PE line article

[paul708]

i found this..thought it was interesting...
About PE line

Because the line isn’t round and is compressible, you or I measuring diameter with a micrometer is not really practical. Manufacturers wouldn’t state a real diameter, but instead call their 30lb braid ‘12lb diameter’, referring to some typical (or maybe extra thin?) nylon line diameter. But because it wasn’t a particular diameter, it was more open than ever to marketing licence. More confusing.
The Japanese way of doing things works much better for braids. They began with diameter, using a long-established numbering system that fits a small range of diameters into a number – for instance, a No. 4 Japanese line will be close to 0.35mm diameter, regardless of whether it’s braid, nylon, fluorocarbon or whatever. In gel-spun polyethylene braids, these Japanese numbers are commonly used from 0.6 (about 0.14mm) to 12 (about 0.7mm); and they’re usually prefixed with PE (for PolyEthylene), so now you’ll often see Japanese braids referred to as PE1, or PE4, or PE8 or whatever.
The extra good thing about this, is that one PE8 line is always going to be very close to the same diameter as the next PE8 line (at least when dealing with Japanese manufacturers, who take this sizing system quite seriously). So when you see that a reel has a capacity of 300m PE8, you can be confident that it doesn’t matter which PE8 line you get, that reel will take 300m of it. That was never true when trying to deal with pounds of breaking strain.
As to what a PE8 line will break at, well, you’re likely to see claims of anything from about 80lb to 120lb. Most times, that is of secondary concern to the angler, as all of these lines are immensely strong for their diameter compared to nylon.
The Japanese numbering system has now flowed through to rods as well, particularly in the jigging and popper chucking arenas. Where a rod used to be labelled 15-24kg, meaning it was intended to be used with nylon lines up to 24kg, that stiffness of rod is now likely to be labelled PE6-8; meaning it is suited to lines up to PE8 braid. That would be braid labelled 80lb or more, but in practice it would be fished no harder than 50lb nylon. Disregard all that, it’s not important. What we’re getting to here is that you can now get a reel that suits 300m of PE8, and you can buy PE8 line, and a PE8 rod, and not have to be concerned with marketing hype. Everything will work well together. This is good.

[hattrickll]

Paul, thanks for the info, being new to the jigging scene any and all info is great.
Been learning alot from this forum from all.

Jim

[ReelSmith]

that's some good info Paul...thanks for sharing.

[flatbottom]

great clarification Paul

[mojomizer]

Thanks Paul great info. All the info you have posted is helping greatly.

Mark