So, this subject has been repeatedly discussed across many Interweb boards over the years, including this one. “How strong should line be?” The answer depends - and it’s not necessarily about the size of the fish. Certainly, a 10lb fluke presents no real line-breaking challenge on 10lb test line, which I guess is an obvious point. Just use a net to get him in the boat and all will go as planned.
What is not so obvious is: “what exactly IS 10lb test anyway?” Well, that’s a more complicated question. I addressed this subject in a few threads over the years, most notably this one:
So, I've been saving up my fishing shekels for a new reel to replace my 2005 Curado 200E5, and thought I was gonna put it towards another Abu Revo4 Winch. Well, til this deal came along. This is why I read the various fresh and SW boards every morning, with my first cup of coffee. Sometimes...
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And its not just the composition of the line (as nearly all are made from either Spectra or Dyneema – which for our purposes are identical synthetic fibers). It also depends on where you buy it. I don’t mean from your local Field and Stream store versus your favorite tackle shop, rather from a European or American manufacturer, versus an Asian-intended market. Not a Caucasian-centric point, so please read on.
Here are my thoughts on this subject, much of it lifted from my own threads, with some edits and updating. I like to self-plagiarize, because it saves burning even more of my rapidly dwindling supply of brain cells, as well as my typing finger tips as well.
As I said, this "Pound Test" subject brings up the whole "Japanese PE braided line vs what’s available here" discussion. Well, I'll try to be brief, in the interest of not having people clicking off this tread, after being bored to tears. But then again, brevity is just not my style. So be fore-warned! LOL!
Let's begin - It is obvious to those that look at the latest in fishing gear that the JDM market has been consistently well ahead of what's available here. It is apparent to me that they get at least a 5-8 year jump on "the good stuff," with very few exceptions. This usually applies to reels, rods and especially to higher-tech braided lines.
In the Asian sexy line department, some of the biggest players are Varivas, Sunline and YGK, along with somewhat smaller manufacturers, like Gosen. Frankly, all of the big Asian line providers make a bewildering assortment of differing lines, for specific applications. These can vary greatly in weaves, called "Pics" per inch, the number of individual threads utilized, coatings, and overall limpness. It’s really quite intimidating, once you get into it. Interesting though . . .
For example, at this point everybody knows of the excellence of Sufix's 832, Berkley X9 and J-Braid 8 - all widely available here in the USA. But how many know of the Japanese equivalent of 832, called Performance Pro 8, which omits the single Gore-Tex thread and goes straight PE for all 8 threads? This actually makes for a thinner and somewhat limper line. But it’s not available here, unless you bring it in yourself from a Japanese vendor, like Japan Tackle, Digitaka or Plat. Or you can look to another Sufix line that is JDM only, which is a 16-thread line, though it’s no thicker than their 8-thread version. Costs plenty, but it’s said to be MUCH improved. When do you think we'll see that stuff here? Probably never, would be my guess. Gosen also offers such a line - at right around $85 for a 300-meter spool. It better be a GREAT line for that kind of money, that's for sure.
Nearly all the Japanese line manufacturers offer several versions of "Jigging Braid," which is designed to shoot your lure to the bottom and to keep it there - plus it’s so tightly woven that it will not pick up very much water like most other braids, which translates into much less spool and other component corrosion of your reel. I like that. Hate the price though - as much as four times the cost of our "normal" USDM stuff.
Some of the "best" Asian slow pitch-intended braids will cost more than $90 to fill a small-ish reel, and the Japanese will happily pay it, in order to use tiny rods on large fish. Many of these line makers offer in excess of 20 types of braided line, even featuring specifically developed lines for squid fishing - called "egging" in Asia. I don't know a ton about this type of line, except that its very, very limp and very, very thin. Very, very expensive too . . . so there's that.
Perusing the Japanese tackle vendors sites, I was looking for a super thin line, in 20lb. test, as the intended use was on my then-new Daiwa Catalina, mounted on my Daiwa Proteus SS "H" casting rod, for those days that are so rotten that even a 6oz bucktail fails to maintain contact with the bottom. Putting out a B/S rig with an 8, 10 or even 12oz sinker is no one's idea of fun, but if I'm already out there, and I think the fish are under the boat, I ain't a'comin' home - or heading inshore, in the hopes of calmer conditions. Just NOT my style. Sometimes ya' just gotta suck it up and fish through, ya' know?
With that sort of "Combat Fluking" in mind, I purposely did NOT buy a deep-vee hulled boat all those years ago, because my intended mission was to find an alternative that would NOT rock 'n roll me right off the deck, whilst drifting broadside to the prevailing wave action. That type of boat motion gets really old, really fast. And so my boat's hull design, when combined with its deeply center-mounted inboard's low center of gravity, gives me the ability to continue to fish through days with particularly nasty conditions. Charles Jannice was my boat's marine architect, which is somewhat ironic, because he also designed several of the world's best deep-vee boats, including the 29', 32' and 38' Blackfins. Naturally, because of my hull's design I have to give up some speed in a head sea situation. But that's the trade-off I was and still am willing to make.
For that type of nasty day I always bring along a heavier setup, in order to deal with what seems to be an increasingly common type of fishing. Heck in 2018 we never even put the drift sock in the water, not a single time. In 2019, we used it nine times out of maybe 20 trips - that's how bad conditions were during this season's deep fluking. Man 'o man, I hope 2020 gives us a return to 2018's much nicer conditions, and not a duplicate of 2019's "Summer of Wind." Eh, either way, I'll be out there.
That all being said, what I was looking for in a line was something very thin, but equally strong - so to really cut thru the water, thus allowing a lighter jig or sinker on "those" days. Also important was high visibility (my eyes aren't getting any younger), as well as being fairly limp. This took a ton of research, but I believe that I've found it in Gosen's X8 Braid in 20lb. test. And its available in a pink color - perfecto for this new reel! Done. Ordered it in and though it took a couple of weeks, it appears that it was worth the wait.
Here's Gosen's Japanese web page for this line:
剛戦X8ブレイド ソルトウォーター ｜製品紹介｜株式会社ゴーセン フィッシングサイト(GOSEN)
Ask your browser to translate, I have my Google Chrome set to perform that function automatically. Even a quick perusal of that site's other pages will bear out the near ridiculous number of application-specific lines that Gosen offers - and they aren't even close to the largest provider of PE lines in Japan.
Gosen's box is completely unreadable, being in Japanese, naturally. But hey, it does say one thing in English - "Absolutely Fantastic!" For now, I'll have to take their word for it, pending actual tryouts, this coming May.
I loaded it onto my Catalina this morning and can safely say that this is the thinnest 20lb line that I've ever seen. Though I cannot accurately measure it here at the house, it looks to me to be about HALF the diameter of my current favorite 20lb. line, Sufix 832 - look here, this is the best image I could take:
It is stunningly thinner - more like 8 or 10lb test Sufix 832. And this brings up yet another "issue" when evaluating braided lines, one to another. Here in the good old USA, line makers tend to "under-rate" their lines, meaning that 20lb Sufix 832 has been repeatedly reported to break in the mid-30 pound range. So it does offer a "breakage cushion" for pulling free from deep snags and the such. Most other USA-intended lines are similarly over-rated, as evidenced by several websites that have compiled such intel.
Can I safely predict that my new Gosen line is both super, super thin AND also offers that same over-rated level of surplus breaking strength? At this point, of course not. But I'll find out soon enough, that's for sure. And find out I did. Keep reading . . .
I’ve been watching YouTube videos of other guys with some aptitude doing their offshore fluke jigging over obstructed bottom with as light as 10lb test braid. And though they show quite a few large fluke coming aboard, they never seem to show what happens with such light line when they hang bottom. I'm sure one can safely assume that they donate a hefty amount of jigs for their efforts.
If I'm figuring correctly, my new Gosen braid is double that pound test, while giving up little in diameter to the more commonly available 10lb braids. Hey, its a gamble, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. That's what I do anyways, so whatever I find out about the feasibility of this line, I'll post up.
One last thing. Though this line is relatively inexpensive as JDM lines go, its still more than twice the price of any PP, Sufix, or Daiwa PE line available here - so that's a consideration as well, I guess. The way I rationalize this is if it works as intended in a rough ocean by facilitating the use of lighter jigs or sinkers, while still providing the ability to pull free from at least a few snags out where I fish, then its money well spent.
If you don't buy into my rationale, or do not care to wait for my report on the veracity of this new line, or just want a pink braid that's commonly sold here, then Spiderwire offers their Stealth braid in a tracer-pink/black version. Its 4-thread braid, which is no longer considered cutting edge, but so what? We used 4-thread lines for years before the newer 8-thread stuff became widely available. Anyway, here's my Catalina, all spooled up and ready to go, come the fluke opener:
So, the 20lb Gosen was on the reel, I took it out to my favorite deep, rocky areas and BOOM! No good. Break-off aplenty. Please read on . . .
And so, this brings up yet another "issue" when evaluating braided lines, one to another – and its more about line diameter I’m referring to here. In the good old USA, line makers tend to "under-rate" their lines, meaning that 20lb Sufix 832 has been repeatedly reported to break in the mid-30-pound range. And so, it does offer a "breakage cushion" for pulling free from snags and the such. Most other USA-intended lines are similarly over-rated, as evidenced by several websites that have compiled such intel.
So, that last paragraph from 2019 turned out to be quite prescient. In actual practice this Gosen line cuts thru the deep-water currents like no other 20lb I've ever used. On those days that called for a 5 or 6oz bucktail, I can comfortably and accurately fish a 4oz - much nicer to jig the "smaller"-sized lure for several hours, obviously.
But the down side was that I was not able to pull free of the many snags that are endemic to the deeper locales that I fish. Ultimately, too many lost rigs lead to me swapping out the Gosen 20lb for a fresh load of Sufix 832. Here's the graphic difference, and I'm showinq a Sunline Siglon box as a sub for the Gosen box - because the Gosen box does not feature the pound test/diameter numbers. Sunline Siglon is another Japanese uber-thin braid - very analogous in diameter and handling characteristics to Gosen:
And here's my then-favorite line in the same lb test:
End Part One
