OK you superbraid fans, let's see which line gets the most votes from the following selection. Feel free to post what you like and don't like about the various ones you have tried. Particularly interested in the comments of anyone who has tried the new Stren line.

Can the guy who voted for Stren corroborate whether or not the manufacturer's "new and improved" claims are really true?

My favorite was the whiplash ; I don't think the stealth spider wire is the same as the whiplash .....Ross

Fireline gets my vote. Super easy to work with, very strong, and never ever gets that wrap around the rod tip.

Fish Hawg,
This is off subject but thats a nice looking Suburban you got in your avitar.

Fish Hawg

Spiderwire Stealth is indeed a "resurrection" of Berkley's Whiplash. Seems the product never really took off under that original moniker. Spiderwire bought the rights, renamed it, and added a hi-viz yellow version. It's selling a lot better with the sexier name. Ahhh.... the magic of marketing. Kind of like "silverbright" salmon for dogs. :p

Well, I voted for what turns out to be, as of now, the going away leader, which is not how things always turn out with me.

Now, off topic, who sent in the info. and got the free spool of the new Stren line...what was it?...MagnaFlex, or something like that?

I tried to tie a few leaders with it, and it turned out to be the biggest piece of junk I've ever tried to use as fishing line.

I know that a lot of folks say stuff like that about all kinds of products, but I believe if you looked up all my posts from day one, which was a long time ago, you'll never find a post where I said something that strong. I usually stay out of product threads, but this thread, and the Stren free line offer, have struck a couple of chords with me.

Fish on...

Todd.

Fireline got my vote and PowerPro would be close second.

Whiplash! Still have it on all the level winds, since I found it in Soldotna at Freddys in 2000. Bought two bulk spools after that and regretting not buying more. I did get a free spool of Stealth with the mail in offer,I guess it will have to do, but it doesn't seem the same to me. Either that or it took to much abuse from the reds/kings.
FP
Is this for sure a same product?

Irie1

The guys at Trustworthy Hardware in Soldotna and several guides I know have all said the same thing.... Spiderwire Stealth is just re-packaged Whiplash. I have a spool of Moss Green Whiplash and a new spool of Tracer Yellow Stealth, and the weave in the braid is identical in both lines.

I have been looking rather unsuccessfully for a bright yellow hi-viz superbraid that is colorfast. Western Filaments told me their dye on the TUF Line XP was a vast improvement and would last longer than anything else out there. Well, not so. Even just spooling the stuff onto my reels resulted in the coating flaking off into a powder. The other downside to XP is the weave in the braid.... very coarse. Sounds like sandpaper going thru the guides and cuts skin like a serrated knife.

So far I like the hi-viz Stealth, but like the rest of them, it doesn't hold its color for very long either. Haven't tried PowerPro because they didn't have the yellow stuff at Sportco when I was first looking (that's when I first tried TUF Line XP). Looking at the Cabela's catalog, I see PowerPro sells for half again as much as 300 yd spool of Stealth, and Stren SuperBraid sells for even more.

To economize, I "top-off" my salmon reels with only 75 yds of superbraid. That part gets 99% of the wear and tear while the stuff underneath never sees the light of day. That way I can get three more refills out of one 300 yd spool of superbraid. The rest of the reel is spooled with 30# flyline backing (hollow Dacron) which lasts forever.

Wish there was a 'I haven't used any' selection. I've never used them, but I would like to see the results to see which is everyone's favorite should I decide to try a super braid.

Been halibut/bottomfishing with both Tuffline and Tuff plus for a few years, they both serve their purpose well and I would recommend either, can't imagine ever bottomfishing without the stuff.
I have never tried any of the others mentioned, the resort I work for supplies the Tuff line and as long as they do, I don't really have any reason to switch.

The Stealth/ Whiplash comparison confuses me. Spiderwire Stealth, produced by the same company that made Whiplash (Pure Fishing, which owns a number of various brands including both Spider and Berkley), is quite a bit different from Whiplash. The braiding process is different in that Teflon and other materials are fused to the gel-spun polyethylene as it's woven in Stealth. Whiplash had a tighter braid and is coated after the fact, I believe.

There are other differences, but the PR guy I talked to wasn't as sure as he was about the above.

Both are good lines, but they are different. I like Whiplash for bottomfishing, Stealth for backing on fly reels and in freshwater applications, FireLine in several applications where I think it excels. They're all tools, and should be used that way.

Keith

Has anyone tried the hi-viz new Stren? They claim that the colors don't fade. Power Pro is my favorite but a couple times a year I have to take a permanent marker to it so it has some color. I like PP because it stays round and doesn't turn into dental floss like the other braids. Being round it also doesn't give you as many line cuts either.

Spectra fiber is notoriously difficult to color permanently. In other applications, it gets wrapped with nylon or polyester to provide abrasion protection and coloration. I kind of like the non-permanent color -- when I see white, I figure that section has some wear to it so I cut back to green.

BTW, we snapped a blackmouth off of 80# Whiplash yesterday, by accidently running the line along the edge of one of the swimstep brackets, so this stuff will cut fairly easily. I guess thats's a pretty stupid trick to try with any line, though

Regards.

Finegrain
Woodinville

When we were deciding what braid to use for Halibut, line diameter was as big a concern for us as any other factor. Here in WA we typically fish a little deeper than you guys up north so you can see were this is relevent.
We decided on power pro simply because I took a micrometer to all the popular braids, and of the ones I measured, PP obviously was the thinnest on average.
It has held up well, doesn't have the "dig into itself" problems I've had with other braids.
One thing about TUF line that I do really, really like is the price per yard.
Through a guide program discount from a certain retailer, TUF is about 15% cheaper for me than the PP is per yard.
I just stick with it because I can squeeze more of it on a reel, and confidence.
We use 80lb on 340gti's with pelagic series loomis stand-up rods. 30lb on our inshore bottomfish rods.
(Voted PP)

J.D.

I got a spool of Stren superbraid in 10# hi vis a few weeks ago. When I was spooling it on my reel I felt little lumps on the line as it was going through my fingers. I stopped and looked at it with a magnifying glass an found it had small deformed frayed spots at random throughout its length. I sent it back to for a refund.

Been using Power Pro for several years now salmon fishing and I have no reason to switch and no complaints. I do change it every couple of seasons, after I have stripped it down to about 50 yards or so left on top of the mono backing - it does wear out but so does everything as much as I fish . I buy it in bulk spools and put on maybe 100 yards at a time.

The only fish I have ever lost to a mainline break on Power Pro came this summer, when I was doing something stupid like strip-casting for summer steelhead using 10 pound PP (that's 2 pound diameter ) with my fly rod on some sour summer steelhead that I could only interest with a slightly weighted fly bounced off their nose from long distance - I was using a stike indicator as a float and fishing probably 30 yards above them to stay out of sight. Well, one hog about 3 feet long finally ate my fly, and after nearly cleaning me out first going upstream and then downstream I had him worked up to the bank, when he caught his second wind, ran me around the one little stick out in the middle of the pool, and ran me back upstream. I finally waded out over my boots to loosten my line from the snag, but by then about 50 yards of line was frayed, and when I finally came up tignt on him it parted readily. So don't use the real skinny stuff where it can be abraded, and you will be ok.

power pro, there is no substitute. One thing many don't do is keep a few extra reels around that have been reworked or freshly cleaned and detailed. Then rotate your reels, by rotate I mean take the full reel and put a backing on it to prevent line spin and digging. Then attach the end of the line to the fresh reel and reel it on. I use my power pro two seasons. For backing I use 12 pound maxima that way if you hook a sturgeon while springer fishing the backing breaks and not your 300.00 favorite springer rod. Been doing this six or seven years, works awesome.Another helpful hint is buy the 1500 yard spools, this way you and your fishing partners can divide up the cost, way cheaper

Well the board has spoken... PowerPro by more than a 2:1 margin over all others combined.

Time to place my order!

Thank you one and all.

I didn't make a vote because you didn't have a
"none of the above" box.

I think it is all junk unless you were going Halibut fishing.

fp

Got my first spool of Power Pro. Haven't fished the stuff yet, but here's what I think right out of the box. ( Yeah I've got spools of PowerPro, SW Stealth, Whiplash, and TUF-line XP side by side.)

PP is defintely coarser in texture than Stealth and Whiplash, but not as coarse as XP. Stealth and Whiplash (which I maintain are identical) are definitely the smoothest of the superlines. No funky sound as the line runs out of the rod guides against a tight drag.

PP definitely has more "body" than the others (more like the stiffness of mono), then XP, then Stealth/Whilpash. Does this "body" hold up after repeated fishing use, or does it get limp and tangly like the others?

PowerPro will, with wear, get limp like the others BUT I didn't notice the fraying problem with PowerPro that I did with Gorilla Braid and Whiplash, which btw I liked a lot too.

One word of advice; this could be just me but I'd recommend becoming REAL good friends with the Palomar (sp) knot!!!

And the stick to pull the snags.

I tried Fireline for a season. Overall I was pretty happy with it, but I didn't like the way the line over time became bumpy and "frayed" looking.

I tried Power Pro for a season. I was all pumped up about this line from everything I heard about it on this board, I quickly loaded up all my spinning and casting reels and fished it hard for a year. I began noticing problems when I used it on my stradic spinning reels and abu/shimano baitcasters. The line would often tend to bury itself while winding it up on the spool of your reel, didn't seem to matter if it was spinning or baitcasting. Then when you went to cast "El snappo" as you watched your line and rig go sailing as you sat there and watched and became mystified on how a 30# braid could break so easy (I personally watched Jerry Garcia do this 3 times in one day while beach fishing off of Whidbey

BD

I would be too BD.

No way a 30# braid (of any brand, let alone PP) snaps off on a cast unless it is breaking off at the knot. But this is a well documented issue and although some braids are easier to tie a good knot than others, they all require better and different knot than mono. I have used double uni or palomar and have never experienced a snap off on a cast with any brand of braid regardless of wear. To reduce wear at terminal end though I will use a mono shock tippet for drift fishing. I will also do this when I am changing lures alot too because knots are far less critical and easier to tie with mono than with braid. But with a GOOD knot and straight braid of ANY brand you're NOT going to break or snap off PERIOD. This is also another very good reason to use a mono shock tippet when fishing rivers so that when you do eventually snag up you can intentionally break off at the terminal end without leaving that nasty ol' braid around. But since a mono shock tippet does introduce another knot into the chain I will only use it where appropriate.

Knots, not line strength or consistency, is the big overriding issue with braids.

When tuffline xp first came out I filled up on of my reels with 30# xp. I could cast a #4 blue fox and break it off by thumbing it hard. It would break any wher from the first eye guide to ten feet from the end of the rod. I took it back ;and they said I got a bad batch and sent it back to the factory. I waited a year before I bought some again. So far I have had no problems.

Fish hawg,
No doubt there will always be QC problems with anything, but I will still contend that this is a VERY rare occurance with fishing lines of any type or brand these days. The market is too crowded and competitive for this to be a common issue as much as fisherman depend on fishing lines in general. However the fact remains that many fisherman fail to appreciate the inherent differences or unique characteristics of different types of lines that are available to them. This is especially true of braids. The problem with braids is that folks fish them like they were fishing mono. Braids, by their vary nature, are actually less prone to "snapping off" than mono (all things being equal) regardless of brand. However braids are more prone than mono to abrasion and slicing (not necessarily cutting). These are often the root cause of failures such as you describe. It is not uncommon to find on closer inspection that some burr on a guide or a sharp edge on a reel or boat is actually the true cause of line failures that get blamed on a braid brand or type. In addition, the limpness of braids makes them particularly vulnernable to edges on open face reels when casting. Braid breaks from 3 to 10 feet out are a very good indicator of these kind of defects. Most stores today though will do whatever it takes to make their customers happy and therefore will often be more inclined to blame it on the manufacturer than risk losing a good customer over trying to educate them and insinuate that they might be doing something wrong. Thus the "Rule of Maxima".
Like anything there are always trade offs; for every benefit there is usually a weakness. Even the lack of stretch which can be desirable at times can also put additional stress on weak points like knots and cuts that might otherwise have gone undetected for a longer period of time with mono. But when it comes to sheer strength, pristine braids are incredibly strong, even too strong at times.

I I know for a fact that the reel or rod was not a problem. Because I just bought a G-Loomis WTR 941c 7'10" 10-17 1/4-1oz and just put a Shimano curado 201 just for spinner fishing slivers.

I do agree with the other stuff you said .....Ross

I took a reel with fresh 20# powerpro up to the Kenai two summers ago and lost at least 4 Reds that couldn't have been more than 10lbs. Line broke in middle, not at knot.
These are the same fish I handled with 12# UG the previous year.
I am not confident with the terminal knot (always used Palomar).
I re-wound it back on the spool and it's sitting in my garage if anyone wants it.
Went back to UG and I'm happy(and confident) again.
I would use it for bottom fishing in 80#.

Goforchrome:

Yep that's about the same experience I had, the powerpro breaking right in the middle of the line! I just got a free 500 yard / 65# spool of Power Pro for buying a Shimano rod, its going straight to E-bay.

BD

Interesting about the power pro.....

I have used it for about eight months now without a single problem. I did have a learning curve at first not realizing different knots would be required.

Which knots are recommended for 50# Power Pro and what do you use to cut it / trim knots?Thanks!

Palomar knot and I use a sharp knife.

EX........

I'm basically lazy and half blind so I take the easy but sure route and use the good ol' Uni knot. I also use a Double Uni when marrying braids to mono. No problems.
Not too long ago someone posted a neat link to a great knot site on a previous thread that showed some other simple and strong braid knots. It might have been from Berkley or Stren or some such vendor. Check it out on Bob's search.
By the way, it seems like the cheap scissors that shear, more than those that cut sharply, seem to work best for braids. I picked up a nice cheap pair labeled specifically for braids at Sportco.
I think you were also asking about mono backing on another thread. Personally I think it's a good idea to lay down a mono bed but only if you have the room to spare. I don't bother with backing on my smaller reels, but on my bigger reels I do in order to avoid the expense of respooling an entire reel of expensive braid all the time. Braids tend to swell, cinch and pinch over time, so a mono backing can definately help maintain a cleaner, smoother wind over time as well.

fish off

I use 50# power pro and while I use uni-knots at times I find that the Polomar knot holds better over time. The obvious exception is line joins which are always back to back uni-knots.

Graybar and several other electrical supply stores carry Lineman's Snips. That's what they're called. I've been cutting superbraides all the way upto 200# for 8 years on the same pair and they're sharp as ever. These things will literally make a penny into a corkscrew and then cut paper with no problem (I've also done that with this very pair). They'll cost you about $20 bucks but they last forever. You can cut wound stainless wire with them too. One side of the blade is micro serrarated so they don't slip on the material you trying to cut.

I think it also depends on who is using it. I spooled up my side drifting rods with 15lbs pp and I personally like it alot. It gets wound around the tip of the rid if your not careful. That being said if I have any one else who doesn't fish alot in the boat its another thing all together. In three trips the hmmmmm relatives (aka crackers) I had in the boat continuosly had the pp around the tip of the rod. This ended up loosing a whole tip(don't ask) and break off the tip of another rod. Needless to say I have 12lb Izo back on the rods.

Tight lines

Kevin