Samson '36 Strong braid initial impressions - £34.99 for a 300m spool or £24.99 for a 150m spool

There is nothing remotely scientific about my liking specific braids more than other ones, and as per this blog post the other day, between us we all like a whole variety of braids for a whole variety of different reasons. I know I repeat myself about this, but money no object and it’s Sufix 131 for me, then my all round braid of choice has become Berkley Sick X8. So my interest was piqued somewhat when I saw the new Samson '36 Strong braid hit the market and it’s available in white as well as a bright yellow. I know a bit about Grant Woodgate and his Samson Fishing tackle company, so if an angler with his global fishing credentials is putting a braid onto the market which he fishes with, then I’m all ears……………

I also know the bloke who is behind those “Independently Tested Breaking Strains” figures that are on the spool packets and the website. My understanding is that Grant and other trusted anglers have tested the hell out of this Samson '36 Strong braid in different fishing situations around the world, so he knows how strong the stuff is and he’s gone with what could I guess be termed fairly average breaking strains to line diameter for the “official” Samson Fishing figures. Grant then gave a load of his new braid to Warren of Toit Fishing to test. As per this video below, Warren has a proper line testing machine which he can use to very accurately test the actual breaking strain of a line. When I say “actual”, what I mean is simply the line itself - no knots, no joins, no abrasions, simply how much weight it takes to break the (actual) line. Watch the video, it all makes sense.

So now we dial down into the “official” figures and to me it’s the two lowest diameter Samson '36 Strong braids which are of interest for my own lure fishing here in the UK and Ireland - the 0.20mm rated by Samson Fishing at 15lb/7kg and the 0.23lb rated at 20lb/9.5kg. I see no reason to doubt these diameter claims because I know how rigorously this new braid has been tested and measured (numerous line companies take note of this diameter honesty here!), so in some respects we could say that a 0.20mm 8-strand braid for a 15lb breaking strain isn’t actually that impressive (I am not exactly a micrometer expert, but with the one I have here this Samson Fishing braid in 0.20mm consistently measures 0.20mm, maybe I am a micrometer expert after all!).

Now though let’s look at the “true” figures - the Independently Tested Breaking Strains - and you will notice that the 0.20mm/15lb version in fact breaks at an average of 29lbs/13kg on a straight pull, and the 0.23mm breaks at 39lbs/17.5kg. Very interesting. Some anglers tie very good leader knots - the FG knot - and some don’t tie quite as good ones - not the FG knot - but whatever the case, the thinnest 0.20mm Samson '36 Strong braid is actually a 29lb braid and not a 15lb braid. A touch confusing perhaps, but I really admire Grant for choosing not to exaggerate things and if anything slightly undersell his new braid. The way I look at this then is that we’ve got the potential for a serious braid here.

I have grabbed these words from the Samson Fishing website: “This premium 8 strand braid is constructed with 36 weaves compared to the typical 22 to 28 weaves used by other manufacturers. This gives 36 Strong a significant increase in breaking strain, abrasion resistance and high knot strength, allowing you to fish safe in the knowledge that your line will stand up to big fish and rough conditions. With virtually zero stretch you will gain excellent control and receive maximum feedback from your lure or bait. The incorporated Carbon Nano PE technology improves colour retention and prevents water absorption, which stops the line from becoming heavy and reducing casting distance. Together with the round profile this enables you to keep casting further for longer to reach the fish”.

It’s relatively early days for me and this new braid, but already this stuff is creeping up on me in a very positive way. This Samson '36 Strong braid sure feels round between my sausage-fingers, it comes off the spool really well on the cast, it knots well with the FG knot to a fluorocarbon leader, I like the white colour especially, I keep seeing a few water droplets on top of the actual braid on my reel which suggests to me that it’s not absorbing very much water - as I said at the top, none of this is remotely scientific - and it just feels like a really good braid to fish with. The whole feel thing means a lot to me with braid - what does it feel like to fish with in different conditions? I can’t tell you much about any abrasion resistance because a tight braid against a sharp rock is going to be in a lot of trouble regardless of how much you have spent on the line, but I see the sort of lure fishing Grant Woodgate does and that’s enough for me to trust that we’ve got a goodun here.

One thing I really like above other braids I know is the pricing structure for this stuff. You can of course find cheaper braids - this Samson '36 Strong braid is £24.99 for a 150m spool - but what floats my boat is that a 300m spool isn’t just automatically double that 150m spool price. Nope, what we have here is a 300m spool for only £10 more than the 150m spool - £34.99. It’s not as if you need a bigger plastic spool for a 300m spool of braid instead of a 150m spool, so I guess those savings have been passed onto the consumer. I like this. A 150m spool tends to be my regular spool size for bass fishing, but I do quite like using no backing on a larger spinning reel and simply filling it up from empty with braid. When you come to reverse it you are then getting a hell of a lot of brand new line to fish with. If it’s any help, the tart in me by mistake went and bought a Shimano Vanquish C5000XG spinning reel to “celebrate” one year since my heart attack, and I got close to a 300m spool of 0.20mm Samson ‘36 braid onto it with no backing. On the newish Penn Spinfisher VII 3500 I got what looks to be around 200m of the 0.23mm Samson ‘36 braid on there with no backing (I am using a Penn Slammer handle on the Spinfisher, to me it feels even better like this). I will report back in due course, both on the braid and the reels, but it’s all good so far. You all have a good weekend, I know this summer-like weather isn’t much good for the fishing around here, but it feels so good to see so much sunshine before it starts raining until next “summer”………….

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