, zebra mussels. Braid has a much smaller diameter per pound test as compared to other lines. For instance, 40 pound braid is the same diameter as 10 pound mono. You can get superior break strength from the same diameter line. Smaller diameter line equals better cast ability, better bait presentation and allows you get more line on the reel.

Thanks. I went with 9 for two reasons. First In most of the videos on how to tie the Modified Albright knot as a braid to fluoro leader they have 10 up and 10 down. I don't like even numbers so I went with odds lol. OCD at its finest. I've always gone 9 and 9 on 12#-15# backing to mono and it worked well. I want to make the knot as strong as I could for that off chance that I hook into something that takes the full 65-70 yards of main line off. It may have been overkill

Brown Craw jig from North Star with a Falcon Lake Rage Craw. If there are fish in my area, I will have some luck. It would be a close 2nd with an old Rebel PopR in sliver/black. This thing has been lost, found, hell I've gone swimming for this lure for over 10 years. My dad gave this to me once and it's one of the only things from him I have left.

Grigsby mentioned this knot on his FB page last year. He didn't know what it was called so I just call it the Grigsby knot. It's one of the strongest fluoro knots I've ever tried. I use it for braid too. My 40# braid breaks long before this knot does. I'd be interested in hearing about the Sniper. I've never used it.

Yes. Of the lines I've tested, all were tested exactly like the above. Within a couple of weeks, I had so much memory, I became frustrated and removed the line.

That would be a good test to do if I had the extra money, but I've had some bad issues with fluoro in the past, so I wanted to keep the KVD on it. My review is based on how I would use the line if it were to be the only line I used. I'm using the Shaw Grigsby knot.

For normal casting purposes, ya it's kinda big. If I decide to switch over my swim jig rod later, I'll go lighter. I just wanted some heavy duty line so I can hopefully get my jigs back lol At this point I really can't tell if its more sensitive. I am replacing my jig rod with a DX 745 next week. I never felt like I got the best with my Loomis GL2. With the new rod, I'm anxious to try it again. Also I only had 2 strikes on the Tatsu the whole trip. It wasn't the best day out on the lake. That's another reason why I will make the test out to a year, so I can get some better days this fall.

I've heard the same too. I'm sure I would have had a couple if I wasn't pitching, but I got lucky! Lol

I didn't break any rules. I went above and beyond for the purpose of this test. The extra was not going to hurt anything and I wanted to eliminate anyone saying I didn't use enough should the line not get the best reviews after the test.

I did this because it states on the website, that they recommend this for a new spool up.

Nope! Acid makes clocks come off the wall and eat you. LSD makes pretty colors lol

Return it. I've got some 20# I tested out for a leader. Never broke a fish off and I could lift a 25# weight all day and it never broken. As a main line, it sucks, but for a leader, its not the worst I've ever tried. If you want a quality leader fluoro, I'd go with Seaguar Red Label. Horrible for memory as a main line, but its great as a leader.

With braid, I take it off using my power drill. I really don't think your going to find a way to do this without there being a ton of line twist. Plus mono is going to develop memory and just a PITA. What we usually do in that case is have a totally different set up. Mono is cheap. Yo-zuri Hybrid in 600 yard spools can get had for under 20 bucks shipped.

I have been wanting to try out Tatsu for some time. The price and the fact that I can't stand line memory, have kept me from doing so. So when Tackle Warehouse put it on sale, I knew I had to give this a shot. I've previously tested out the 3 other Seaguar Fluorocarbon lines and was not impressed. I'm very picky when it comes to line memory and Red Label was the worst. Red Label just about turned me off from Fluoro all together, it had so much memory. Tatsu has the smallest diameter of all 4 of the Seaguar offerings. Its diameter is .015" compared to .016" for the rest. While I could not tell a difference in the lines, its nice knowing that its smaller. Red Label and AbrazX both feel like leader material to me. I prefer a supple line as I mainly use braid for everything. Tatsu, felt very supple as soon as I took it off the main spool. Even for 20#, it felt better than both the 2 above and more than what I was expecting from it. I took 10 plus feet off and I didn't get that stiff coil like I get with other fluoro lines. For my initial test, I went with 20# for my Jig rod. I will be using this for pitching jigs only and used as a main line. The spool was typical of Seaguar line, in that its spooled evenly and flat. I soaked the main spool in KVD line and lure over night before I spooled up. I backed this with Trilene XL in 10 pound. I joined them using the Modified Albright knot. Maybe its using 20# main line, but I could not get the knot to tie like I wanted it to, no matter how much spit I used I could not get 9 up and 9 down on my knot. I had to go 5 up and 5 down and work the knot together slowly. It held with a 25# weight attached, so I think it will hold. I've never used this heavy of a fluoro backed with mono before, so this may be normal. Just my initial observation. I spooled up with 65-70 yards of Tatsu. I ran the line through a KVD soaked rag and soaked the spool every 15 or so turns until I had what I wanted. I soaked the full spool until it was pouring out. I wanted to make this review as fair as I could, so I applied the KVD liberally. The line laid very evenly and flat on my spool. Reel is a Chronarch 200E7 and it spooled up flatter and more evenly than I've ever had a non braided line do before. Reel was kept in my garage with a reel cover attached. Temps averaged from 70-95 degrees. I left it alone for 7 days. After the 7 days, I tied on a jig and pitched it across the yard appox. 20 yards. I laid down the rod and gave some slack in the line. I can honestly say I had not one twist or coil in the line! I pulled out another 20 yards and same thing. No coils or twists. When I got to about 50 yards I started noticing a few signs of line memory. Nothing like I've had in the past though. Usually the closer you get to the center of the spool, the worse the memory gets. I reeled it back up and again, soaked in in KVD. The next morning, I hit the lake. I spent 9 hours on the water and used this combo close to about 7 of it. I pitched my jig into about every nasty bit of cover I could find. I had some thick heavy grass and tons of timber. As with any line, when I pitch, I make a long cast out every half hour and get the line back flat on the spool. I made it a point to pitch it over just about every log I could find too. I checked the line about every 5-10 minutes and with a solid 6-7 hours of fishing this, I never found a nick one. No fraying, no nicks, no kinks. I have never had this good of luck before on the first outing, using fluoro. I did not have the chance to run it over some rocks though. Further testing will need to be done for this. I got hung up once about 20 feet from my boat. I wanted to test out the knot strength when pulling on the line. My boat is an 8 foot Pelican with about 450 pounds including me and gear. I pulled as hard as I could on the line until I was over the snag. Line never broke. I was able to free the jig, and didn't see any signs of wear on the line/knot either. I only retied after this snag. Never lost a fish or a jig that trip due to line failure. Keep in mind, I didn't have any backlashes all day, so no kinks in the line from a backlash. I may try backlashing the reel later in the test to see how many kinks I can get. For now, I am more focused on line memory and abrasion resistance with normal pitching conditions. At the end of the trip, I reeled the line through a wet rag and soaked it again in KVD. I covered the reel, and until this evening before work, its been sitting in my garage. I took it out and pitched the jig again across the yard. I gave the line some slack again and noticed a tiny bit of memory. Nothing like cheap mono or my past experiences with Red Label though. When I got to about 50 yards I started noticing more as in the first test. As I said before, I cant stand any line memory. The small about I've seen with Tatsu so far, has not disappointed me at all. I'm actually looking forward to further testing with it. Now I know 20# is pretty thick line and you will see more memory with the larger diameter lines as compared to smaller, but with what I'm seeing now, I really think this line is going to turn out to be worth the money spent. I am going to grab a spool next week of 12# to test as well. I will follow up with this test in 6 months and then again in 1 year from my initial spool and see how it fairs then. Thanks!

Bait caster or spinning reel? If its a bait caster, remember 15# braid has the diameter of #4 pound mono. If your running that small a diameter of line on a BC, your going to get the line digging in. I don't go any lower that 30# braid on BC's. 10-12 pound fluoro will not dig in either.

Good info. Also to add, the jig bite can be very very light at times. Also very fast. Watch your line for movement. remember a jig feels nothing like a reel craw when its in its mouth. They will spit it quick. You have to be quick on the hook set. It requires more attention than say cranking. How sensitive is your rod? Try a different color. Try matching your jigs colors to your trailers as best as you can. What is your confidence bait? What ever you know produces fish in certain area, try first. When you know you are on the fish, switch up to a jig and see what happens. You will be surprised at what happens. I start off with swim jigs. I throw on a green or blue colored jig first with a matching Havoc Subwoofer and start covering all the areas I think I will find fish. Slow roll it or bounce it off the bottom. When I get onto fish, I will switch up to a flipping jig. I don't have a fish finder yet, so its hit or miss for me.

I've been testing them out and so far I'm impressed. I can't say the electronic makes a difference, but its a d**n fine quailty lure so far.