wetthrough
Well-known member
I fished Lymm Dam on Tuesday and sometime in the afternoon I got snagged and had to pull for a break. The mainline snapped above the float leaving my float sat there as a warning to others. It'll no doubt be there for many years to come, along with the one in the trees on the opposite side and then there's the one - never mind, enough of my casting prowessmg: I'm just glad it didn't happen with a fish on.
Main line was Drennan Float Fish 4.4lb, hooklength Drennan Supplex Fluorocarbon 3.3lb so why did the main line break? Conventional wisdom says main line 1lb or 0.02 above the hooklength so that should be OK. The previous occasion I was fishing I was fishing at around 7'9" I think. On Tuesday it was about 44" and my suspicion is that despite only using No8 and 10s Stotz which I'm quite careful with, the line snapped where the previous days shot had been. I don't pinch them on any more than necessary and they're not holding the float in place, I use float stops and loaded floats. I won't be able to prove that unless I get the float and line back which is unlikely but it's my best guess. However, I still don't think it should have broken which got me thinking as to why.
The 1lb/0.02 difference was set in stone many years ago before the introduction of fluorocarbon lines. Nylon deteriorates/weakens with moisture absorption and heat. Had I been using nylon for both hooklength and main line they would both have deteriorated in much the same way and I'd still (it was really hot on Tuesday as if you need telling!) have something like the 1lb difference. A combination of extreme heat and moisture could weaken the line considerably, maybe as much as 20% which would reduce the main line strength to something like (Drennan stuff is usually fairly accurate) 3.5lb which is worryingly close to the 3.3lb hooklength. Add a few percent for shot damage and we're there.
The difference is that fluorocarbon doesn't deteriorate with moisture and from some rudimentary testing, isn't significantly affected by the sort of temperatures encountered in the way that nylon is.
Maybe we need a bigger safety margin when mixing line types. I've just respooled mine with 5lb Float Fish and hope it's enough.
Before anyone says - ahh, but main lines break above and hooklengths below the stated strengths. I'm aware of that and would suggest that the 1lb difference was arrived at by trial and error whearas in reality the difference is more like 1.5:2lb.
Just food for thought.
Main line was Drennan Float Fish 4.4lb, hooklength Drennan Supplex Fluorocarbon 3.3lb so why did the main line break? Conventional wisdom says main line 1lb or 0.02 above the hooklength so that should be OK. The previous occasion I was fishing I was fishing at around 7'9" I think. On Tuesday it was about 44" and my suspicion is that despite only using No8 and 10s Stotz which I'm quite careful with, the line snapped where the previous days shot had been. I don't pinch them on any more than necessary and they're not holding the float in place, I use float stops and loaded floats. I won't be able to prove that unless I get the float and line back which is unlikely but it's my best guess. However, I still don't think it should have broken which got me thinking as to why.
The 1lb/0.02 difference was set in stone many years ago before the introduction of fluorocarbon lines. Nylon deteriorates/weakens with moisture absorption and heat. Had I been using nylon for both hooklength and main line they would both have deteriorated in much the same way and I'd still (it was really hot on Tuesday as if you need telling!) have something like the 1lb difference. A combination of extreme heat and moisture could weaken the line considerably, maybe as much as 20% which would reduce the main line strength to something like (Drennan stuff is usually fairly accurate) 3.5lb which is worryingly close to the 3.3lb hooklength. Add a few percent for shot damage and we're there.
The difference is that fluorocarbon doesn't deteriorate with moisture and from some rudimentary testing, isn't significantly affected by the sort of temperatures encountered in the way that nylon is.
Maybe we need a bigger safety margin when mixing line types. I've just respooled mine with 5lb Float Fish and hope it's enough.
Before anyone says - ahh, but main lines break above and hooklengths below the stated strengths. I'm aware of that and would suggest that the 1lb difference was arrived at by trial and error whearas in reality the difference is more like 1.5:2lb.
Just food for thought.