Why do pros use fluoro? I've seen a lot of folks here say something to the affect of that it doesn't really matter what line. Why then do they go to the trouble of using braid to fluoro? Why not just use mono?

 

I can understand not going straight braid, but fluoro has all kind of orneryness compared to mono. Why not just go mono?

 

I see advantages in things like texas rigs, where you can feel the bite better, but for other things, I see no point of using braid or fluoro.

 

So, I guess this is what I'm thinking. If the pros use every advantage they get, what advantage does fluoro offer over mono that makes it worth it vs all the extra hassle?

Fluorocarbon has the same light refraction as water, so it’s by far the most invisible. 
 

Fluoro sinks, which is good for bottom contact baits, there’s very little stretch which helps with hooksets and sensitivity, and fluoro has about the best abrasion resistance of any line. 
 

I like mono for crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters, where shock absorption is a plus. For plastics, jigs and leaders I use straight fluorocarbon. 

I know all of the benefits of fluoro, I don't see how the benefits are better than mono. I don't see why mono would not work just as well for most applications.

 

Lets say for deep texas rigging, sure, fluoro would be better. But that's specialty. For normal texas rigging, would not mono work?

 

I don't see why for skipping docks it would be better.

 

Lots of pros use fluoro mainline on their casting rods. Why?

Perhaps they also use mono and I just don't see it, is this the case?

 

I guess another way to put my question is... if a pro dropped fluoro for most applications and used mono instead, would they still be competitive?

 

Okay, let's say it this way, am I missing out by not copying the pros and using fluoro. If I use a quality fluoro on casting, or braid to fluoro on spinning, will I increase my catch rate with no other changes?

 

Is fluoro the end all be all?

 

Absolutely not.
 

Does it help?

 

Absolutely.

 

Can you still catch fish on mono?

 

Absolutely.

I’ve never really bought into flouro much. Used to be a huge steelhead fisherman and tried it off and on, and always went back to Maxima Ultragreen for leader. At this point in my life, I can catch as many chromers as I want and never use flouro.
 

I feel the same with bass, however I always fish what feels right for my waters. I’ve played around all summer and have settled on low stretch, strong mono for casting jigs and t rigging. I get tired of leaders and just like how mono feels and fishes. In the end, your confidence will tell you what to run. A confident dude with mono probably pound towns a paranoid guy with flouro all day, everyday IMO

Fish with good Floro for awhile and your perspective will probably change.

The best thing to do is try it for yourself and see if you like it. A spool of line is a small expenditure in this sport.

Like rods, reels and women, sometimes you just have to make a decision that works best for you.

 

 

5 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

Is fluoro the end all be all?

 

Absolutely not.
 

Does it help?

 

Absolutely.

 

Can you still catch fish on mono?

 

Absolutely.

^ I agree with this ^

 

First,.... I personally hate braid to leader in most instances. I have a few spinning rigs setup with braid to leader, but absolutely no casting setups using it.  The biggest reason is knots get bigger when you start talking 30-50lb braid plus a 15 -20lb leader and I HATE the sound and feel of a leader knot smacking through my guides on every cast, then again on every retrieve.

 

Do I use flouro? Absolutely, but not in all instances. I have straight braid on some rods, straight flouro on some and straight mono on some.

 

A simple breakdown for me is like this,... I like braid for the no stretch, direct feel, and ability to snap it through weeds. I like flouro for it's abrasive resistance around wood and rocks, and it's clarity and sinking for things like deeper cranks. I also run a LOT of mono for things that are worked more shallow or on top. Some spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, ploppers, poppers, 

 

I think they each have their place and I use each when I feel it fits the situation based on my experience and preferences.

I’ll tell you why I switched.  The first time I fished with someone who was using fluorocarbon he caught 7 bass out of the back of my boat before my monofilament and I caught 1.  I bought some and that evened things up.  Now it is on most of my bait caster setups.

This  site has the pros and cons of FC. 

https://ask-the-fisherman.com/why-use-fluorocarbon-line-and-when/

 

You learn on a fly rod in the salt, mono floats, fluoro sinks - for ankle-deep grass, mono furled leader and fluoro tippet.  

Regarding visibility, mono absorbs UV, so it creates a UV shadow.  

Fluoro transmits UV, so no UV shadow.  

 

Fluoro leader on braid is to have some measure of shock tolerance.  

Fluoro has elastic stretch before it deforms to break (elastic limit = yield point) - braid goes right to reduction failure at its max load - no elastic stretch.  

My feelings about mono is well documented. 
I won’t use it to hang a picture. 

 

But as some said, it has it uses but it’s certainly not the be all end all of fishing lines that a few make that stuff out to be. 
 

It was at one point, but the key word here is Was

Didn’t finish…
Braid is a specialty line. 
I only use it on top, frogs and punching only in the thickest cover. 
 

I agree with the comments above about using flouro. 
The best suggestion I can give you is to use a quality product from a mainstream manufacturer. 
I use Sunline Sniper and Shooter depending on what I’m throwing from 12# to 20#

 

Seaguar is also an excellent line with different choices depending on what you’re looking for. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

Probably because a lot of them get it for free😜

I use fluorocarbon primarily for its sink rate and abrasion resistance.
 

I prefer it for light, slow sinking lures like wacky worms and Ned’s.  Not braid to a fluorocarbon leader though, straight fluoro. Because about half the bites come on the initial fall, you need a straight line of all fluorocarbon to get a good hook set. If you are braid to leader - the braid floats while the fluorocarbon tries to sink. You end up with a “hockey stick” shaped line that makes it very difficult to A) detect a bite, and B ) properly set the hook. 
 

I also like fluorocarbon when casting swim jigs, football jigs, spinnerbaits and Chatterbaits because of abrasion resistance. It slides easier in and around weed cover and doesn’t get chewed up as much scraping across rocks as braid does. 
 

11 hours ago, Bazoo said:

I know all of the benefits of fluoro, I don't see how the benefits are better than mono. I don't see why mono would not work just as well for most applications.

 

Lets say for deep texas rigging, sure, fluoro would be better. But that's specialty. For normal texas rigging, would not mono work?

 

I don't see why for skipping docks it would be better.

 

Lots of pros use fluoro mainline on their casting rods. Why?

Perhaps they also use mono and I just don't see it, is this the case?

 

I guess another way to put my question is... if a pro dropped fluoro for most applications and used mono instead, would they still be competitive?

 

Okay, let's say it this way, am I missing out by not copying the pros and using fluoro. If I use a quality fluoro on casting, or braid to fluoro on spinning, will I increase my catch rate with no other changes?

 

The increased feel of fluoro on a Texas rig, free rig, etc is night and day from mono. Your catch rate will go up considerably over mono. It took me forever to switch over, partially for cost but also from buying crappy fluorocarbon that turned me off of it (I’m looking at you, Berkley Vanish). 
 

After getting stomped in a couple tournaments, I decided to give it another go - I asked a few of the local sticks, and was given a spool of Sunline to try out, and have nerve looked back. It took several different brands tried before I settled on the Topknot that I use now, but I will never go back to mono for plastics or jigs. 

Mono and fluorocarbon both have stretch. Fluorocarbon generally has one-time stretch, as in once you stretch a part of it, that stretch is removed it remains stretched where mono recoils so it can stretch again, making mono effectively the stretchiest of the three types of line. Stretch can play in your favor, especially with most moving lures, but also against you as well. People may use moderate fast rods with braid where they'd use fast or extra fast with mono/fluoro for the same application.

 

Fluorocarbon is also the least visible of the three types of line, for whatever that matters.

 

Another plus of fluorocarbon is longevity. Similar to braid, I replace fluorocarbon only when a spool runs low on line for the most part. I am on season three on most of my reels right now. Where with mono, a full season is pushing it to the max of its lifespan. Fluorocarbon can withstand freezing and hot temperatures, where mono cannot.

 

I use 10 or 12lb mono for my topwater reel, 50 or 65lb braid for frogging and heavy flipping and fluorocarbon for everything else. The reason being if the line isn't perfectly tight, fluorocarbon maintains some sensitivity where braid has absolutely zero sensitivity with any slack in it. If you're throwing moving lures or flipping and pitching into cover, braid is perfect because your line is almost always tight and it offers the best sensitivity when tight. But fishing structure with soft plastics/jigs, at some regular frequency you are going to have a little slack in your line, and if a fish picks it up and runs at you with braid, you wouldn't even know.

Also fluorocarbon doesn't get wrecked by getting dragged over rocks like braid.

 

If you need a brand recommendation of fluorocarbon, the Daiwa J-Fluoro is superb. It might not be as abrasion resistant as Sunline Shooter and might not last as many seasons as Tatsu (I'm on 3 on most of my reels, no issues yet) but it absolutely handles better than both. And you can get it for under $20 a spool on ebay every fall.

 

The elastic region is completely reversible - it's elastic response just like a rubber band.  

Fluorocarbon doesn't permanently stretch until it reaches the plastic strain zone (and it will unload with the same amount of elastic relaxation).  

Mono generates a similar stress-strain curve with up to 4% elastic stretch - that's 10' elastic stretch in 80 yds.  

 

PE braid has a very steep, short elastic zone (very low stretch) and quickly moves into reduction failure (at much higher stress - the curve is for fiber, braid weave also moves before failure and ulitimately, fibers are cutting each other - also UHMWPE fiber used in braid is previously work-hardened to higher strength).  

New good.  Old bad.  Fluoro is seen as new and mono as old.  I was a braid only user then I started using fluoro when it came out and now I use it alot.  Recently I started to use both mono and fluoro and am always taken aback when using mono and realizing how similar it is to fluoro. 

 

We make them out to be radically different lines but they are very similar.  Both a plastic monofilament lines with the one we call "fluoro" sinks a bit faster, is a bit harder/stiffer and has less elasticity at hook setting forces than the one we call "mono" making it less stretchy feeling when being fished.  The one we call "mono" seems to float better and keep top water baits on top and has is more limp and stretchy witj greater knot strength.  

 

The invisibility argument in favor of fluoro is also powerful.  It's mostly bunk but we want to belive that an invisible fishing line exists and when the advertising makes the claim that "its much closer to the refeactive index of water and invisible to fish" we believe it and buy the product because we want to.  In reality the percent difference of their refraction between the two and water is small.  Last time I looked it was like 4% or something.  

 

I like this video because it is making the case for fluoro being harder to see than mono but in basically every comparison of low vis green mono and clear fluoro they look the same.  It's a test rig being spun around in the water trying to catch rays of light for the camera too.  Image it is was just fishing line tied to a bladed jig moving through the water.  No way there is a difference in visibility.

 

https://youtu.be/fRpO4Blwj8U?si=MoTpZS4XkMX0rF4a

14 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

Fluorocarbon can withstand freezing and hot temperatures, where mono cannot.

Huh? As a lifelong steelhead fisherman in Michigan, I cannot agree with this at all. I run nothing but mono for steelhead and I’ve fished summer runs in 90* heat, as well as winter fish in -12* base temps and it’s never failed me. Maybe all these years of light-biting steelhead on mono has made it different for me with bass, who knows 

10 minutes ago, JonB2 said:

Huh? As a lifelong steelhead fisherman in Michigan, I cannot agree with this at all. I run nothing but mono for steelhead and I’ve fished summer runs in 90* heat, as well as winter fish in -12* base temps and it’s never failed me. Maybe all these years of light-biting steelhead on mono has made it different for me with bass, who knows 

 

To be fair, I haven't had issues with the heat in Massachusetts either, I just mentioned that because mono is environment temperamental. 90 degrees isn't a problem. Perhaps if I left it in the car on that 102 degree day we had in June, I may have experienced the line misbehaving a bit.

 

Freezing does weaken mono line though, that's well documented. Hence why come spring, all my mono reels get new line even if they got it in the fall. I'm lazy and do mine once a year.

4 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

 

The elastic region is completely reversible - it's elastic response just like a rubber band.  

Fluorocarbon doesn't permanently deform until it reaches the plastic strain zone.  

I wish I had data that compared the two.  I feel that the fluoro gets into plastic deformation much sooner than mono.  With mono you have to pull on it with what feels like forever to get past all the elasticity and into plastic deformation where it finally breaks.  With fluoro it seems like you can get into the plastic deformation of the line with hook sets and repeated powerful casts of heavy baits and then it "mysteriously breaks off" on a hookset when the line fails at the knot.  

 

My favorite video capture of this was when Matt Allen broke off a fish on a hookset with 30 pound leader of fluoro to braid fishing a rof 12 Hudd.  That bait had to be 3 oz and his power casts of it must have beat up that line and then "the fish broke him off" when he set the hook like he was trying to hit a home run.

never liked feely - always empirical.  

3 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

 

To be fair, I haven't had issues with the head in Massachusetts either, just the freezing. The only time where heat may have been a problem for me is if I left it in my car when we had that 102 degree day back in June.

Heat degradation in fluorocarbon isn’t near as bad as mono. Nylon starts to degrade at like 105, or as we call it, “June”,  where fluoro is into the 280’s before it starts breaking down chemically. Fluoro doesn’t absorb humidity like nylon, and is largely impervious to UV exposure. 
 

It is still a good habit to cut 3-5 feet of line off and retie fluorocarbon every so often. I generally do after every 5th fish, or when I can feel roughness near the knot, or when it starts getting milky/discolored near the knot. 

Thanks all for sharing. This gives me a lot to chew on.

So first off, ignore pros unless you're trying to be one.

 

You can pay attention to Feider though because he's hilarious. Swindle too.

 

Second, it does matter what line; the degree though is up for debate.

 

I'm pretty sure this forum is partly, if not wholly, responsible for Big Game's market share.

 

This post is lighthearted.