Presenting the Much Anticipated and Highly Overdue TackleTour Fluorocarbon Showdown!! (continued)
The Tests: As mentioned earlier, we did our best, within reason, to match diameter per diameter in our group of fluorocarbon test lines. Ultimately, the diameter delta between our largest and smallest lines was 0.02mm - more than we would have prefered, but close enough to draw some conclusions. We then went through a series of tensile, knot, and abrasion tests, and crunched this data against our baseline Berkley Trilene XL. We performed tests with each line in both wet and dry conditions and were able to validate one claim right off the bat. That is, that fluorocarbon lines, do not absorb much water and were not very affected during our tests whether wet or dry. For this reason, the data presented here-in represents dry line conditions.
Fig. 1 : Our Abrasion Comparison charts shows clearly that only a handful of FC's have really good abrasion resistance compared to a dry sample Trilene XL. However, get the Trilene
XL wet and the story changes dramatically
Abrasion: Setting our test data with 12lb Trilene XL monofilament as the baseline, we compared the data of our fluorocarbon test subjects against this baseline and charted the results. Taking our 12lb Bass Pro Shops XPS FC as an example, the differences in our chart are expressed in percentages against the baseline with the XPS FC testing out at just over 30% more resistant to abrasion than the 12lb Trilene XL under dry conditions. Now, while our fluorocarbon lines were relatively unaffected by being wet, we did note an over 50% drop in abrasion resistance of our 12lb Trilene XL monofilament after being soaked in water for more than 10 minutes. This test seems to validate another claim by the industry: In real world conditions, fluorocarbon lines, are more abrasion resistant.
Closeups of Trilene XL (broken) and BPS XPS FC (extending from corner to top of the photo) after a stint on our abrasion tester
Comparisons to our baseline aside, you can see, we experienced quite a disparity between brands and their relative resistance to abrasion. In general, it seems lines with better handling characteristics (like P-Line's Fluorocarbon) fair rather poorly compared to a line that is stiffer (like Sugoi's Fluorocarbon). So when choosing a line to use, keep this factor in mind.
TackleTour Fluorocarbon Showdown Abrasion Table
|
Brand : Make
|
Rated Strength (lbs)
|
Compared to Dry Sample 12lb Trilene XL (% Difference)
|
Berkley : Vanish Transition |
12
|
-30%
|
Bass Pro Shops : XPS FC |
12
|
31%
|
Cabelas : No-Vis FC |
10
|
-16%
|
Gamma : Edge FC |
10
|
-7%
|
Maxima : Fluorocarbon |
12
|
-12%
|
P-Line : Fluorocarbon |
12
|
-30%
|
P-Line : Halo |
12
|
24%
|
Seaguar : Carbon Pro |
10
|
-21%
|
Seaguar : Invisx |
10
|
-37%
|
Sugoi : Fluorocarbon |
12
|
5%
|
Sunline : Shooter FC |
14
|
0%
|
Toray : SuperHard |
14
|
47%
|
Triple Fish : Fluorocarbon |
12
|
-37%
|
Yozuri H20 |
10
|
-37%
|
Berkley : Trilene XL |
12
|
Tested at Level 56% Lower in Abrasion Resistance When Wet
|
Next
Section: The Tests - Tensile Strength