Granted my experience with fluoro is limited, but I can't get unsnagged without breaking it off. It stretches out, sounds like a 22 rifle going off when it breaks. It also breaks at the rod when I wrap the line around the rod to break, which is my normal method. I can change methods of course.

Carry a small dowel with you to break off if you must

It’ll save your skin and the line won’t end up digging into the spool by pulling with it.

Especially with braid and all other high strength test lines.

Mike

1 hour ago, Dan N said:

For me personally, I have seen zero advantages to fluoro over mono. And I find it hard to believe that when using a 10’ or less leader going to braid if can make any difference at all…

But to each their own

Braid will wrap trebles horrendously with walking topwaters. Stiff leader helps cut that out.

Also my life is full of zebra mussels, so a leader is good. The material doesn't really matter, but I have Red Label so I use that.

The only time I'm running straight braid is frog, punch, pitching pads, or like maybe a swim jig over stuff.

10 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Granted my experience with fluoro is limited, but I can't get unsnagged without breaking it off. It stretches out, sounds like a 22 rifle going off when it breaks. It also breaks at the rod when I wrap the line around the rod to break, which is my normal method. I can change methods of course.

Getting baits hung up is part of the price of admission. I use what line I feel gives the best performance for me.

Seldom do I go out in the boat and not break off a couple of something . In fact I wouldn't ruin a good spot by jerking on a stuck bait like a wildman.

You may want to invest in a plug knocker or one of the extending poles.

Honestly, If you get stressed over a lost bait, wait till you buy a boat.

After decades of watching my line go slack when hitting bottom with jig or Texas rig fishing I tried floro. It does not go slack . Didnt like it at all. Now Im expeirmenting with it for other applications. Not sold on it yet. I suspect I'll stick with mono.

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

After decades of watching my line go slack when hitting bottom with jig or Texas rig fishing I tried floro. It does not go slack . Didnt like it at all. Now Im expeirmenting with it for other applications. Not sold on it yet. I suspect I'll stick with mono.

That's really weird; all of the fluoro I've used does what you're describing.

2 hours ago, scaleface said:

After decades of watching my line go slack when hitting bottom with jig or Texas rig fishing I tried floro. It does not go slack . Didnt like it at all. Now Im expeirmenting with it for other applications. Not sold on it yet. I suspect I'll stick with mono.

I've never seen that myself. Invisx bows just like anything as long as the bait is really on the bottom.

2 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

I've never seen that myself. Invisx bows just like anything as long as the bait is really on the bottom.

Ya - flouro just bows downward instead of upward...least in my experience...might make it look like it doesn't bow.

6 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

Getting baits hung up is part of the price of admission. I use what line I feel gives the best performance for me.

Seldom do I go out in the boat and not break off a couple of something . In fact I wouldn't ruin a good spot by jerking on a stuck bait like a wildman.

You may want to invest in a plug knocker or one of the extending poles.

Honestly, If you get stressed over a lost bait, wait till you buy a boat.

Im not stressed over losing the bait, rather, stressed over disturbing the spot. Bank fishing where I do, I come up on each spot, I have one chance to fish it before they turn off. Fluoro sinking causes it to snag much more than mono does. I can't drag a texas rig across the bottom at a crawl if there is sticks and rocks, and the places I fish is sticks and rocks.

With a boat, probably be better I'd think because I could just keep on going down the shoreline and find another spot. From the bank, there is only so many accessible spots on the lake I fish.

That said, I am going to try fluoro again, and see if I can warm up to it, since now I am quite confident in my use of mono. My presentations I know are good. So if my catch rate increases, then I reckon I'll know it helps.

If fluoro is sinking into stuff and making it difficult, you don't have to use it. You'd probably be pretty happy with something like Sufix Siege.

21 hours ago, Mike L said:

Carry a small dowel with you to break off if you must

It’ll save your skin and the line won’t end up digging into the spool by pulling with it.

Especially with braid and all other high strength test lines.

Mike

I bought a one inch one at Lowes. Four foot is the shortest length I could buy. Bought some wrap to put around it after being cut to length. Not a fan of trying to break line with my bare hands. Now I have several spares. 😄

I break line by wrapping the line around the rod about 6-8 times, between the reel and the first eyelet. this causes the line to not pull on the reel, pull against your hand, and allows you to break even heavy braid. But with fluoro, it breaks the fluoro where it touches the first eyelet.

Make no mistake, I hate fluoro. At least at this point. But I am trying to ascertain if it actually will help me catch more fish, OR, if it's just coincidence and hype that drives it.

On 5/25/2026 at 10:07 AM, PGA Dropout said:

That's really weird; all of the fluoro I've used does what you're describing.

On 5/25/2026 at 10:48 AM, rangerjockey said:

I've never seen that myself. Invisx bows just like anything as long as the bait is really on the bottom.

Maybe it was the cheap line. I used Vicous and it was pretty stiff. I only used it one day then threw it away.

I throw this in on most of the Floro threads I run across, so here goes..

When first getting a feel for FC, please do yourself a favor and start with invisix or sniper to establish a baseline. From this baseline you can go up or down in price range however you see fit. Too many people grab a spool of cheap FC and hate it. Cheap FC tends to exaggerate all the bad qualities of FC. It usually is stiff, has terrible memory, and terrible knot strength compared to mono and higher priced floro. Im not saying all cheap FC is bad, but it is my opinion that anyone who forms an opinion on FC based on experiences with lines like Vanish is doing themselves a great disservice.

Im not trying to call anyone out, Vanish is just a good example for this post.

I understand "cheap" and "expensive" are relative terms, but hopefully I rambled enough that you guys understand what im trying to say here.

Back when I had a spinning rod and a casting rod, I used braid on my casting rod. I still use braid on spinning rods because line twist just doesn't exist. The reason was I could change out the leader to something appropriate for what I'm fishing, mono for topwater, or fatter thinner fluorocarbon, or no leader if in heavy cover.

I quickly switched to fluorocarbon when I started renting boats (and later bought kayaks). First, I own more reels that can have an appropriate line for each of my uses. But the real kicker is if you are flipping and pitching heavy cover, braid is great, it's strong and sensitive as long as it's tight, plus has no stretch (usually rods with slower tips are good to compensate the lack of stretch honestly). But I frequently fish jigs on the bottom where no matter what you do, your line is going to have a little slack in it frequently as the wind blows you around, and slightly slack fluorocarbon (or even mono) will have some sensitivity to it, where braid at that point has nothing.

So yes, fluorocarbon helps me catch more fish in that way.

Why fluorocarbon over mono? Well I just changed out my fluorocarbon this year on all of my reels. At minimal, I had 3 seasons on the most recently spooled and I had 4 or 5 on most of them. I can't keep mono in my shed in the winter and have it hold up.

Some interesting insight, thanks all. I will have to give a better brand of fluoro a try. So far I've only tried Big Game.

I believe someone posted a comparison chart on this site a few years ago showing the amount of stretch in different lines; it caused me to switch from what I had used for many years. Maybe someone can find and repost it.

On 5/23/2026 at 7:03 PM, MN Fisher said:

It did live up to it's name - made your lures vanish when casting.

It stretched so much I could walk a snag from the bow to stern of a 21 ft boat and still would not break.

I want to fish braid on my spinning gear and mostly FC on casting gear.

As good as FC is theres a ton of marketing involved. When it came out, the claim was "stronger" "thinner" "less stretch" "improved knot strength" "invisible", but they never said what they were comparing it to and for good reason. When comparing mono to FC main lines, mono beats FC in the majority of categories. Mono deal with abrasion better, knots better, handles better and its a fraction of the cost.

I love InvizX #12, I use it 8 months of the year, but I have to drag a hammer out of a log jam, I would take #8 BG over #12 InvizX every time.

I'm not even sure FC is really invisible, but I've seen bass and weakfish shy away and trout spook when the FC coils up on the surface. I'm not so sure they see the line, but I think they see the light refract off of it.

I like FC mainline for its sensitivity and dia. It also stays down, which is big in current or wind. The result is a better connection to my bait.

I've found that light FC, particularly thinner FCs, give baits action that they just dont have when using other lines. I fished spybaits for year with decent results, but after fishing it on #6 Inviz, I dont want to use anything else. With braid and stiffer #8, the spinbait hardly shimmied on the drop. Using #6 made a world of difference. FC actually helps me bottom trace when I'm strolling keitechs or armor shads. When I use braid that bait wants to come right up far too early.

I like the sensitivity and strength I get with braid, but IMO its Achillies heel is the noise. I can hear it rubbing on grass or wood, so it must sound like a freight train to a fish.

On 5/24/2026 at 7:41 PM, PGA Dropout said:

Braid will wrap trebles horrendously with walking topwaters. Stiff leader helps cut that out.

I fish straight braid almost exclusively with all my treble hooked topwaters and find this to be a huge false narrative. Unless you're doing long pauses, which I don't know anyone that does with a walking bait since they're typically for covering water, it's a non-issue. Hooksets are much more solid on long cast (just reel into them and lean into the weight), and there's no additional knots with a braid to leader knot.

Back on topic, I grew up fishing mono for everything, and the difference between a good flourocarbon to mono for slack line presentations is huge. Flouro has it's issues, but the upsides far outweigh the down IMO.

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

a huge false narrative... it's a non-issue.

... it's an issue with me.

10 minutes ago, OkobojiEagle said:

... it's an issue with me.

I agree. it is usually a matter of grimacing and working the line free of the braid. but occasionally, the tip of the hook will actually penetrate the braid and get past the barb. do this while the striper are boiling on bait, and you will cuss. haha. I always put on a section of stiffer Flouro now. cheap, easy insurance. like 18"

I quit using fluoro carbon. I now use P-line Fluroclear starting 6 lb to 15lb.

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I fish straight braid almost exclusively with all my treble hooked topwaters and find this to be a huge false narrative. Unless you're doing long pauses, which I don't know anyone that does with a walking bait since they're typically for covering water, it's a non-issue. Hooksets are much more solid on long cast (just reel into them and lean into the weight), and there's no additional knots with a braid to leader knot.

Back on topic, I grew up fishing mono for everything, and the difference between a good flourocarbon to mono for slack line presentations is huge. Flouro has it's issues, but the upsides far outweigh the down IMO.

Could you elaborate on the upsides of fluoro? Do you think it's the fluoro itself or the various upsides that produce more fish? For example, the increased sensitivity will contribute to more fish caught, but do the fish bite more because it's fluoro.

Side note, I've experienced braid getting in the hooks on topwater many times. I might be the only one, but I work my Spit'n Image slow, in a cadence of about 1 twitch per second, and with intermittent pauses. I don't work a zara spook the same way, but a Sammy type, which the Spit'n Image is, I do.

7 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Could you elaborate on the upsides of fluoro? Do you think it's the fluoro itself or the various upsides that produce more fish? For example, the increased sensitivity will contribute to more fish caught, but do the fish bite more because it's fluoro.

Side note, I've experienced braid getting in the hooks on topwater many times. I might be the only one, but I work my Spit'n Image slow, in a cadence of about 1 twitch per second, and with intermittent pauses. I don't work a zara spook the same way, but a Sammy type, which the Spit'n Image is, I do.

Flouro sinks and is more dense than mono, so you get more direct connection to bottom contact baits because there's no belly in the line. There's less stretch on the hookset, which helps, especially at distance. It has better abrasion resistance than mono for fishing in and around cover where I'm typically fishing bottom contact baits. The density transmits bites better than mono as well.

The downsides are that it's not as forgiving as mono. If you get a kink in flouro, it's going to break there next time you put pressure on it. Flouro doesn't return to it's original state when stretched like mono does. If you tie a knot that is less than perfect with flouro, it's probably going to fail. The pros outweigh the cons for me though.

As for the braid on topwater, that's unfortunate that it doesn't work for you because it's so much better than fishing mono. Mr. Livesay is one of the best topwater fishermen out there and runs straight braid on his walking baits also, maybe following his instruction might help solve your issue.

In the past I used only braid with leaders for whatever I was doing. Then a a couple of years ago I switched to Tatsu flouro for cranks, jerkbaits, poppers.

This year I put Tatsu on my jig rod and really like it.

But...................I bought my first BFS rig this spring and was not thrilled with using flouro and it's birds nests while I got used to casting ultra light. I didn't know if I would get them but can assume I would, especially in wind. So instead I went with Sunline Super Natural. While I'm in no hurry I may be switch all my flouro reels except the jig setup to Sunline mono.