Page 22 - Joseph B. Healy "The Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots"
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with diameters thinner than monofilament. Thinner, stronger, tougher
became the marketing language of the day. Because it had a fabric feel,
it didn’t kink and still cast well. However, its surface was slippery
(compared to monofilament) and unfortunately knots were known to slip
out of the line. Further, the lines were so limp they might foul your fishing
by wrapping around a rod tip, causing potential rod breakage. The
limpness also made for flaccid knot tying, so to speak, as wrapping loops
became more difficult than when you used relatively stiff monofilament.
Finally—and for many anglers the last straw—the lines were abrasive to
the touch and could cut into fingers as you fished or tied knots. These
factors limited the adoption of Super Braids—at least at first. One positive
was that the lines generally floated, so were convenient for topwater
fishing.
Over time, manufacturers improved the characteristics of the Super
Braids. A primary change was to impregnate the lines with a polymer or
to use a tighter braiding technique so they held together tighter than
previously, and this seemed to add a little desirable stiffness to the lines.
A second-generation of Super Braids is now available, and the lines are
clearly here to stay. They seem to be made for spooling on bait-casting
outfits, and certainly have their proponents for spinning rods. I used the
lines in the mid-1990s, when they were fairly new, and was tutored in
flipping and pitching by a pro while we fished a southern lake for
largemouth bass. It was fun and satisfying fishing, and I liked the way the
lines behaved and allowed me to get a “feel” for the plastic baits we were
using as I was measuring the target distance of my flips and pitches.
These braided fishing lines have replaced Dacron (a synthetic
polyester) braids in many applications—though Dacron, which is less
expensive than the Super Braids, is still used as fly-line backing and for
trolling in fresh and salt water.
One popular “superline” is Fireline by Berkley. The company tells us:
“Berkley-branded lines are made from the highest grade Dyneema in the
industry, a gel-spun polyethylene that is fifteen times stronger than steel
by weight … Berkley superlines offer zero stretch at typical fishing loads,
plus low memory and, thanks to incredibly high tensile strength,
remarkably thin line diameters.” In the knot-tying instructions in this book,
I’ve selected knots that work well with so-called Super Braids that are