I’ve never been a great lover of Diawa Sensor. It’s a bit like Marmite to me, you either love it or hate it.
Its a good enough line and it’s not very expensive either, but I just don’t like the way it often crinkles when your tying a hook and the way it’s memory tends to cause it to curl after a while on the spool, and I’m not keen on it’s shiny surface either.
Other than the above it’s a good reliable line however it’s just not for me.
I do like Maxima; but with reservations; because of tests a mate and I did with it a few years ago;
A few years ago a mate and I were fishing in adjacent swims on the river Lea at Bayfordbury after Chub and he was getting at least two bites for every one of mine. We were using exactly the same setups and the only difference was the lines we were using.
He was using Maxima Chameleon and I was using something else (Sylcast I think) and we even swapped rods over and the bites followed the rod with the Maxima line on. However when a fish swam through beds of rushes the Maxima would often part just like cotton while the other line would hold firm more times than not.
So it appeared that although Maxima produced the most bites and was also a very reliable line in most other respects including it being a good sinking line; it’s resistance to abrasion was not quite as good as it could have been.
Since then I would only trust Maxima when I was fishing in open water without too many snags around.
NB: I don’t know whether they have improved Maximas abrasion resistance since then, but once bitten and all that.
My current favourite lines are: Terry Eustace Pro Gold for bottom fishing and Dave Harrel Pro Float line for float fishing. I used to use Drennan Floatfish line but it only comes on 100mtr spools where’as the Dave Harrel Pro Float line comes on 300mtr spools, and a couple of my match reels take around 200mtrs of fine line. It has all the advantages that Drennan Floatfish has; including the hard surface coating which resists shot damage etc. Plus it also has a slightly reduced line diameter.
The Terry Eustace Pro Gold line is known for its suppleness and it’s abrasion and shock resistances, and I also prefer it’s very pale green colour, however it’s breaking strains are (like Sensor) under rated, for example in tests the 15lb line breaks at over 18lb and it’s 6lb line breaks at nearer the 8lb mark so when comparing it with other lines this should be taken into account.
Keith
