Spectra Backing Question

[Questsportfishing]

I run a good amount of backing and topshot in the mono or just use a wind-on I make out of the same stuff (hollow core) . we were fun fishing years ago and I had a nice blue come up and take a 30wide with 40lb down to nothing and getting that line back twice about killed me.. the spectra's don't hold water (SORRY FRED) like the older dacrons and in the end this makes it better for fish and angler. just wish it wasn't so expensive... I don't worry about pulling hooks either with the 50-100' mono top shots / wind-on's and the drag I use.. it was real hard to trust a 3 1/2' piece of mono in the spectra would hold a fish but it does fine. I don't too much care for power pro anymore though ..

[Nauti Natured]

Will a uni-uni do ok to hold the mono top shot on .... 100lb braid & 80 Mono.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Quest,

I'm no expert on Spectra-types, but I do know my Dacron. I guess the "don't hold water" comment had to do with the braids. I don't know about that from personal experience, only from what I have read and been told about it. That type of line is and has been written out West for a long time and to tell you the truth, I don't know who's right and who's wrong on this point. I believe it was the long range fishermen who first started seriously using Spectra types quite some time ago and like I said, I am only commenting on what I recall them saying.

One thing...there is a very large difference between how much time the average long ranger's line of any kind spends in the water compared to that of a busy charterboat or hard core privateer. Naturally, the latters' lines spend a lot more time in the water with far less time between trips when you compare them to even the hard core long range guys. So, whatever happens to line that spends all of that time in the water happens a lot faster than it does with the others.

If you are suggesting that Dacron soaks up water and Spectra types don't, I don't agree as far as the Dacron is concerned. There used to be a lot of Dacrons on the market and much of it was cheap, imported garbage that didn't perform anything like the good stuff. Myself and most of the other long term Dacron users who I know have always used Cortland Green Spot Dacron. It was (I don't know if it still is - I have had a lifetime supply for a long time) wax impregnated and the wax does a great and long term job of shedding water.

Of course, water doesn't get in and around line just from it soaking water up (something that mono, in fact, does). Water gets attached to the surface of all or most kinds of line when it gets wound on the reel and this water has to go somewhere eventually. It either evaporates, or has to soak into something. I know for a fact that doesn't soak into the Green Spot, or at the very least, I have never seen that happen, even on very old backing, which most of mine is and was. I do not know what happens with the other types of braid, but like I said, I only go by what a lot of users say, or said about it in the past.

Good to see that you're using shorter topshots. Long topshots, especially ridiculously long ones, have never made sense to me for the reasons pointed out in the book chapter. And I too have found that we don't pull hooks with them on close fish due to their stretch. And since many of my ones for regular charter trips were 130 mono because it has great abrasion resistance and the fact that we could honk like hell on them when we had to, I loved the stuff. No, it wasn't IGFA legal, but that sort of stuff wasn't important to us - practical matters like the ones mentioned above were a lot more important to us and that included using tough, heavy leader that performed well and that didn't have to be replaced as often as lighter stuff.

This is a discussion, not an argument, and I'm just trying to pass on what I have learned and am not trying to force people into doing things my way...I too hope and expect to learn here. Thanks for the input.

[Questsportfishing]

I used the 130 white with green spots for years along with the 80 black for my wind-ons.. the new stuff can cut guides also (rod and captain actually..).. nice to know the 200lb test spider wire white is tied off to the big planer though.. stuff cuts through the water nice also.. some people have trouble with knots though and I hate the loose tag ends getting in the bilge. *some creatures that fish with me say.."Oh you give me the tangle line rig right away.." ..I just figure some people are like 'jerry's kids' right away... blowing here... sux!