Carp Line

[Richard713]

Which brand of carp mono and breaking strain is everyone's favourite? I've been using Gardner GT80+ in a 12lb. Pretty happy with it. Debating whether to load the spare spool up with the same or step up to the 15lb version. 

[yonny]

 

1 hour ago, Richard713 said:

Debating whether to load the spare spool up with the same or step up to the 15lb version. 

Do not load up with the same line, it's pointless fella.

Go with something that achieves something different to give yourself options. GT8O is an all-rounder so go with either a casting line or a snag line, depending on which one you might use the most.

For casting check out the pre-stretched lines (Fox Exocet is a good'n) or semi pre-stretched (Technium, GT-HD etc.).

For snag lines look no further than Rig Marole SLS Specimon Tough (awesome stuff) or Gardner Hydro Tuff.

[Richard713]

1 hour ago, yonny said:

 

Do not load up with the same line, it's pointless fella.

Go with something that achieves something different to give yourself options. GT8O is an all-rounder so go with either a casting line or a snag line, depending on which one you might use the most.

For casting check out the pre-stretched lines (Fox Exocet is a good'n) or semi pre-stretched (Technium, GT-HD etc.).

For snag lines look no further than Rig Marole SLS Specimon Tough (awesome stuff) or Gardner Hydro Tuff.

Thanks yonny,
Very valid points you make.
I'm particularly interested in the Rig Marole SLS line for snag fishing.
I've never heard of it but just looked now and it does sound pretty awesome stuff.
I'm booked on a water next month that has lots of snags close in.
Does the line tend to coil when it comes off the spool? 
I've usually ended up with a big tangle when I've been using high abrasion resistant lines in the past! 

[yonny]

It's still a snag line at the end of the day so it's not the most supple line you've ever seen but it's miles better than most. I wouldn't particularly say it coils off the spool, I've certainly not had any issues and I'm using the 18 lb version (have been for a year now)!! I now use it as my every day line, it's the toughest line I've ever known but it casts OK, it's fine to well over 100 yards.

I put Chillfactor on to it (he went for the 15 lb) and he's already seen the benefits when he got snagged up - I'm sure he'll comment at some point. He's cast 140 with it which says a lot.

Crusian is on the 12 lb - not heard feedback from him yet but I fully expect good things.

I cannot recommend this stuff enough mate, it's just brilliant. I can honestly say it's the best line I've ever used. I'm going to France in a couple of weeks to a water that's all 100 yards +. Normally I put a casting line on for that but this year I'm not bothering. I don't need to.

At the shows last summer Rig Marole were doing a demo where they were sawing through wood with this line!!!! It's that tough.

[chillfactor]

You won't regret getting the rig marole line it really does seem to tick a lot of boxes , I was fishing semi slack with it the other week on two margin rods & it hung down perfectly with no sign of it wanting to coil , like yonny mentioned I got it in 15lb & can't see any reason for stepping up to 20 lb , think yonny said he might try the 15lb next time .

As a side note ..... are you mad yonny 100 + yards think of all the fish your be casting over 

 

Buy in confidence Richard it's a quality snag line with out doubt ..... once you get used to the colour 

[yonny]

17 minutes ago, chillfactor said:

think yonny said he might try the 15lb next time .

Yup. I actually already bought another spool of 18 lb before I heard your feedback for my annual re-spool - but I don't need to! There's nowt wrong with the stuff that's been on for a year! So in another year or two I'll go for the 15 lol...

18 minutes ago, chillfactor said:

As a side note ..... are you mad yonny 100 + yards think of all the fish your be casting over 

[Richard713]

Thanks guys! Just looking on eBay now. There is seller doing it for £20 delivered. Sounds good to me. Just need to decide on breaking strain now. I think given that I've got 12lb Gardner already some 15lb of the Rig Marole should give me the flexibility. Thanks to everyone. 

I'll just need some carp to test the dam thing out, something I've had little of for the last few weeks! 

I did however land a nice looking duck last weekend! 

[crusian]

8 hours ago, yonny said:

It's still a snag line at the end of the day so it's not the most supple line you've ever seen but it's miles better than most. I wouldn't particularly say it coils off the spool, I've certainly not had any issues and I'm using the 18 lb version (have been for a year now)!! I now use it as my every day line, it's the toughest line I've ever known but it casts OK, it's fine to well over 100 yards.

I put Chillfactor on to it (he went for the 15 lb) and he's already seen the benefits when he got snagged up - I'm sure he'll comment at some point. He's cast 140 with it which says a lot.

Crusian is on the 12 lb - not heard feedback from him yet but I fully expect good things.

I cannot recommend this stuff enough mate, it's just brilliant. I can honestly say it's the best line I've ever used. I'm going to France in a couple of weeks to a water that's all 100 yards +. Normally I put a casting line on for that but this year I'm not bothering. I don't need to.

At the shows last summer Rig Marole were doing a demo where they were sawing through wood with this line!!!! It's that tough.

Hello Yonny 

Sorry I've been tardy with my feedback , but I haven't been fishing as much as I would like lately .

I chose 12lb as the water I'm fishing at the moment , and probably future waters , do not have any Carp heavier than high 20s ; in addition the snags I will be up against ( when they have regrown ) are Lilies , King Cups and Reeds .

So far the 12lb has been more than a match for the remnants of   last year's Reeds , and overhanging margin branches .

I have been just fishing the margins , and I think some longer casts and / or a heavier weight ( I use 1/3 oz for my margin rod ) would help the line to settle down on the spool as I have had some " coiling " .

 

[chillfactor]

Personally I think coiling of any line is down to how you load it on your spool....rather than the line itself. 

Unless it's on a reel that's not been used for some time. 

[Richard713]

Just received my Rig Marole SLS Specimon Tough Line in 12lb. 
Gonna load this up tonight.
Hopefully be able to report back on it soon enough 

Just noticed an interesting fact, it's diameter is actually less than my Gardner line.....

[yonny]

Chill saw horrendous discolouration of the rag he used to tension the line during loading. Don't let that put you off bud!

On 3/23/2017 at 21:08, chillfactor said:

Personally I think coiling of any line is down to how you load it on your spool....rather than the line itself. 

Agree.

[yonny]

I did have a couple of issues with Ultima F1 (which btw is a brilliant casting line). After a couple of big fish it seemed to stretch somewhat which lead to the most extreme localised coiling, just at the business end. I'd have to remove 5 to 15 ft afterwards. It was fine with smaller fish or fish that didn't row too much.

[yonny]

I've not seen the phenomenon with any other line and I've used loads of 'em.

[Angel Minkov]

On 3/23/2017 at 23:08, chillfactor said:

Personally I think coiling of any line is down to how you load it on your spool....rather than the line itself. 

Unless it's on a reel that's not been used for some time. 

How would you recommend I load my line? To be fair, I never gave it much thought, I just make sure to dip it in water for an hour or so before loading and then make sure its tight. Anything else you would recommend? 

[yonny]

Worth soaking it overnight IMO.

Line needs to be loaded in accordance with the way that it was spooled. Line is spooled in two ways depending on the manufacturer (or in some cases the same manufacturer can use two methods). They can be spooled directly/radially (from the front) or by oscillation (from the side).

Basically that means you need to either load your reel with the spool of line sitting upright OR with the spool on it's side. Your best bet is to choose a method, reel a few turns on, then take a couple back off (not off the clutch, it'll add twist), form a loop and see if it is twisted. If it is, try the other method and see if it's less twisted. Go with the method that leads to less twist. Also make sure it's going onto the reel in the direction it comes off the reel, otherwise you'll impart 360 degrees of twist into the line for every turn of the reel.

[Angel Minkov]

Thanks for the advice, yonny!

"Also make sure it's going onto the reel in the direction it comes off the reel, otherwise you'll impart 360 degrees of twist into the line for every turn of the reel."

I didn't understand this part, though. What did you mean by it? 

 

[yonny]

Sorry, I meant "make sure it's going onto the reel in the direction it comes off the SPOOL (of line)"!!!!!

[nigewoodcock]

Jun 7, 2013
Re-spooling reels- By Nige Woodcock

I was re-spooling my reels the other night and thought I would take a few pictures to show you how I try to make things a bit less time consuming whilst also having a decent line lay with no twist etc.
I’m not sure how much difference the brand of line would make to the process. Maybe more the type but as I use one brand for all my fishing, I can’t guarantee that this method would work for say, fluorocarbon or fluro coated mono. The mono I use is Suffix Synergy, mainly in 12lb. It has all the properties that I require from a mainline; good knot strength, high abrasion resistance, sinks like a stone, casts well with a good line lay on the spool. Those last two qualities though, depend a lot on how the line is loaded onto the spools. You could have the best line out there but spool it up with a bad lay or put twist in it, and you may as well have saved your money and gone for a cheap option.
I like to change my line at least once a season but tend to do it on average twice, sometimes three times. It all depends on what lake I’m fishing and also the amount of sport I have been lucky enough to have had.
The first thing to do is, obviously, strip back the old line. This can be time the most ball breaking part of the process. Wrapping a full big pit spool around your hands is a mare. You also have to think about how you are going to dispose of the old line. A big albatross nest of line is going to be dangerous to wildlife if not dealt with in a safe way.

To help with these two problems faced. I incorporate the use of my drill and the inner of a bog roll! First off I take out any bits that are in the drill and place the roll over the chuck and tape it in place just at the bottom of the roll.

 
Open up the bail arm and tie the line to the cardboard spool as you would your reel spool. All that’s left to do now is pull the trigger whilst holding the drill at 90º to the reel. I guide the line back and forth along the length of the roll leaving around an inch at each end. It takes very little time to empty a spool and one thing to watch is when you get to the end, the force of the stop can cut the line into your finger that’s guiding it onto the roll. I got cocky the other night and didn’t put a glove on. I now have a very deep, clean cut on my index finger!

Once the reel is stripped, I take some of the tape and wrap it around the old line to hold it on the cardboard roll. This leaves you a nice neat package to dispose of or even keep to use for mono hooklinks and the like. Then simply take it off the drill and you’re done. The photos don’t show it as I was keeping this line but if chucking it away, I would tape all the line up before putting in the bin or burn it in the incinerator if I have other stuff to burn.

I’m now ready to start re-spooling proper. Before I started stripping back the old line, I filled a bowl with warm water and soaked the line. I place a 4oz distance lead in the top of the spool to hold it down. This is enough to keep the new spool of line steady whilst filling the reel. The spool needs to be the correct way up for loading. This is with the line leaving the top of the spool in an anticlockwise rotation. This will eliminate the line being loaded in twist onto the reel. With the Synergy, this has always been with the label facing up with every new spool I have used. If this is the case with other brands, I can’t be sure. You can see in the picture below the way the line unloads.

With the reel on the butt section of the rod, I take line through the butt eye and tie it onto the reel with a slip knot. On my reels, there is a recess for the knot and loop of line but if there wasn’t, I would place this first loop around four 5ths of the way down the spool.
When loading the line, I like it to be under a touch of tension so that it is bedded down throughout the depth of the spool. I used to place a book along the length of the line and close the line in the book at different pages depending on how much tension was needed. I found the line used to skip around too much doing it this way so needed a better option. I now use a rod band around the line and the rod. This can be set to give a wide range of tension strength and seems to be a much better and consistent way to add the required amount to get a decent lay and bed of line.

It was always my practice to overfill the spool to allow for the line to bed in once in use. By adding the tension to the line during loading, I can now pretty much fill the spool to a ‘working’ height from the start.
I went out for an evening session on the mere the last night and, as always, it cast perfect first time with no slipping or coiling off the spool. It also sank beautifully with no twist.
The finished spool:

 

 

 

 

[Dicky123]

Found this post interesting. I'm looking at Suffix Synergy and it's diamiter, in 12lb it's 23. In contrast my normal line Daiwa Sensor is 33. That's a huge difference even if it's not 100% accurate!

I know a few of you use it, so just asking does it seem that fine for the breaking strain. I know my 4000 reels will hold a lot more line and cast better with it on. Does in sink well, I do like a sinking line for bottom fishing. Just brought a spool of 1000 yards for a tenner?

 

Thanks All.

Dicky.

[nigewoodcock]

Sinks better than any other mono I have tried. 

[salokcinnodrog]

On 23 March 2017 at 07:16, Richard713 said:

Which brand of carp mono and breaking strain is everyone's favourite? I've been using Gardner GT80+ in a 12lb. Pretty happy with it. Debating whether to load the spare spool up with the same or step up to the 15lb version. 

For many, many years I used Daiwa Sensor in 12 or 15lb.

15 in summer, 12 in winter when there is less weed about.

 

I was given some 15lb Gardner Pro to test, just before it came out when it had the name Pro Carp, before Daiwa made the point of Pro Carp was registered to them, so the name was changed to just Pro, but became available in a dark or light version.

 

I did some serious testing with the dark version, knot strength, and what knots worked best, abrasion resistance, and shear resistance, a straight pull over a sharp edge, casting ability and twist.

 The test results are on here somewhere

 

I can honestly say, these two 'budget' lines which cost around £10 are far better than many more expensive lines. They also contain a true 15lb diameter of 0.35/0.36mm compared to the 'false' breaking strain of a number of 0.40 or 0.38mm lines which are rated as 15lb, but which are actually 18 or 20lb lines.

 

There are times when a more expensive line is needed, for a purpose, casting or particular strength or abrasion resistance like snag fishing.

 

 

[crusian]

4 hours ago, yonny said:

Sorry, I meant "make sure it's going onto the reel in the direction it comes off the SPOOL (of line)"!!!!!

Hi Yonny

So if the Spool of Line is sitting upright and the line comes off clockwise your reel needs to rotate clockwise ? .

Also are you soaking overnight AND winding on through a damp cloth ? 

Ta 

 

[yonny]

11 hours ago, crusian said:

So if the Spool of Line is sitting upright and the line comes off clockwise your reel needs to rotate clockwise ? 

Bear in mind it's a mirror image and your reel has to load clockwise therefore the line should come off the spool anti clockwise.

11 hours ago, crusian said:

Also are you soaking overnight AND winding on through a damp cloth ? 

Yup!

[Dicky123]

I remember years ago a guy that really knew lines (he worked for Duplon that made many of them) told me that almost all lines were made in the same factory some place in the far East. He said many were plain white then dyed the colour required. I'd bet it's still the same and many of the expensive lines we buy are just that?

I'll try the Suffix and see how I go. It's a real step for me to move away from Daiwa. I've only ever used two lines in 45 years of carp fishing. Original Maxima (fantastic amazing line) and Sensor. I'll feedback.

Thanks all for the guide.

I'll just say one guy mentioned the SPIN DOCTOR lead. This is an amazing piece if kit I would not be without.

Dicky.

[Angel Minkov]

On the subject of how to fill your spool - sadly I filled my new Daiwa TDR reel with line JUST before reading the replies here and now there is horrible twist on it. Any idea how to undo it? Sorry for hijacking, just didn't feel like opening a new thread when this one had some info about my question, hope its okay ^^