15lb line, or thereabouts

[tigger]

this is a carp fishing thread!
my fishing in Bangkok is on a large river with a Shakespear float rod, centrepin with 6lb mono. catfish on that are awesome and you certainly feel the stretch
in the UK i carp fish with hand made 2.75 lb Vic Gibson Harrisons with 12 or 15 lb Technium. if you cannot feel how your line is then i would suggest that you pay more attention it is important to know exactly how your gear feels and then to fish accordingly

Had a decent barbel yesterday whilst trotting with a centrepin and a daiwa rod, 6lb sensor which does have a decent stretch.
Barbel do pull back a bit and even though I took my time playing the fish it still put a good bend in the rod and there was no hint of line stretch.....by the way, I do pay attention .

 

[S-Kippy]

I think you are much more likely to notice when a line has little or no stretch...usually when it fails catastrophically. I know my favoured lines have a bit of "give" in them but I cant honestly say I notice that when I'm playing a fish....too much depends on the rod action itself, what the fish is doing and what I'm doing to stop it. As for how much stretch I couldn't tell you but I am confident it wont succumb to a sudden shock like some pre stretched lines can.

 

[Keith M]

Apart from when pulling a snagged line free, and when striking at long range when line stretch can be very apparent (unless you use a long backwards sweep instead of a strike); the only other time when the lines stretch has been really noticeable to me is when I’ve been using the waggler with very fine hooklengths in winter matches; when a longer hooklink is the order of the day because of the extra stretch it can provide on finer hooklengths.

Using a Pole with finer elastics and short hooklengths is fine but with a waggler it can be very different and the extra bit of stretch in your hooklength can be invaluable as long as you don’t pinch any tell-tale shot on too tightly.

Keith

 

[tigger]

Apart from when pulling a snagged line free; the only other time when the lines stretch has been noticeable to me is when I’ve been using the waggler with very fine hooklengths in winter matches; when a long hooklink is the order of the day because of the extra stretch it provides on finer lines.

Using a Pole with finer elastics and short hooklengths is fine but with a waggler it’s different and the extra bit of stretch in your hooklength can be invaluable.

Keith

Yeah but Keith, do you actually notice the line stretch, and by notice it stretch I mean physically notice, feel or see it stretch?
I think it's pretty much impossible to actually physically see your line stretch if playing a fish with rod and line. How can you see or feel it stretch when your rod is bending also. Lets face it any stretch is only visibly noticeable when you have hold of it in your hand and pull it from a fixed point where it's tethered.....but then again I may not be taking enough notice in'it lol.

 

[Keith M]

Yeah but Keith, do you actually notice the line stretch, and by notice it stretch I mean physically notice, feel or see it stretch?
I think it's pretty much impossible to actually physically see your line stretch if playing a fish with rod and line. How can you see or feel it stretch when your rod is bending also. Lets face it any stretch is only visibly noticeable when you have hold of it in your hand and pull it from a fixed point where it's tethered.....but then again I may not be taking enough notice in'it lol.

Hi tigger, I hadn’t finished editing what I wrote :sorry:

In my edit I added:
Apart from when pulling a snagged line free, and when striking at long range when line stretch can be very apparent (unless you use a long backwards sweep instead of a strike);

I don’t notice or see it happening when I’m playing a fish though.

Keith

 

[ieh]

I've only ever noticed line stretch when pulling line against a snag but I rarely fish anything other than small/medium rivers.

Ian

 

[markcw]

this is a carp fishing thread!
my fishing in Bangkok is on a large river with a Shakespear float rod, centrepin with 6lb mono. catfish on that are awesome and you certainly feel the stretch
in the UK i carp fish with hand made 2.75 lb Vic Gibson Harrisons with 12 or 15 lb Technium. if you cannot feel how your line is then i would suggest that you pay more attention it is important to know exactly how your gear feels and then to fish accordingly

To coin a phrase "You must have eyes like a robbers dog" If you can see or feel line stretch when playing a fish. How can you see it stretch ? there are no markings on the line to judge how much stretch it has done, As for feel, I would have thought the rod takes the strain and will bend accordingly depending how much of a fight the fish puts up, You say you fish a large river with a Shakespeare rod, which model ? and a centrepin loaded with 6lb line and that the catfish on that are awesome. So you are bringing in awesome catfish of what size ? on a centre pin and 6lb line against the flow of the river, You seem undergunned for that style of fishing, or your definition of an awesome catfish is different to ours.
yet you say you use 12lb or 15lb technium and high tc rods to carp fish over here, I would have thought a higher b.s of line would be more suited to the river. Out of curiosity , what size hook do you use on the river in Bangkok ?