SpiderWire's 4-Strand Braid Offers a Stealthy Option for Fishing Through Vegetation

Total Score: 7.83 - GOOD

Introduction: Most of the time, when I'm fishing a braided line product, I opt for the eight (8) carrier options. These lines typically have a smooth finish which results in less noise through your guides. At least they do when compared to their four (4) carrier counterparts. But every now and then, I like to step back to a 4 carrier just to check things out. The subject of today's review is one such product. Here's our look at SpiderWire's 4 carrier Stealth Braid.

Impressions: SpiderWire's braid comes from the Pure Fishing portfolio and is available in more colors than any just about any other braid I've seen. They range from the standard moss green and hi-vis yellow to a pink camo and even an American camo. SpiderWire Stealth is a 4 carrier braid made from Dyneema polyethylene fibers. The company treats the fibers with a fluoropolymer to give the line a smoother texture that in turn is supposed to enable better casting performance.

Introducing SpiderWire Stealth

I've fished SpiderWire over the years and became interested in this particular patter later in the year as vegetation in local lakes and the California Delta started to remind me of the very colors that make up this braid. In an effort to improve my presentations I purchased a few spools of the baseline "Camo" color in both twenty (20) and fifty (50) pound test from Tackle Warehouse. These two strengths are published with diameters of 0.25mm and 0.35mm respectively while actually measuring 0.18mm and 0.32mm in our lab. Our historical average for braided lines in the fifty to fifty five (50 - 55) pound test range is 0.319mm.

SpiderWire Stealth is a 4 carrier braid made from Dyneema

Real World Tests: The 50 pound Stealth Camo found a home on my Abu Garcia Beast Rocket (paired with my Veracity VRCTYC79-7) while I spooled the 20 pound onto my Abu Garcia IKE SP30. I fished the 50 pound straight up with no leader, but used a leader of six (6) pound Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon on the 20 pound because I was targeting finesse applications and can't bring myself to fish straight braid on a drop shot.

Available in many different colors, I fished the standard Camo because it best matched the conditions in our local waters

Casting: Four strand braid doesn't typically handle as well as eight strand simply because the surface of the former is more coarse, causing more friction as it comes off the spool and flies through the guides. To mitigate against this innate property, line manufacturers typically employ some type of coating on 4 carrier braids. It's obvious SpiderWire Stealth comes with just such a coating, but it's not overdone, meaning while the line does has a waxy feel it isn't sticky and doesn't flake off like we have observed with earlier braided lines. The result is a line that casts nicely and frankly handles a lot better than expected.

20lb spooled on my Revo IKE SP30

Abrasion: Four strand braid's forte these days is being fished around vegetation. Because of its inherent rougher texture, it's not the best choice when fished around hard structure where that rough surface can catch and be cut or more easily frayed. This same property is a plus in areas with extensive weeds or other soft vegetation where that rough surface acts almost like a saw, slicing through these obstacles. This makes 4 strand braid an excellent choice in vertical bait presentations like flipping and pitching in weeds.

Stealth is relatively smooth for a 4 strand

In the case of SpiderWire Stealth, it's a classic example of practice what I say, not what I do since I mostly fished the 50 pound with big baits while testing the Beast Rocket. Though this did include pulling some larger paddletail baits like Megabass's MagDraft Freestyle and Cal Coast Fishing's Twerk Minnow through patches of weeds with very good success, it never really got thick enough to where I could test Stealth's ability to cut through the vegetation. The pockets that I did come in contact with were no match for this line.

The line is treated with a fluoropolymer giving it a degree of stiffness off the filler spool