Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho's ??

TackleNut
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Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho's ??

Post by TackleNut » Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:29 am

Hi All,

I was writing this as a reply to Master-pro about Fins Braids and his anti Fireline stance in another post but I thought I might a well put this out there for all to see, read & comment.
About the comparison of Fireline vs Fin’s, and some peoples perception that Fireline is the cheap alternative.
Ok so here goes,

That one is a braided line ( Fins ) while the other is a Fused Line ( Fireline ), both systems have their good and not so good attributes. Fireline's as a fused line, its exterior gets fluffy but it doesn't actually lose that much strength from the fluffies, it's exterior coatings that fluff up mostly not the GSP itself, quality rod guides help a lot to keep the line from fluffing up.
Fin's Original on the other hand doesn't fluff up as much, but towards the used end of its line ( normally at the knots ), the braiding starts to become loose, so you end up having to cut and retie after every now and then as the picks and twists end up loose. This happens to many many braids, not just Fin’s.

Some fisho's think that because Fireline is/was available at BigW and Kmart ( been so long since I have been in either store, I don't know if they are still sold there or have they gone with their own generic brands now ? ) normally in 125yd spools and some 300yd spools that the overall impression by these guys that the Fireline is a cheap & nasty alterative, but in fact is dearer than a lot of other gel spun polyethylene otherwise know as PE from the same country, the USA and even Japan.
Fireline costs more Fin’s, Power Pro, Tuffline XP, Stren and even lines from Japan like Daiwa’s Shinobi Braid Super PE, Sunline Super PE and probably many more but you get the message which is that it’s not a cheap line by anyone’s means.
It’s dearer than a lot of it’s competitors but in fact only not only is it #1 in against it’s few direct competitor’s that make fused lines, but it also competitive against many others in the braided market. You look at the names above I have mentioned and one thing that many don’t see is that these lines all share 2 things in common.
1: That they are all polyethylene/pe lines
2: In the most part until they reach 60lb & upward is that they are 3 or 4 carrier lines.

Why 3 or 4 carrier ??? Because it’s much cheaper simpler process & doesn’t take anywhere near the time to make as a 8 or more carrier line, as it uses half the twists and turns that make a braided line.
These days we are seeing a huge amount of pe braid coming out of China as really any factory that has milling/weaving machines, ie cotton for sewing, rope factories and the like all now jumping into the braided pe fishing line market and bandwagon to make a quick buck and sure it’s gsp line but the pik count, coatings and dyes are mainly substandard as they haven’t put in R&D into it and just doing it on the cheap.

As for fused lines like the Fireline ( please do not mistake it as the Fireline Braid that is also available ), Stren Microfuse ‘Braid’ ( why they call it braid is because gsp lines have all become known as braid, ie Fireline = Braid but in fact its Fused, just like the Stren Microfuse ), Sufix Performance Fused ( again Stren also make a Performance Braid ), Platil Millennium Hotfiber 3 Braid ( yet another fused line called braid, this one from Germany ) the process of Fusing gsp isn’t one that can be readily or easily done, so the same Chinese factories that make the cheap braided lines do not have the manufacturing equipment or know how need to make Fused Lines. No doubt that it can be done, but Fused lines can’t be just weaved together in a milling factory like Braid can be.

There’s already enough knock off’s of Power Pro and some Spiderwire, could you imagine if they could imitate Fireline or Microfuse ?
Anyone care to comment, please feel free as there are no right or wrong answers, just peoples opinions.

Regard to all & tight lines,
Tacklenut

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raco09
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by raco09 » Sat Jul 20, 2013 8:56 am

:good:
To fish or not to fish...NOT TO FISH ??Yea...like that's even an option !

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Rod Bender
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by Rod Bender » Sat Jul 20, 2013 9:22 am

A very informative post TackleNut! I can remember my first experience with a 'braided' line (they were all the same to me then) about ten years ago. It was Fireline and I can remember that it went 'fluffy' rather quickly. I was using it on a cheap rod at the time. This deterred me from using it again. Not due to me being concerned that it was weakened, more so my thinking that the 'fluffiness' would reduce my casting distance with the extra friction. This was the last time I tried 'Fireline'.

I stuck with 'mono' until several years later when I purchased a baitcaster. The local tackle store staff member told me that it really needed to be spooled with mono. They spooled it with 'Fins' and that is all I have used since. No doubt there will be more expensive brands out there which are better but I haven't had a problem with it.
thanks
Jim
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eslop
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by eslop » Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:43 am

I use to use Fins, but last braid I bought was Powerpro. It seems a lot thinner and stronger. Haven't used it much, so I'll be interested to see how it wears. Funny how braid has overtaken the fishing world, I remember, (not to long ago), catching plenty of good fish on mono when I lived on the Gold Coast...

:good: Tacklenut.
Cheers, Scott.

pb's
Murray Cod: 92 on spinnerbait, 81 on surface lure, 74 on bait
Golden Perch: 49 on TN60
Redfin: 41 on TN60
Brown Trout: 68 on SP
Rainbow: maybe 10
Mudmarlin: 78

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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by Drifta-X » Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:15 pm

I'm not sure y u refer to a line as PE.
PE is a silk thickness rating and is just a way of giving u it's thickness.
PE it self has nothing to do with the braking strain.

As an example
Sunline super PE .6 is rated at 6lb
Sunline PE egi hg .6 is rated at 12lb
They are both the same thickness.

I'm not keen on coated or fused lines as the are wirey you can put a kink in the line and it gives it a certain memory, stren micro fuse is a good example of this.
The non coated or fused lines don't suffer this problem.
I say problem as if u use a fused or coated line in a bait caster it gives u the poo's very badly.
If I found no differance in the way the line performed I would go get the cheapest one that I could in the colour I wanted and save my money, these days my cheap line is the sunline super PE, and as far as line goes its a great "cheap start" to a quality line (with the exception of .6pe) as it ghost brakes

When using super light lures or jig heads u want the thinnest braid u can possibly get away wih as the wind resistance on the line can meen the differance of many meters in your cast.
The ability to see strikes on your line with a now fused or coated line is also improved dramatically.
That last statement is more to do with light bouncing of jig heads and vibes off the bottom, u would be surprised how many more fish u can catch by watching your line a d not just relying on the feel.

One thing about very thin non fused or coated lines is that you have to have very good line control teqniques otherwise u will wind knot up the wazoo
Btw wind knots are more often then not due to poor line management then actually wind.

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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by ducky » Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:58 pm

PE stands for polyethylene.

The measuring system rates different pe lines based on their thickness. It has taken on the name PE as it refers to the line type from the original name "gouw" which was used to measure the thickness of silk threads. Eg 0.148mm thick = pe 0.8.

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Messiah
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by Messiah » Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:28 pm

Has anyone used frog braid? I have read that it frays quite easily.

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sal.fonzi
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by sal.fonzi » Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:51 pm

Awesome post.. very informative

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ducky
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by ducky » Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:52 pm

Messiah wrote:Has anyone used frog braid? I have read that it frays quite easily.
I've not used it. Can't justify the price. However there's plenty of tournament bream fishos that absolutely swear by the stuff as the best money can buy.

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sal.fonzi
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Re: Fused & Braided Lines, why the great divide among fisho'

Post by sal.fonzi » Sat Jul 20, 2013 2:21 pm

Messiah wrote:Has anyone used frog braid? I have read that it frays quite easily.
I have it on my a shimano aero reel.. havent got too much use out of it yet but it seems good.. no birds nests/wind knots yet. Good knot retention and super smooth.. as I said.. havent had much use yet but am happy with it for now.

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