Yamatoyo Spinning Fluoro

After now fishing with this as my mainline for a couple of fruitful sessions, I thought I'd share with you the delight that is Fluoro mainline for Light Game work.

3lb was used in this test

At this point, I feel that I must tell the complete story of the Fluoro and I. It all started at the last Plymouth meet. I arrived to see others already fishing and I excitedly set up next to Paul, anxious to try out the new line. It was spooled perfectly on to a brand new Shimano Rarenium 3000 and balanced beautifully on my Light Game rod. Lure tied, bail off, cast..... SPLASH!!! WTF? Look at rod tip, still there - Phew, thought I'd snapped it. Work my way down the blank checking for anything missing or broken, but it looks fine. Get to the reel - Or at least what's left of it! In my excitement, I had loosened the spool just a little too much. Ok, way too much! As I cast, the spool had actually flown off of the reel and in to the water. Not impressed, the air may have turned just a little blue. Fear not though, all ended well. I managed to pull the actual spool straight back out of the water, but was missing the end cap(drag adjust). Thankfully, it was a particularly low tide that night and I managed to find the end cap by climbing down a boat access ladder and foraging around in the weed. Lesson learned.

Pollack - Yamatoyo Spinning Fluoro 3lb

I really wasn't too sure what to expect from the Fluoro mainline, I did know however that the Japanese use it for most of their Light Game applications - Choosing it for various reasons over super fine PE braids. The two facts that interested me most were that you can feel 'drop back' bites (fish picks up bait and runs toward you), and also that the line sinks, enabling you to utilize retrieve styles more effectively. Upon making my first cast, I actually felt the lure splash down, and the feed back through the rod was reminiscent of my days beach casting - where you could often feel the bait hit the water when casting at range.

The next thing that I noticed, was casting range. I didn't expect it to match the normal 0.4PE braid I use, but I wasn't to be dissapointed. Perhaps 30% down on distance. This was made up for though in the fact that the Fluoro didn't get caught in the breeze, instead it traced the exact arc of the lure during the cast. Excellent. Something that seriously annoys me while fishing fine braid is the huge arc you'll get floating through the air in anything other than 'sneezy' conditions.

FISH ON - Now this to me is obviously the most important bit. If it doesn't feel rite when you're actually fishing it, you'll lose confidence by the load. The good news is that it felt awesome with a fish on. I kind of preferred it over the PE braid if I'm brutally honest. The slight stretch in the Fluoro seemed to compliment the action of the rod perfectly, and the lunging runs of each Pollack were absorbed with a far less 'jagged' feel than usual.

So, in conclusion. I don't see the Fluoro mainline as any sort of replacement for PE braid, but more as a compliment to it. They both have their uses for various methods we are fishing. For OTD and deeper water, it's always going to be the braid for me. But breezy conditions, shallower water and slow retrieved styles are definitely going to see me using the Fluoro mainline as 1st choice.

 Yamatoyo Spinning Fluoro is now available from http://www.artoffishing.co.uk/