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Clear main lines

Julian Griffiths

Julian Griffiths

Senior Member
Morning everyone

I've been puzzling over this thought in my mind, and would like to see what the general consensus was on it....

I have used, clear monofilament on my reels. (Gardner Hydroflo)

I've heard a lot said about wiping the lines down afterward, to clear them from the staining that builds up on them. Night fishing it's not an issue obviously.

By not doing so, I don't personally feel my day time catch rates has been affected by it.

To my mind if the water stains your line then surely it would improve on its ability to hide/conceal itself better wouldn't it, thus what's the point of having to clean it?
 
I prefer clear lines and have done for decades - all the way back to Berkeley XT and XL in the early 90’s. My mates and I used to import bulk spools from the USA. Terry Eustace was selling small spools here - but at serious prices! Before that we had to use maxima or sylcast.

Nowadays clear lines are out of fashion here -unless you use Fluoro. I use some of the clear Gardner line you mention, but the rest of the time I use their green lines.

Ive done a lot of saltwater fly fishing and one of the first things that teaches you is that clear leaders are a must in clear water. Because it is sight fishing you see the reaction of the fish every cast - so you learn what works and doesn’t work really fast.

I do my limited barbel fishing these days in dirty (Thames) water so the line doesn’t really matter - but I might go and re-visit the Kennet next season which could be different assuming it’s clear(er).

I don’t wipe down my lines or routinely use back leads but I did try clear Fluoro mainlines for carp for a while back and did wipe them down as they seemed to collect more debris. I caught some good fish from a very hard water - but hand on heart I don’t think the Fluoro made much difference.

Just as an aside; I bought a big spool of orange Berkeley line (Trimax) back in the day and it was brilliant stuff for mainline. I used it for years and it never noticeably affected my catch rate on river or Stillwater…..
 
I went through a period of using a marker pen to break up my hooklink.

Then onto Adrenna line that goes intermittently light brown and clear.

Now I tend to use Gardener clear on lakes and light green on rivers
 
Julian Griffiths said:
Morning everyone

I've been puzzling over this thought in my mind, and would like to see what the general consensus was on it....

I have used, clear monofilament on my reels. (Gardner Hydroflo)

I've heard a lot said about wiping the lines down afterward, to clear them from the staining that builds up on them. Night fishing it's not an issue obviously.

By not doing so, I don't personally feel my day time catch rates has been affected by it.

To my mind if the water stains your line then surely it would improve on its ability to hide/conceal itself better wouldn't it, thus what's the point of having to clean it?
Click to expand...
Personally I don't think the colour matters too much. I do use Mimicry which is a ' camo ' line but not for it's colour, more it's physical properties and it hasn't let me down.
When I upstream the line is pinned by the current, when I downstream I fish with a bow in, and normally fish longish hooklinks , to keep the bait away from the feeder. I might even use tungsten tubing above the feeder to really nail it down and extend the point of entry of the mainline n relation to the hook.
If I'm snag fishing I use a leader material and helicopter rig , again to pin the line down for a good 2ft.
If I was cleaning line it would be more to do with some of the damage that could be happening.
I'm normally quite fastidious about changing line but a couple of occasions I've grabbed a rod, got to the bank but fortunately really tested the line/ knot before fishing. Happened last season with 15llb sensor, looked and felt great, would have been less than a year, stored away from sunlight ( UV & Ozone) but snapped like cotton when tested. And I mean like a 3lb line!
Was like this for a good 5-6m. No obvious abrasion?
After the ' rotten' bit it was perfect?
So this length was obviously the bit that had been in the water. I fish tips relatively high so even on a 30yd cast a lot of the line will be above the river.
God knows what chemicals are in our rivers nowadays? Had it just abosrbed 'water' and degraded?
 
It's a poser really. If you watch the videos of barbel spooking off line that they brush against that they were previously unaware of, you'd be led to believe that it's best to use highly conspicuous line. Personally I don't see it as an issue ...but if/when I do want to try to 'hide' my line, I use a back-lead. Plus even fluorocarbon line can be highly visible as it can be coated in micro-bubbles of air (stick a piece in a glass of water .. and that's using line straight off the spool, with a brand new shiny untarnished surface).
 
Terry Simner said:
It's a poser really. If you watch the videos of barbel spooking off line that they brush against that they were previously unaware of, you'd be led to believe that it's best to use highly conspicuous line. Personally I don't see it as an issue ...but if/when I do want to try to 'hide' my line, I use a back-lead. Plus even fluorocarbon line can be highly visible as it can be coated in micro-bubbles of air (stick a piece in a glass of water .. and that's using line straight off the spool, with a brand new shiny untarnished surface).
Click to expand...
For barbel that’s Absolutely my thoughts too Terry. When people start worrying about what our main lines are looking like that’s when people start going down the road of reducing diameters and focusing on visual appearances rather than strength and abrasion resistance.
If you don’t want them to be bothered about it pin it down or increase the length of your hook length.
I use 0.35 green line in my favorite trusted brand and I’m sure it sticks out like a sore thumb.
If I can I’ll pin a good MTR down behind the lead and if I can’t I’ll extend to a good MTR in front of it. Seems to work as occasionally I’ll catch 1.
 
Terry Simner said:
It's a poser really. If you watch the videos of barbel spooking off line that they brush against that they were previously unaware of, you'd be led to believe that it's best to use highly conspicuous line. Personally I don't see it as an issue ...but if/when I do want to try to 'hide' my line, I use a back-lead. Plus even fluorocarbon line can be highly visible as it can be coated in micro-bubbles of air (stick a piece in a glass of water .. and that's using line straight off the spool, with a brand new shiny untarnished surface).
Click to expand...
I would back -lead a lot more but it's snag city in most swims I fish, and I have a skill of finding every one.
 
It is an interesting topic. For the last fifteen years or so, I have used a fluorocarbon (X-line, mainly in 10lb; which breaks at only 8lb 14oz, But has the best abrasion resistance I know. And before anyone says that is too weak, I believe my results of landed fish to lost speaks for itself, ie, if I am unlucky, 1 a season lost, usauslly none) for all my fishing until the end of last season. My feeling is, as the weed growth has been killed off and the river runs a horrible brown algae colour (Rivers Loddon and Kennet); the line is more obvious to the fish. Even fishing 3-4ft hooklengths my results have suffered. BUT, is that due to the decline in the bio mass of barbel, or that they have become more spooky. A change to a good mono in February 2023 has brought two good barbel and a pb chub, so I am at the moment happy to continue using this. I am still using Fluorocarbon hooklengths though. Has Richard has said...... Do we over complicate things as our confidence suffers, and then we lead ourselves up the wrong garden path.
 
Paul Richardson said:
Personally I don't think the colour matters too much. I do use Mimicry which is a ' camo ' line but not for it's colour, more it's physical properties and it hasn't let me down.
When I upstream the line is pinned by the current, when I downstream I fish with a bow in, and normally fish longish hooklinks , to keep the bait away from the feeder. I might even use tungsten tubing above the feeder to really nail it down and extend the point of entry of the mainline n relation to the hook.
If I'm snag fishing I use a leader material and helicopter rig , again to pin the line down for a good 2ft.
If I was cleaning line it would be more to do with some of the damage that could be happening.
I'm normally quite fastidious about changing line but a couple of occasions I've grabbed a rod, got to the bank but fortunately really tested the line/ knot before fishing. Happened last season with 15llb sensor, looked and felt great, would have been less than a year, stored away from sunlight ( UV & Ozone) but snapped like cotton when tested. And I mean like a 3lb line!
Was like this for a good 5-6m. No obvious abrasion?
After the ' rotten' bit it was perfect?
So this length was obviously the bit that had been in the water. I fish tips relatively high so even on a 30yd cast a lot of the line will be above the river.
God knows what chemicals are in our rivers nowadays? Had it just abosrbed 'water' and degraded?
Click to expand...
Interesting read that Paul. 👍
 
Terry Simner said:
It's a poser really. If you watch the videos of barbel spooking off line that they brush against that they were previously unaware of, you'd be led to believe that it's best to use highly conspicuous line. Personally I don't see it as an issue ...but if/when I do want to try to 'hide' my line, I use a back-lead. Plus even fluorocarbon line can be highly visible as it can be coated in micro-bubbles of air (stick a piece in a glass of water .. and that's using line straight off the spool, with a brand new shiny untarnished surface).
Click to expand...
I've noticed that too. 👍
 
Never really given it much thought as I use very long hook lengths and I'm 99% sure that I'm drawing fish from downstream so they get to the bait before the line. Plus it's usually dark when I fish anyway... If I do fish during the daylight then I try to keep the bait as far from the line as I can, and blob down a good six feet of mainline with plasticine above the lead, so I'm looking at around 10ft of clear area above the bait usually. I've caught countless barbel on various stretches of the Nene the last few years by fishing this way.
I imagine that wiping a clear line wouldn't give much advantage, if I was a fish I'd be more comfortable with strands of weed and stuff flowing past and hanging in the flow rather than a long perfectly clear line running at an angle through the water, leading to an ominous little pile of food below a lump of metal....
 
I have tried most clear lines and flurocarbons over the years, pro clear, berlkey, ultima, tiger, fox, Korda, suffix, x-line etc. the clear mono’s (especially pro clear) I am happy with, but I never noticed any difference in bites even when fishing 4 rods and testing different lines. Fluorocarbon, I have not bothered with for years now. I found it made no improvement to my catch rate, even on crystal clear lakes ( could see the bottom in 11ft). The only advantage I found was better abrasion resistance, but mainly density and thus sink rate. Downside being reduced BS, less limp, harder to cast any distance, basically higher maintenance. I always clean my lines at the end of a session with a wipe or wet cloth, I’m convinced it extends the life span and is especially important for distance fishing and I soon notice any nicks. I think a lot of the “ newer” heavier monos, negate the need for fluorocarbon ( esp loaded xt, touchdown, etc..) and especially when you get upwards of 0.32 diameter. I do still use fluorocarbons for leaders when I need them (short ones) or make some leadcore ones. Unless I am using braided hook length ( atomic Jel-e-wire or esp ) then I use fluorocarbon hook length exclusively (G5 or seagar soft).
As others have mentioned, I believe the fish spook when they brush against the line if they haven’t seen it, so pinning it down or sometimes if that’s not possible, making it blatantly obvious often helps. Again I fished a 200+ acre lake where you could only cast from the bank, i fished everything super finely balanced with .20 / 0.22 braid, and braid shock leader to get the 150yds + needed, one of my mates used to take his beach casters, bright orange line, shiny 5 oz zip leads, 6” black amnesia hook length, fish bowstring tight and catch just as many as the rest of us!
 
Just wondering, where does the above leave those tnat use braid in its multiple colours available, never seen clear braid yet .

I dont use braid and therefore cannot have any imput, but it would be interesting to see what the difference is between Braid / Mono /Flourocarbon and Copolymer .

David
 
Not sure this link will work to my Facebook page if not look it up on my page from 5th July last year.

Basically, I’ve fished bright orange line straight through to the hook for 99% of last season. The results surprised me.

I finished up with nearly twice the amount of barbel last season as I did the season before. Of course the catch rate is not because of the orange line, but despite it.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0q8nqH1CaYm9BdfYHL2URNqVBAoWavnL1chyb3a1XkpnoUxGT6Cieq6KhHnCBVgoFl&id=1563246728
 
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