Ross's Ramblings – Fishing Line
Before I start talking about fishing line, there’s one very important thing to understand. Fish don’t know what fishing line is! Don’t forget that. If they knew what fishing line was, they wouldn’t swim into gill nets. They would see the netting, understand what it meant, and go around or over the nets. Musky and Northern pike anglers even put metal leaders in front of their baits, and then troll around or cast line with 50-80lb tensile strengths. We need to be careful, however. Just because fish don’t know what fishing line is, doesn’t mean they won’t have instinctive “needs” that may dissuade them from taking a bite out of your bait.
About 8 years ago, I worked into a walleye pattern on one of Otter Tail County’s prominent walleye fisheries. I had been finding nice groups of walleye on deeper island tops and was only getting minimal action on bottom bouncer rigs and live bait/Lindy Rigs. In fact, I would leave spots with out getting any strikes at all. I began to deduce that crawlers were not working at all. The few fish we were getting off spots were coming on leeches, but the action was still minimal. I finally decided, rather then leaving spots to look for biting fish, I’d camp out on a school of walleye and try to discover a pattern – or I’d have to change lakes. I cut and tied a series of attempts for leeching presentations. I used different leader lengths first – with 8lb test – a standard leader line for me. It didn’t help. Then I tied a couple 6lb test leaders and a few smaller hooks – size 8 and 6 which was a slight down-size from my size 4’s. I had a handful of “panfish” leeches on board, which are about an inch long and put them down. They didn’t last a minute. Instinctively, the walleye were programmed for a small bug-type diet. The lighter line was the key. It was a Trilene XL line. The XL stands for “extra limp.” The limpness of the line allowed those little leeches to swim natural. 8 lb was simply too stiff to give the leeches the “look” that they needed. That pattern worked for another 5 weeks.
As my story suggests, line diameter was important and so was the limpness of the line. Therefore, the value I found in using 6lb test as opposed to 8lb test was a bait-effective difference. I don’t believe it was a “vision” issue. There is one fishing scenario that fish seem bothered by fishing line – they don’t know what it is but they won’t approach your bait if your line is big and ugly. Clear cold water panfish can be very sensitive to line diameter. When I ice fish for panfish, I stay in the 4 lb test line range – or less.
For most common applications, like casting and retrieving for fish, trolling, or fishing still like a still-fishing from a boat at an anchor point, or sitting over a hole in the winter, the overall size of the line doesn’t concern me – how fish perceive it. My whole effort is about bait, lure, performance and consistency. For example: If you cast heavy line with a light lure it won’t cast as far as it would if the line was skinnier. The line acts like a wind catcher or parachute. The same thing happens in the water. The thicker the line the more time it takes a lure to sink, or the more line you need out to troll a bait.
There are plenty of lines to choose from – too many for me to discuss, in detail, in this brief article. The lines that I personally choose for my guiding, are lines that seem to consistently work. Here’s what I use and why.
1. Berkely Trilene XL 4lb, 6lb, 8lb, 10lb, and 12lb test. Berkely XL is the good ole line I grew up using. The line in the red box date back to the 80’s and are as every bit as good now as they were when they first arrived. Berkely XL is one of those products that can’t be undone – it’s that good. It’s limp and life-like, strong, holds knots well, casts great and doesn’t’ have a lot of memory. It’s an ideal line for walleye, panfish and bass angling applications, and seems to get along very well with medium action rods. My preferred colors for this line are green and clear. It’s the only line I use for making leaders for walleye fishing.
2. Berkely XT. The XT stands for extra tough. It’s kind of like the tough cousin to Berkely XL. It’s a bit thicker in diameter per lb test then Berkely XT and a bit stiffer, but it is a survivor. It’s a line I like to put on my reels when I want a sturdy monofilament. It’s also a good leader line.
3. Berkely Transoptic. After trying a bunch of different monofilament lines over twenty years of guiding and not finding a line that holds up like Berkely XL and XT, it was refreshing to finally find Berkely Transoptic. It’s a line that has a gold hue in sunlight and then tones down to a clearer line when it’s overcast or dark. Even though it’s a nice line to work with because it’s easy to see, it’s not the reason I like this line. I have found it to be a bit more rugged then Berkely XL and is still limp so it casts well and works nicely for live bait fishing, but it has a tough quality like Berkely XT.
4. Berkely Fire Line. This is one of the lines on the fore front of the tough-line revolution that began about 15 years ago. Fire Line is a single stranded kevlar based line. It’s amazing stuff. It’s so strong you need special tools or very sharps knives to cut it with. Fish can’t chew through it. I can’t chew through it. It has a smaller diameter per-test weight then the monofilament lines—which I now refer to as “plastic” lines in the company of Fire Line. Because it is a skinny line, it’s a very good trolling line. Kevlar does not stretch—therefore, neither does Fire Line. The no-stretch character of these lines is really the bases for their success, contribution and alteration of fishing presentation applications in fishing today. They have afforded anglers the ability to reproach fishing. Lines that don’t stretch are very sensitive. Therefore, Fire Line and lines like Fire Line are perfect for feeling very light biting fish and can be applied many different ways. I use Fire Line as my base on all of my trolling reels/rods. I use 20 lb test on my bottom bouncing walleye reels and 50-80 lb test on my Muskie gear. I use 6-8 lb Fire Line on my walleye spinning reels. You need to use a polymer knot to tie. Other knots are liable to slip or weaken the line. If you’re using Fire Line or other tough lines for live-bait rigging, I recommend a leader of monofilament. Fire Line leaders do work but I see better results with mono leaders. Finally, be sure your tackle is up to snuff. No-stretch lines have no give so too much pressure the wrong way my cause your rod to break in half.
Figuring out and deciding which fishing line is best for you, should take some time. Most success in fishing is grounded in an individual angler’s confidence in their own fishing methodology. Good luck on the lake.
By Ross Hagemeister, Meister Guide Service
