Jeff Woodhouse
Moaning Marlow Meldrew
In the past I bought Preston's Reflo Power lines and after testing the diameters of them found them woefully out, by a large margin sometimes. I.e.: a 0.19mm Ø measured on my micrometer at 0.21mm. Even worse on a 0.22mm Ø that measured 0.25mm.
You might think 'So what?', but it does matter when you're trying to match hooklinks to mainlines. I even complained to Preston about it and they said that the line manufacturer gave them the wrong diameters, but that didn't wash with me. They should be checking and making sure that the line diameters stated on their product are accurate!
I'm still not sure whether the breaking strains of the lines are accurate, they seem to be in a straight pull, but do they allow for wet knot strength, which always used to be quoted at one time? They seemed good enough to me and I've not lost many fish because of line strengths.
Recently I decided I needed some new spools and can't get the Reflo Power any longer so looking around I see they have Accu Power now. I ordered the 0.18mm and 0.20mm Øs to see what they were like fully expecting them to be understated yet again.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE! I just measured them and they are spot on +/- 0.004, which is acceptable. Once again I will trust the B/S of the lines, but just pulling on them (what?) they seem fine, only time will tell.
Contrarily, I also ordered some Middy Lo-Viz line in 0.16mm Ø and guess what? It's out at 0.18mm Ø so it's the same diameter as the spool of Accu Power. The Accu Power will therefore stay at home to be used tying new hooklinks and the Middy stuff will go in the bag for use whilst fishing with the label duly corrected. Why can't they all be honest?
You might think 'So what?', but it does matter when you're trying to match hooklinks to mainlines. I even complained to Preston about it and they said that the line manufacturer gave them the wrong diameters, but that didn't wash with me. They should be checking and making sure that the line diameters stated on their product are accurate!
I'm still not sure whether the breaking strains of the lines are accurate, they seem to be in a straight pull, but do they allow for wet knot strength, which always used to be quoted at one time? They seemed good enough to me and I've not lost many fish because of line strengths.
Recently I decided I needed some new spools and can't get the Reflo Power any longer so looking around I see they have Accu Power now. I ordered the 0.18mm and 0.20mm Øs to see what they were like fully expecting them to be understated yet again.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE! I just measured them and they are spot on +/- 0.004, which is acceptable. Once again I will trust the B/S of the lines, but just pulling on them (what?) they seem fine, only time will tell.
Contrarily, I also ordered some Middy Lo-Viz line in 0.16mm Ø and guess what? It's out at 0.18mm Ø so it's the same diameter as the spool of Accu Power. The Accu Power will therefore stay at home to be used tying new hooklinks and the Middy stuff will go in the bag for use whilst fishing with the label duly corrected. Why can't they all be honest?