Do you ever notice any damage to your braid around where it bends over your finger for a cast? Trying a new braid and seen it for the first time
I was putting a lure rod back in the rack this morning and I noticed something on the braid (it’s a new braid to me and I have been trying it out for a little while). Upon closer inspection and as per the photo below, there seems to be a fair amount of wear and tear or damage around where the braid would naturally bend over my index finger when I cast the majority of my lures - and for the life of me I can’t remember seeing this before except on that truly awful Gliss mainline from a few years ago which showed damage almost everywhere if you just looked at wrong, let alone take it out fishing!
The frustrating thing is that this new to me braid feels really nice to fish with, but I can’t be doing with having to regularly cut a bit off and retie my leader to allow for this when it happens, not when I honestly cannot recall seeing anything like this on any of the braids I have either fished with in the past or fish with all the time now. This braid which is showing the damage is the Power Pro Super 8 Slick V2 in the 0.15mm/10kg breaking strain and the Moon Shine colour. It goes out lovely, it feels nice, but once again it has proved to me that nothing can ever beat fishing or even lure testing time to start forming a proper opinion on an item of fishing tackle.
I do hear from a few very good anglers who swear by that Berkley Nanofil mainline which I did try many moons ago but from memory I couldn’t find a persuasive argument to switch over to it. I’d be interested in trying the line out again, but most anglers who tell me about Nanofil being so good also say that you need to cut a bit off after every trip and then retie your leader on because the line gets a bit damaged where it sits over your finger on the cast - so it’s not for me because I don’t need to do this with any of the braids I know of and fish with and I can’t see the point in me making more work for myself……………
Except it seems for this Power Pro Super 8 Slick V2. Maybe I have just been unlucky and it will never happen again, but my gut tells me that although it was worth a go, my tryout period with this particular braid is over. It’s not as if I need to find a go-to braid when I trust Sufix 131 and Sufix X8 or Sufix 832 so utterly and completely, but I do enjoy trying different stuff out because you never know what you might find. Hell, if I hadn’t tried out the Sufix 131 way before it came to market this awesome mainline would never have become THE best braid I have ever fished with bar none. The somewhat cheaper Sufix X8 and Sufix 832 are some serious mainlines that would do me more than fine if the 131 didn’t exist, but Sufix 131 does exist, and I can’t get enough of it. I know it’s bloody expensive and I wish this wasn’t the case, but if it helps I haven’t yet binned a single spool of it because it just lasts and lasts. I was interested to see what Power Pro Super 8 Slick V2 was like because the original 4-strand PowerPro is surely one of the strongest and toughest braids ever made. It might just be me and how I fish, but it kinda freaks me out if I hadn’t noticed that damage to the line this morning and I had gone out fishing with it like this. I was using this braid in the video below when I reviewed this rather lovely Shimano Vanford C5000XG. At least I gave it a go……………
Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.