Boom!

[Vince Maddock]

I'd be more likely to.incerase the breaking strain here... less likely to be found out with a breakage..

That's my point, to keep it 'balanced' a 12lb hooklink will need a 15lb boom section and an 18lb mainline. people are suggesting hooklinks and boom sections that come in a minimum of 20lb so will need a 25lb mainline(?) or is my 'balanced' approach old fashioned?

 

[Stephen Crowhurst]

We don’t need invisible lines or thin diameters to catch em. Just pin it down and make it strong

True mostly but in gin clear, pressured waters with low stock things can be different especially in daylight. I’ve converted the frustration of hours into a fish in minutes by giving in and using a more subtle presentation, too many times for it to be coincidental.
If the conditions allow/require it I’d go subtle sooner these days to save those frustrating blanks. Clearly thought I’d be measuring up wether it was appropriate, in some circumstances it would be inappropriate to use fine line.
Of corse

 

[Ste Whybrow]

Never used a combi rig it's a 12lb fluorocarbon hooklink by pallatrax right through and I've never lost a fish to a cut off and I fish the ribble, also surely if an angler keeps getting cut off is it not the responsibility of the angler to move and find a swim not as snaggy instead of upping the diameter of his hooklink??

 

[Richard Isaacs]

True mostly but in gin clear, pressured waters with low stock things can be different especially in daylight. I’ve converted the frustration of hours into a fish in minutes by giving in and using a more subtle presentation, too many times for it to be coincidental.
If the conditions allow/require it I’d go subtle sooner these days to save those frustrating blanks. Clearly thought I’d be measuring up wether it was appropriate, in some circumstances it would be inappropriate to use fine line.
Of corse

I disagree Stephen and the reason being is because the waters you describe are waters I’ve fished for the last 20 years. Low stock, big fish, small rivers that run gin clear for 80% of the season.
Scaling down and worrying about fine clear lines is something I believe to be completely unnecessary and over risky. I fish tight to cover and it’s locked up hard, hit and hold.
Any weakness in the hardware gets found out within seconds of picking up the rod.

I catch plenty of wised up double figure fish through the hours of daylight and they are not concerned with the thickness of my line/hook length or the colour providing it’s pinned down hard and not coming into contact with them.

You can see my thick coated braid and tubing behind the lead running across the bottom clear as day when the rig is put in the margins.
They don’t give a monkeys if they don’t know you are there.

 

[Stephen Crowhurst]

I disagree Stephen and the reason being is because the waters you describe are waters I’ve fished for the last 20 years. Low stock, big fish, small rivers that run gin clear for 80% of the season.
Scaling down and worrying about fine clear lines is something I believe to be completely unnecessary and over risky. I fish tight to cover and it’s locked up hard, hit and hold.
Any weakness in the hardware gets found out within seconds of picking up the rod.

I catch plenty of wised up double figure fish through the hours of daylight and they are not concerned with the thickness of my line/hook length or the colour providing it’s pinned down hard and not coming into contact with them.

You can see my thick coated braid and tubing behind the lead running across the bottom clear as day when the rig is put in the margins.
They don’t give a monkeys if they don’t know you are there.

If it works for you it works.

 

[Rob Mitchell]

That's my point, to keep it 'balanced' a 12lb hooklink will need a 15lb boom section and an 18lb mainline. people are suggesting hooklinks and boom sections that come in a minimum of 20lb so will need a 25lb mainline(?) or is my 'balanced' approach old fashioned?

The point with modern setups is you don’t want a breakage full stop, so use everything strong enough to avoid that. It’s the boom section thats more likely to be damaged on rocks etc, but making the hook section weaker is just adding a potential point of failure (I’m talking about snaggy or tight swims when there’s potential for cut offs or breakages from big fish).

On the Tidal Trent I usually use 15lb mainline, 15-18lb boom and 15lb soft braid hook section, or shorter coated braid hooklinks in 15 or 20lb. In the cleaner swims I’ll use 12lb fluoro straight through as a long hooklink in clear water.

The only fish I’ve lost to a cut off or breakage in the last 4 years was using 20lb ESP tungsten loaded coated braid, so pretty much nothing would have stopped that happening. I test every rig I cast out with a pair of pullers too.