I recently spooled one of my baitcasters with flourocarbon. I have all my reels spooled with braid (spinning gear with a flouro leader) with no problems, but I figured I'd see what all the "flouro-talk" is about. I took the reel out for a day on the lake and it was a disaster. Backlashes, line cutting, not pleasant......friends warned me to stay away from flouro. What did I do wrong? I wondered if I spooled it wrong or what.

Any help??

ajr

what brand of flouro did you try? I have only found two that I like-BPS flouro and Berkley Trilene flouro. Have had bad experiences with others...

Also, IMO, a line conditioner helps out a lot with flouro.

FD

I'm fixing to spool a couple of reels w/Trilene flouro. I read somewhere just spool 2/3rds of reel.

Fluorocarbon is far different than braid in terms of handling...as a matter of fact they are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  Braid is obviously extremely limp...basically like sewing thread, while fluoro is generally stiffer than mono (you know this now  ).  Recent advances in resins have yielded fluorocarbon main lines that handle more like mono, and I think everyone whom tried fluoro when it first came out are the ones preaching not to try it due to the old manageability issues.  I think if you are having problems with soft fluorocarbons like Seaguar Inviz-X, Trilene Pro-Grade, etc., you would have trouble with any mono billed as a 'tough' line such as Trilene XT, Pline CXX, Yozuri Hybrid, etc.  I'm interested to know what you used...it just may be one of the stiffer fluoros and hence the root of the problem.

A guy in my club taught me this trick: put your spool in warm/hot water for 20-30 minutes and then put it on your reels. After I started doing this my manageability problems were solved. Give it a try.

So far, I have used Stren, and P-Line flouro. I have also used Silver Thread co-poly, and Yozuri Hybrid.

ajr

Bass Wrangler - This is also pretty similiar to using a Line conditioner as well.  Great tip!  I am using fluro on about 75% of my applications now.  I use Trilene 100% fluro exclusively now.

Get ya some KVD Line & Lure Condioner and give your line a few squirts the night before ya go and you will be amazed at the difference.

Best you'll ever use. Not petroelum based so it won't harm the

eco-system either.

I have had problems similar to what you experienced.  I tried Trilene 100% this spring with KVD line conditioner and found it to be manageable enough to live with.  Then I tried the BPS XPS Fluorocarbon with KVD line conditioner and it is the cat's pajamas as far as I am concerned.  I would recommend it to anyone having manageability problems with fluoro.

Ive tried Silicone spray on my line and it seems to help relax the line nicely

Welcome aboard!

8-)

I have a hard time controlling fluorocarbon lines as well....doen't matter what brand i've tried they all seem to try to jump off the spool.Trilene 100% fluorocarbon was the worst for me.I ended up giving it away to somebody that probably knows how to tame that beast.

I bought some XPS at Bass Pro Shop and so far....no problems.

Good stuff!!!

Alan

I used BPS XPS Fluoro for about a year with no problems then found Vicious Fluoro which is as good or better and cheaper.  I do use KVD Line & Lure which makes a big difference on all my lines fluoro & mono.  I even have a couple of reels with 20# Vicious Fluoro and with the Line & Lure they are as manageable as any line I use.

My lake is wall to wall salt cedar and mesquite so my light weight finesse line is 14#.  I use Line & Lure conditioner faithfully.

I use Vanish (probably the flouro with the most negative feedback out there) and totally love it. I do treat it with KVD L & L conditioner and find it to be much more manageable than equal pound test Trilene XT.  I literally have almost no problems with stiffness, backlashes, breakage or anything and have caught more fish since starting to use this than ever before.

17lb test on baitcaster.

I may have spoken to soon.

This weekend, I had a lure on the XPS flouro, cast it out, and realized that the line, deep  into the spool was "cut". I reeled it in by hand and saved the lure. This is what I am talking about. How the heck does the line, deep into the spool, break? What is the point of using this line if you have to put conditioner on it every time you use it? FRUSTRATED!!!!

ajr

I may have spoken to soon.

This weekend, I had a lure on the XPS flouro, cast it out, and realized that the line, deep into the spool was "cut". I reeled it in by hand and saved the lure. This is what I am talking about. How the heck does the line, deep into the spool, break? What is the point of using this line if you have to put conditioner on it every time you use it? FRUSTRATED!!!!

ajr

Thats the good thing about Line & Lure Conditioner. Its not a spray and cast product. You pretreat the line before you go out. The one treatment will last you the better part of the day if not all day.