Stren Tinted fluoro

I bought a spool of the Gunsmoke and another one that was a copper like colour in the 20lb class at the start of the year. I had been using them for leaders with no issues up until about a month ago. However on my first wreck trip of the year out of Culdaff, I lost 4 or 5 good fish. Each time when I reeled the rig up, the line would have ripped well away from the hook, ie if the flowing trace started out 10 foot long, I’d be left with a trace 6ft long. The thing about it, is that, it wasn’t happening consistantly, as I did manage to land some really decent Pollack, while some of the break off didn’t feel to be nearly as big?
After that trip I bought a spool of the 50lb stren fluoro for wreck fishing, and noticed that veals no longer stock the 20lb stuff?
On Saturday at the Culdaff Festival, I lost 3 fish in a row while gilling for Pollack, using traces tied with the 20lb stuff. Each time it was the same problem, the trace appeared to break a random places along the length of the trace. After the third lost fish, I switched over to the 50lb stuff, which solved the problem.
I have read that fluoro can be very unforgiving with regards to knot tieing, rightly or wrongly I always use a uni knot when tieing traces, its very easy to tie, and I always give the hook a good pull with a pair of pliers to tighten the knot.
Has anyone had any problems with Stren tinted fluoro, or is it just me?

sounds to me that there is inconsistincy in the line,weaknesses in the line that is causing the breaks where your getting them,might be a dodgy spool,thats normally a good brand.

Could be an issue with line being left in direct sunlight, or knots not being moistend when being tied can cause weakness.

I seen that happen before with lines. Thing was, when I got an eye ball where it had been bought, The person that bought it, got it cheap. Ex show stuff from a window facing S.

Er, NO it wern't me, I get mine from a good dealer here in Kilkeel

Dave

seems this happens quite a bit with cheap fluorocarbon leaders, you'll be never sure where and how it was stored, it really effects knot strength when exposed to UV say in a shop window or somewhere prominent, Seaguar FC from a reliable source for me all the way, saves a lot of grief.

paddy u should know by now that stuff is all rubbish
the only one for gilling pollock is Seaguar
even at 20lb i have never lost a fish on it

paddy did you buy it from a shop or on line ? some times when you buy on line they send you the stuff that they have on display, and god knows how long its been out on display "say in the window" if thats the case then it will be well weathered with the sun light and therefore useless. if you got it from a tackle shop just take it back and i'm sure they will refund you or exchange it for another spool...

one of the main benifts to flurocarbon line is it's not supposed to be damaged by UV light. Makes you think that maybe some so called flurocarbons aren't all there cracked up to be.

Seagaur on the other hand is owned by a japanese company called kureha. who by the way inveted flurocarbon fishing line, and in my opinon one of the best. A case of all things are not equal.

Just to put this one to bed, following advice from one of the Larne guys at the Culdaff open, I bought a few spools of Seaguar 20lb fluoro leader, have used it several times since, and have not had one break-off. The seaguar website also states that trying to tint fluoro weakens the line. I also asked a guy at veals why the stopped stocking the 20lb stren tinted fluoro, they said they had several complaints about the line strength!

Paddy,

did you buy the seagaur online or locally. I've checked and I'm running it tight for the weekend on 20lb.
don't think it would reach me in time if I order online.
Marc

Seen it in lough swilly flies today

have to say ive been using stren tinted flouro for over year now and have had absolutley no problems with it. ive used it mainly on my doggy rigs for shore match angling but its never let me down

Paddy,

did you buy the seagaur online or locally. I've checked and I'm running it tight for the weekend on 20lb.
don't think it would reach me in time if I order online.
Marc

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