Sunline's Best Selling Fluorocarbon In Our Sights : Sniper

Total Score: 8.17 - GREAT
 

Introduction: If you read our rod and reel reviews closely, you can generally tell what line reviews are in the works. When it comes to the subject of today's review, those hints may have been easily missed since it already is Sunline's most popular selling fluorocarbon. Better late than never though is our motto, so here now is our long overdue look at Sunline's FC Sniper fluorocarbon line.

Quality : It's been a while since we've presented a fluorocarbon line review, but what speaks to us of quality in a fishing line are essentially the initial impressions from opening the product's packaging. Sniper comes off the spool relatively smooth and consistent. It is not, however, precision wound onto the spool.

I've been fishing Sunline's Sniper FC off and on for several years

Our spot check on the line's diameter shows a deviation of only 0.3%. For reference, we found an average deviation across multiple brands to be 0.96%. Bottom line is, quality scores for Sniper should be pretty high.

It's one of those rare FC's that work well as a mainline on spinning gear
 

Performance: I made it a point over the last couple of years to fish Sniper on a number of different casting and spinning reels. It's a very easy handling line that works well in both applications. For casting, I used mostly 10 and 12 pound test Sniper and for spinning anywhere between 5 to 8. Because it is not as stiff as say, Sunline Shooter, Sniper is a little better behaved on spinning gear with little tendency to jump off your spool. Similarly on casting gear, it is a little less prone to backlash.

There's a slight trade off in sensitivity versus Shooter, but you gain better handling

The trade off, of course, is in sensitivity. While the line does a very good job transmitting vibrations through its length, it is certainly not as hyper-sensitive as its more pricey sibling, Shooter. It is, however, more responsive than P-Ion. This is the primary difference between low to high quality fluorocarbon lines. Higher quality, and therefore, higher cost fluorocarbons are more dense, less easy to manage, but more sensitive. Sniper strikes a good balance between being easy to handle and sensitive enough.

Memory is about average for a fluorocarbon line but easily straightened out at the start of a day fishing by putting a little tension in the line and pulling it taught

Knot strength, as measured in our lab on The Machine, is just shy of average for Sniper. Close enough that we'd call it average. Resistance to abrasion, on the other hand is above average, so again, plus points for Sniper in these areas.