Page 22 - Joseph B. Healy "The Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots"
P. 22

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
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