Line for trotting

[John Keane]

Hyper Sensor isn’t clear, I use it in 15lb on my pike rods.

 

[peterjg]

I use 4lb sensor for float fishing (roach) and 6lb sensor for legering (roach), it's good line, cheap and is stocked in most tackle shops. I have tried other lines but keep going back to brown sensor. I have also tried 3lb clear sensor but preferred the 4lb brown.

It's cheap enough to change it regularly. To quickly strip line from a reel spool I put a section (about 8-9 inches) of old bank stick in an electric drill, cover the bankstick with a piece of paper and then remove the old line onto the bank stick, the paper with the old line is easily slid off and disposed of.

 

[Alan Tyler]

I don't think it's the brand of line that's the problem, but slack line.
One cause may be too "good" a reel; a lot of modern reels do a pretty good impression of "Perpetual Motion" machines, and if your float slows down - reaching a slightly deeper spot is a common cause - while the reel keeps spinning at the same speed, you'll be in trouble.
This is made worse by the strong possibility that it will be the exact spot where you're getting the bites, so you'll be focussing on the float, rather than the reel.
If you can hold the rod up so you're viewing the float through the Bermuda Triangle of rod, reel, line and butt ring, it can assist with early detection of slack, but that isn't always feasible.

Another cause may be using a line guard when there isn't a hostile wind; this gives a loop of slack, forming on the drum, something to push against, moving the point of peeling-off back to the turn behind it - the birth of a bird's nest. This will be worst with stiffish lines that "want" to be straight - like Sensor, which, vexingly, is why such lines are good to trot with when all is going well; they lay so nicely on the water.

Try applying a bit of the compensating drag and thumbing the reel round to pay off line, or if your reel doesn't have one, keep your thumb on the reel, pull off line with your reel-hand, and feed it to the float an armful at a time.

Persevere - I've been using pins for nearly sixty years, and I'm still learning. Slowly. For instance, it was only while writing this that I realised the role of the line guard in generating tangles. It's good to talk; ain't forums useful?

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Thanks folks!! Some very good stuff here. Alan, I take on board the point about the line guard, however I do also use an Okuma Adventa Pro without a guard sometimes and I have to say I'd generally rather have the guard than not (as I always seem to fish on windy days!)

However, something else that's cropped up here (from Tigger maybe) is that I was batting the reel to retrieve and given that the flow wasn't that great, I can imagine that this probably wasn't retrieving the line under sufficient enough tension to then pay out properly on the next trot. So - I am going to try changing lines (I will give floatfish or bayer perlon a go I think) - but I will also bear in mind that when I'm fishing a fairly gentle flow, it's worth making sure the line goes back under tension (I can apply that with my right hand).

cheers
Jim

 

[Alan Tyler]

... that I was batting the reel to retrieve and given that the flow wasn't that great, I can imagine that this probably wasn't retrieving the line under sufficient enough tension to then pay out properly on the next trot.

I hadn't thought of that one, but I'm not really a high-speed batter. I wonder how often that's caught me out? More food for thought!

 

[Alan Tyler]

BTW, I should probably have made it clearer that by "Hostile" wind, I meant one that is trying to blow the line roundthe reel stem, i.e. from reel-hand to rod-hand-side.
The other way, trying to blow it off the handles-side of the reel is a mere bunglefest, the former is an utter flustercluck.

 

[tigger]

There are a number of ways of keeping your line that bit taughter as it goes back on the reel but I don't think I can explaine in writing.
Batting in can cause slack line depending on your technique, your best to either wind in via the handles or with a finger in the front of the spool as fast as possible which keeps the line taught. The other faster way to retrieve is to pull your rod back as far as possibl, and the bring the rod forward as you whizz the spool round as fast as you can by pushing on a handle and hold the tip up so the weight of the line and the inhertia of it coming off the water keeps it taught enough to go on the spool sufficiently taught. I don't know if you can work out what i've just tried to explaine, if you where infront of me I could show you in a jiffy. Maybe if the forum has a fish in sometime little things like this can be shared.

 

[jasonbean1]

Surely not on the Thames Jim, take a week for the float to move 30yds.

Same as Sam, DH pro float... Wouldn't use float fish now at all and defintly not sensor, that can stay on the ledger rods

 

[silvers]

I use the ordinary brown stuff. It is quite a camo line in water and if you shine light on it it seems to be green! I very occassionally use ordinary clear sensor in 8lb on the centrepin but for the biggest part I use 4 and 6lb in brown.

I've never seen hyper sensor so can't comment on it. Have yoy used the Hyper sensor ?

no I haven't used it. I did use 6lb brown sensor for feeder fishing for a while, but prefer Daiwa Tournament mono in 8lb for that now.

Just been on Daiwa website - and there are actually 3 versions:
clear
brown
Hyper - which is more grey as stated above - which is lower diameter for same stated BS. I was wondering if perhaps this version was different in other characteristics.

I have to say I'm with Sam Vimes on this one - I simply couldn't countenance using it for float fishing as you do. But each to their own. As I've written previously - I use MUCH lighter floats than you in most circumstances.

And it piqued my interest because of reading Matt Godfrey's chapter in Jim Baxter's "Rising Antenna" that the key to avoiding tangles with (big) sliders is to use thicker (therefore stiffer) line. Matt's chosen line is Hyper Sensor (I can't remember whether 0.21 or 0.23). If it's the latter then this is same diameter as 6lb brown sensor.

 

[jasonbean1]

my experience with hyper sensor to normal was not good, its good to fish with and behaves itself but testing it with big fish and weed it just wasn't durable enough compared to standard sensor so switched back.

 

[nottskev]

Have yoy used the Hyper sensor ?

Excuse me butting in - I've used it. I wanted something to pull tench and carp away from a big reed bed in a gravel pit corner, so I bought some 10lb. Nice dark colour, only 0.26mm and £6.50 for 300m. (The sticker's still on it). It was all good - til it came to fishing with it, when it went as Sam describes. I can go for years without a tangle at the reel; after an hour with this, I looked down and had the mother of a tangle around the reel, the sort you can never undo. Since the rod was in a rest, I'd have to say the line had shown great initiative and ingenuity. When I dug it out of the cupboard just, I half expected to find a bird's nest, but it was ok. Perhaps it's only activated when it smells water?

 

[tigger]

Excuse me butting in - I've used it. I wanted something to pull tench and carp away from a big reed bed in a gravel pit corner, so I bought some 10lb. Nice dark colour, only 0.26mm and £6.50 for 300m. (The sticker's still on it). It was all good - til it came to fishing with it, when it went as Sam describes. I can go for years without a tangle at the reel; after an hour with this, I looked down and had the mother of a tangle around the reel, the sort you can never undo. Since the rod was in a rest, I'd have to say the line had shown great initiative and ingenuity. When I dug it out of the cupboard just, I half expected to find a bird's nest, but it was ok. Perhaps it's only activated when it smells water?

Ok, that's a little off putting !
To be honest i'm happy with my normal run of the mill sensor and old faithfull perlon.

I only use sensor in 4, 6 and very occassionally 8lb (even more occassionally in 10lb) and the higher in b/s you go the springier it goes. I think this does apply to all the mono's i've used though.

I've used nash bullet, fox graviton, fox camo etc wtc in 10 aand 12lb b/s in the past and they all seem the same, especially the nash!
The god thing about using a pin, it seems to eradicate the springy coiling effect that a lot of lines do when used on a f/s reel.

 

[nottskev]

Ok, that's a little off putting !
To be honest i'm happy with my normal run of the mill sensor and old faithfull perlon.

I only use sensor in 4, 6 and very occassionally 8lb (even more occassionally in 10lb) and the higher in b/s you go the springier it goes. I think this does apply to all the mono's i've used though.

I've used nash bullet, fox graviton, fox camo etc wtc in 10 aand 12lb b/s in the past and they all seem the same, especially the nash!
The god thing about using a pin, it seems to eradicate the springy coiling effect that a lot of lines do when used on a f/s reel.

No -one can argue the normal stuff doesn't work well for you on the pin - the pics are all there on HDYGO. In this case, there may have been another factor. I was using a Shimano Twinpower XTR (that's the more expensive Japanese job, not the later XTRa) full of bearings with a single handle, and it has the annoying habit of the handle always wanting to drop to the bottom, a small movement that can open the door for a springy line to make an escape bid. For me, I don't like double handles and some reels are just too free-running! Most front drags, for instance, to me feel "empty" and have the handle flop. I've sometimes resorted to heavier grease to get the feel I like in a reel and stop it turning when I don't want it to. It may have been line and reel misfiring together.

 

[daniel121]

I use maxima, I know it a sinking line but it does a good job of floating to me unless I put some washing up liquid on it, then it sinks like a brick.

Works for me

 

[tigger]

No -one can argue the normal stuff doesn't work well for you on the pin - the pics are all there on HDYGO. In this case, there may have been another factor. I was using a Shimano Twinpower XTR (that's the more expensive Japanese job, not the later XTRa) full of bearings with a single handle, and it has the annoying habit of the handle always wanting to drop to the bottom, a small movement that can open the door for a springy line to make an escape bid. For me, I don't like double handles and some reels are just too free-running! Most front drags, for instance, to me feel "empty" and have the handle flop. I've sometimes resorted to heavier grease to get the feel I like in a reel and stop it turning when I don't want it to. It may have been line and reel misfiring together.

I'm not too sure I know what you mean....do you mean the handle drops back because the anti reverse isn't on?
I know a lot of the older reels didn't have infinate anti reverse so there was a little bit of movement either way even with the anti reverse on but it was only a tiny bit of movement, it was annoying though, and especially when tightening up to a leger!
I don't have any prob's with sensor on my f/s reels either. As I said though I only have up to 6lb on my float fishing reels but I do have 8 and 10lb sensor on someo of my baitrunner reels and the very rare occassions that I do leger on the river, or even on a still water with such heavy lines I don't have any issues that I can remember.

Kev, i've swapped and changed my lines so many times over the years in search of that special line and after spending good money after bad money I always come back to the ones I picked out years ago. That isn't because of any loyalty or anything, it's because I just think it's still the best I can get for my kind'a fishing.
Many years ago I got a huge spool of abu mono, it's so long ago I can't remember what it was called other than it was a bulk spool of abu and it was 8lb strain. At the time i'd been using 4lb line for carp on a local reservoire and I wanted something a bit stronger. Anyhow I remember the abu line was a lower diameter than the 4lb line i'd been using. I showed ot to a few of my m8's at the time which was a mistake as they all kept coming round asking if they could just fill a spool up with it. It was a crumpin spool of line and even after spooling up a few of my m8's spools as well as my own there was loads left on it and it lasted me for years! I wish I could remember what the name of it was but it's so long ago it might as well have been another lifetime lol.

 

[nottskev]

I'm not too sure I know what you mean....do you mean the handle drops back because the anti reverse isn't on?
I know a lot of the older reels didn't have infinate anti reverse so there was a little bit of movement either way even with the anti reverse on but it was only a tiny bit of movement, it was annoying though, and especially when tightening up to a leger!
I don't have any prob's with sensor on my f/s reels either. As I said though I only have up to 6lb on my float fishing reels but I do have 8 and 10lb sensor on someo of my baitrunner reels and the very rare occassions that I do leger on the river, or even on a still water with such heavy lines I don't have any issues that I can remember.

Kev, i've swapped and changed my lines so many times over the years in search of that special line and after spending good money after bad money I always come back to the ones I picked out years ago. That isn't because of any loyalty or anything, it's because I just think it's still the best I can get for my kind'a fishing.
Many years ago I got a huge spool of abu mono, it's so long ago I can't remember what it was called other than it was a bulk spool of abu and it was 8lb strain. At the time i'd been using 4lb line for carp on a local reservoire and I wanted something a bit stronger. Anyhow I remember the abu line was a lower diameter than the 4lb line i'd been using. I showed ot to a few of my m8's at the time which was a mistake as they all kept coming round asking if they could just fill a spool up with it. It was a crumpin spool of line and even after spooling up a few of my m8's spools as well as my own there was loads left on it and it lasted me for years! I wish I could remember what the name of it was but it's so long ago it might as well have been another lifetime lol.

Yes - I like reels where the handle/rotor stay where they are when you take your hand off, whether the anti-reverse is on or off! That happens with my older Shimano's but newer ones,especially front drag, turn much more freely. Hence my preference for a heavier grease. I don't see why fs's have to turn like greased lightning - they aren't delivering line like a centrepin - and I think, again, it's just me, a bit of resistance stops a reel feeling gutless. The double handle , if you like them, stops the handle dropping, but I think they look naff and spoil a reel - just a personal thing, like liking duplon or not etc.

I once had some Abu line....it was a kind of blue colour, and it was called Abulon. That's going back a bit, though.

 

[wetthrough]

I don't see why fs's have to turn like greased lightning - they aren't delivering line like a centrepin - and I think, again, it's just me, a bit of resistance stops a reel feeling gutless. The double handle , if you like them, stops the handle dropping, but I think they look naff and spoil a reel - just a personal thing, like liking duplon or not etc.

It's not just you. I have a Daiwa 16TDM3012 that I don't much care for for just that reason. The foldaway handle doesn't help either. It just adds to the loose feel.

 

[barbelboi]

the higher in b/s you go the springier it goes. I think this does apply to all the mono's i've used though.

About time you tried Pro-Gold then..................................

 

[tigger]

About time you tried Pro-Gold then..................................

For trotting?
I thought it was a sinking line though?

 

[sam vimes]

I was using a Shimano Twinpower XTR (that's the more expensive Japanese job, not the later XTRa) full of bearings with a single handle, and it has the annoying habit of the handle always wanting to drop to the bottom, a small movement that can open the door for a springy line to make an escape bid. For me, I don't like double handles and some reels are just too free-running! Most front drags, for instance, to me feel "empty" and have the handle flop. I've sometimes resorted to heavier grease to get the feel I like in a reel and stop it turning when I don't want it to. It may have been line and reel misfiring together.

I know exactly what you mean. The gearing on my old Japanese Shimano Stradic GTMs somehow feels more substantial and reassuringly solid than many more modern Shimanos. I love my Twinpower Ci4 RAs, but they do feel somehow insubstantial in comparison and the handle will drop at the merest provocation.

On giving a new Stradic Ci4+ RA a go, I was surprised to find that it had that slightly heavier and more substantial feel when you turned the handle. It feels like they've put the gearing of a 90s reel into a bang up to date body. Being single handled, not double, it will drop depending upon the position of the rotor, but it doesn't do so as easily.