Fins braid vs Berkley Fireline

[Piranha]

Not trolling Stella Fella but have been called worse than stupid!

I got 2 full seasons use out of 6lb finns but only 2, 5 hour sessions out of unitika night game Pe.6. sure I could cast 2m further with unitika but having to change braid after every second trip is a deal breaker give it a go mate you will be very dissapointed!

[stella fella]

Originally Posted by Piranha

Not trolling Stella Fella but have been called worse than stupid!

I got 2 full seasons use out of 6lb finns but only 2, 5 hour sessions out of unitika night game Pe.6. sure I could cast 2m further with unitika but having to change braid after every second trip is a deal breaker give it a go mate you will be very dissapointed!

Only taking the piss mate What exactly happened when you used the unitika? My experience with aorika II has been phenomenal, and I've had the same spool for 4 years now in 14lb, and has NEVER once broken at the knot when running 20lb or less leader, casts about twice as far as 10lb Finns on my old man's stradic. 6lb fins is about PE 2, and breaks at just over 20lb.

[Piranha]

All good mate, it gave me a laugh the unitika basically fell apart, the outside weave seperated from the inner in various spots along the line, once it seperated it was easy to break between my pinky fingers, lost a few good fish when it failed under very little pressure no where near any knots.

I no longer use finns either (unless I need to tow someone back to the ramp), started using sunline castaway and never had any more problems, now almost every reel I own has castaway on it

cheers

[stella fella]

Originally Posted by Piranha

All good mate, it gave me a laugh the unitika basically fell apart, the outside weave seperated from the inner in various spots along the line, once it seperated it was easy to break between my pinky fingers, lost a few good fish when it failed under very little pressure no where near any knots.

I no longer use finns either (unless I need to tow someone back to the ramp), started using sunline castaway and never had any more problems, now almost every reel I own has castaway on it

cheers

haha you know what's super ironic? a lot of people won't use castaway because they've had that exact problem you had with the unitika! It seems though that it only ever happens to certain people, I think G factor (?) had more than one dodgy batch of castaway so he'll tell you all about it. I've never heard of unitika failing before though so that's a first for me! Maybe give the aorika II a crack, I think it comes in 6lb at the lightest from memory, and is really good stuff! especially on flats and deep water.

[ruski]

+1 Piranha i'm sorry you had a bad experience with the night game but I think you'd love the Aorika II. If you are at the VBC Final this weekend, pop over and see me and i will sort something out for you, to make up for that bad batch.

Did you buy it in Australia or online?

8-14lb is ideal in my opinion. The 6lb is almost too thin!

[timk1111]

I've only the 1 breamin rod at the moment and it has 2lb Fireline Crystal on it. I haven't tried anything else yet, might try the Sunline in due time, but the Fireline has been perfect. No knots at all, casts well and I've caught decent fish with now. I've used Fireline on my flatty rods for a long time too, and no dramas there either.

[redfinfisho]

just read had a quick read over the thread exactly the same as every other thread like it.

But does raise some interesting points

Ill go from personal experience:

Fins absolutely CR@P useless braid ive used it in 20lb cant go more than an hour before something happens to it. bleaches colour, little fibres rub off it wind knots like crazy, holds water and is rough as guts

Power pro in 8lb gets twisted like hell feels really cheap super flat (they even try to advertise that its round LOL) knots badly and tends to slip, also its not that cheap at over $30 and usualy $35-40 so another bad experience there

Then I moved on to Sunline Castaway 10lb PE 0.6 an all round great line that served me for years I reversed it after a year and kept top shooting it and got a second year out of it did lose colour though which didn't bother me (fishing in the filthy yarra will do that to most lines) and did get a little bit fluffed but held strength and casted fine, Had a few wind knots but that was not the lines fault only ever happened on extremely windy days and I was newer to fishing back then. So overall a thumbs up from me

Got some second hand Unitika Silver Thread in PE 0.6 from Dylman off here ran that for a while on my certate again very similar to the Castaway a great line but it did break easier it was rated at 6lb from memory but I do believe it was actually thinner than the 10lb castaway even though both were rated at PE 0.6 the silver thread definitely felt thinner to me. Again a good line

Have had 2 spools of Sunline Super PE run it on both my BC reels a steez and zillion Ive got 15lb and 20lb and a friend has 8lb and 10lb I rate this line as the best value for money line on the Aussie market at $30-$35 you simply will not find a better line for the price. I have had no bad experiences with it and rate it highly

Then I got some Varivas Avani Eging Milkey probably best line ive used to date super strong super thin just an awesome line PE 0.8 will break at 13-14.5lb and PE 0.6 will break at 12lb best part bought it off BM brand new for $40 really don't have a bad thing to say about it maybe I tiny bit of fluffing. Solid thumbs up

I've just order a spool of Unitika aorika II from plat for $30 coz the muliti coloured line will help heaps with docks micro vibing and I expect that to be awesome line aswell will put it on my new 2013, 2004 tate.

and yes you will get the occasional wind knot even with the best lines I think ive had only 1 or 2 on the varivas and this was when fishing for trout in a lake on a day blowing like 45+ km/h nearly impossible to fish in, but that's more from the conditions than the line.

Have seen Sufix 832 on a mates stratic in 12lb turn to Cr@p pretty quickly too. went really fluffy lost colour and strength so don't rate it
and I wouldn't go near fireline or similar lines.
I reckon once you experience a great PE on a quality setup it's hard to go back

My long personal experiences with PE

[TassieDevil]

I always find these which braid threads, no matter what forum, go the same way.
I know I'm probably not right but here's my view;

We all have different combos, we all hold the rod/reel a slightly different way, we all cast differently, we all engage our reels differently and we all have different retrieves and twitches and pauses etc.
Some people love one braid and another hates it. It's all completely subjective.
I believe that with all the subtleties of fishing different lines behave different ways accord to our styles.
I reckon just try a few till you find one that works.

Here's what I've found;

Fireline - average. Works but not the longest casting. Low knots.
Stren MicroFuse - love it but it fluffs up around 12 months and knots fail. Must keep it fresh. 3 and 4 pound are almost idiot proof (IMHO)
Sunline Super PE - personally worst braid I've ever tried for me.
Diawa Shinobi - Loved it subtleness and castability but hated it knotting constantly for me.
Castaway - great but $80 is dear.

That's probably the last ones tried. Super PE is a high favourite of other but the worst for me????

So my favourite braid is now....... 3lb Unitika Silver Thread FlouroCarbon
I love the stuff, I cast no further or shorter than the guys I fish with who use braid. I run one rod with braid for deep plastics and it's 4lb MicroFuse in white.

[Nix88]

I'm only using fluro at this time got rid of all my braids but do you think fellas that the manufacturers may loose consistency from batch to batch?

[Piranha]

Originally Posted by ruski

+1 Piranha i'm sorry you had a bad experience with the night game but I think you'd love the Aorika II. If you are at the VBC Final this weekend, pop over and see me and i will sort something out for you, to make up for that bad batch.

Did you buy it in Australia or online?

8-14lb is ideal in my opinion. The 6lb is almost too thin!

Hi Ruski, I bought it from overseas mate, I don't fish the bream comps but thankyou for the very kind offer.

cheers to both you and Stella Fella for the heads up on the Aorika II, will give it a try next time im spooling up

cheers

[Piranha]

[QUOTE=TassieDevil;587693]Castaway - great but $80 is dear.

Not that dear? I have never paid over $60 for a spool

[cod_botherer]

toray super strong pe is amazing. $50 a spool and it us right up there with unitika and other top braids.

[Bennno]

I was in DohDohDoh the other day and just shook my head at the braid prices and the crap they sell. If you like fireline or finns good for you. It sucks though.

Have a decent look around rakuten and you'll see how cheap quality braid is in Japan. I'm just kicking myself I didn't start using it earlier.

Unitika I like, even the silver thread (12-30lb), but aorika II is very sweet
Castaway is ok for around $40 a spool or less, same for the egi PE
Varivas milky is good as well (wasn't so keen on the regular casting PE)

I've tried most braids and have a mate that swears by fireline, I picked up his combo the other day and put it down after two casts, the recoil on the line made for too much attention. Will take my nice limp braids that pack perfectly back onto the spool with no memory any day thanks very much.

One braid that looked great was 8 strand diawa tournament, but it was totally crap, no abrasion resistance and I could break 30lb with my hands. Never again.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Nix88

I'm only using fluro at this time got rid of all my braids

Hey mate,
Do you fish using light jigheads with the fluoro?

Interesting to know how fluoro compares with 4-8 strand braids when fishing 1/16 and lighter.

I personally cannot imagine fishing such light jigheads with fluoro...