berkley claims "vanish" fishing line is invisiable underwater. has anyone had any luck steelhead fishing with this line?, and since its so invisiable can you use heavier line?

Flourocarbons are okay lines and they do work well.......they are nearly invisible in the water and have good abrasion resistance, but they can be a pain to get a good strong knot in. I've had times when I had to retie the knot a number of times until I could get it to hold. The line tends to burn itself when you tighten the knot, I've found you have to lube the knot well before you snug it up.

I used vanish for a while and liked it except for the knot problem. I did some knot breaking with a fish scale and found that using smelly jelly for a lubricant would get the knot strenght consistantly up to the line test rating. Also found that the trilene knot is best just like the package says. A good thing to do is carry a small magnifing glass and look at the knot , if you see any sign of fraying, re-tie. All in all I would say the hassle with the knots isn't worth messing with unless you are fishing clear water and/or spooked fish.

I agree with Keta. This line is supposed to be nearly invisible to fish, but fish must not be able to see Maxima Ultragreen either, as it works great. When I tried Vanish, it seemed brittle, as well as the knot strength issues that Keta brings up. There is an article in STS magazine, Feb/March 2000 that is fairly informative on flourocarbon lines, including Vanish. In short, the way they came to the conclusion that fish can not see Vanish, is by placing regular monofilament in a live fish tank for 24 hours, and counting how many times the fish ran into it. (29 times for 6lb Trilene.) The same test using 10lb Vanish, 55 fish ran into it, even though it is a larger diameter than the 6lb Trilene. Their conclusion is that fish would avoid line if they can see it, so the more "hits" the less likely it is that fish see it. I still think Ultragreen is the way to go. Even if fish are seeing it, Ultragreen still seems to produce results time and again. Hope this helps.

Vanish line from berkley is absolute crap!!
flourocarbon shmorocarbon if you are a serious fisherman, stay the hell away from it! it spools terribly on level winds and has a mind of its own, leaps at will off a spinning reel spool even after being properly stretched first, tried some on the sauk when it was low and clear hoping for an edge in the evian clear water, good thing I brought extra maxima ultra green, the saying "if it aint broke dont fix it" applies here, stay with what works........tight lines

I suppose this only applies to plugs but what the heck do you worry about the fish seeing the line for when the bait, spoon or plug is so large and noisy. My dad once asked me what made me think that a fish had enough life experience to know that fishing line was dangerous?? I have tried lots of line and not seen appreciable differences until AFTER the fish is hooked. I don't catch loads of fish either so you be the judge.

I primarily finesse drift fish for steelhead. I don't like Vanish for mainline at all (I use the hi-vis 4# diameter Fireline main @ 10# test with 10# Vanish leaders), but I do like the Vanish fluorocarbon for leader. In clear water I feel it definitely gets more strikes. The knots are more difficult to tie, but if you take your time and lube them they're not too bad to do. Properly tied...the line is excellent for clear water leaders. It's also a lot cheaper than the Stren fluorocarbon leader (I just use the regular mainline Vanish as leader). Anyway, we all have our preferences...find something that works for you and stick with it.

The best application for flourocarbon is in flyfishing. It works excellent for droppers and for fishing chronomids. The abrasion resistance is awesome but look out for wind knots, the strength of flourocarbon lines is cut to about 1/4 line strength with a wind knot.

I tried Vanish and was very disappointed! I've fished for twenty years plus and never have I had so much trouble casting a line. No matter what I did I keep getting birds nests on my reel. I also had a problem with it breaking at the reel when I got snagged. After my one and only trip using the line I called Berkley's Customer Service and was informed that they had been having a number of complaints. According to them, their vendors who manufactured the line had not added enough silicon to the line. Anyway, I sent the line back to them and had them replace it with XL Line. I will never use Vanish again as main line.