Sunline Armilo Nylon Monofilament Product Review

Line Review

A Nylon Mono for Enthusiasts? Shooter Defier Armilo

Date:	5/25/16
Tackle Type:	Fishing Line
Manufacturer:	Sunline
Reviewer:	Cal

Total Score: 7.43 - ULTIMATE ENTHUSIAST AWARD!

Introduction: The portfolio of fishing lines available from Sunline grows more and more confusing with each passing year. How many variations of the staple nylon monofilament can there be? Yet Sunline offers Shooter Defier, Super Natural, Machine Gun Cast, and several variations of Siglon. We were recently introduced to a new iteration of Shooter Defier and immediately took it to our lab for a closer look. Here's our review of Sunline's relatively new nylon monofilament, Shooter Defier Armilo.

Sunline Shooter Defier Armilo Specifications
Line Type	Nylon Monofilament
Colors Available	Grey
Colors Tested	Grey
Line Weights	11lb - 25lb
Line Weight Tested in Lab	13lb
Line Weights Fished	13lb
MSRP	$17.99/165yds

Quality : Sunline's original Shooter Defier nylon monofilament is a high end mono. This sounds like a bit of a oxymoron since "high end" is not something anyone normally associates with nylon monofilament, but it's true. Armilo is cast from the same mold and this is evident right away with how it is delivered on the filler spool - so immaculate in its precision wound presentation.

Introducing Sunline's Shooter Defier Armilo line designed by Morizo Shimizu.

Taking a length of line off the spool to test its consistency, the line feels super smooth and consistent as you run it through your finger tips. This is the advantage of a precision wound spool - it minimizes instances for the line to stack unevenly on top of itself and deform.

A look at the precision wound spool.

Our 13lb test line came with a specification of 0.300mm in diameter. Taking an average of 5 micrometer readings along a length of the line we came up with 0.302mm - a difference of only 0.79%.

Quality Ratings for Sunline Shooter Defier Armilo
Consis-tency (1-5)	Surface (1-3)	Spooling (1-5)	Published Diameter (1-3)	Total	Possible	Rating (= Tot/Pos * 10)
5	3	5	3	16	16	10

Performance: The lightest pound test Shooter Defier Armilo is available in is eleven pounds (11lbs), so I only tested it on casting gear. My guess is that's its intended use.

TackleTour's Mono/Copoly Performance Index (MCPI)
	Quality (20 points)			Strength (30 points)			Stretch (10+ Points		Abrasion Cycles	F P I
	PW	DIA	TS v RS	MS	KS v RS	KS v TS	STR	DR	Abrasion Cycles	F P I
Max Points	5	5	10	10	10	10	5+	5+	No Limit	-
Sunline Armilo (13lb/ 0.302 mm dia)	5	4.4	7.3	6.2	10.1	8.4	2	3.6	7.7	54.7
M/C Average (~0.30 mm dia)	1.3	4.3	7.2	5.2	10.8	8.5	3.1	3.0	6.8	50.2
PW = Precision Wound : DIA = Diameter : TS vs RS = Tested Strength vs Rated Strength : MS = Material Strength : KS vs RS = Knot Strength vs Rated Strength : KS v TS = Knot Strength vs Tested Strength : STR = Stretch : DR = Deformity : For a full explanation of our FPI table, please read our FPI Introduction article

Spooled on a Daiwa SS SV baitcaster, I fished this line on board a Megabass Levante Diablo Spec-R and immediately noticed this nylon monofilament behaved a lot like a fluorocarbon in terms of stiffness, but without the temperamental fluffing on the casting spool that you get with the higher end fluorocarbons. It comes off a casting reel spool nice and easy like a traditional nylon monofilament.

Ready for some testing on board a Daiwa SS SV casting reel.

But where it's better than your usual nylon monofilament is in sensitivity. Because the line is stiff like a fluorocarbon, it affords you a lot of feel you might not otherwise get with a standard mono and a lot less stretch. Yet, its manageability remains unaffected. Fishing this line is a strange sensation.

As stiff as this line is, it casts and pitches very well.

I got a sense this line's resistance to abrasion was also above average when out on the water, but had to validate this back at the lab. Strapped to our abrasion machine, Armilo survived on average through 7.7 cycles as compared to the average of our 17 test lines of 6.8.

Armilo has very good sensitivity.

Next Section: Knot Strength