Wednesday, August 19, 2015

PowerPro Super8Slick - Not so slick!

I have no idea what Shimano was thinking....

This last spring I saw this great new product at Academy and thought I'd try it.  The package said it was smoother than other types of braid and would cast further.  Since it was braid, I assumed it would last longer too!

Super8Slick it is called.  Made by PowerPro (Shimano).  It sort of lived up to it's name in that it was very smooth casting.  That is... when it wasn't giving me bird's nests.... ON A SPINNING REEL.
 Over the past few months I've had more "professional overcasts" on my spinning reel than I've had on casting reels in my entire lifetime.  Well... it felt that way!  I was having 2-3 bird's nests per fishing trip where I normally average around .5 per trip on my casting reel.  Yes, you read that right, normally I would have a bird's nest less than 1 per fishing trip while using my casting reel - but this was giving me bird's nests on my spinning reel at the tune of 2-3 times per trip!

Talk about frustrating!

Penn Fierce
The main issue I seem to have with my spinning reel (Penn Fierce) with this line is that a loop of line will come off from deep inside the reel and get caught during a cast and pulled out from underneath everything. This is kind of the worst type of birds nest you can have because it ties a knot in your line. Then the line becomes slightly damaged in that spot while you're taking it apart. I ended up having to cut yards and yards of line off my spool because the line was becoming damaged.

Shimano Curado
On my casting reel (Shimano Curado), after I had several nasty birds nests, I started having my lure break off and go flying into the distance! On one occasion there was enough line that went with the lure that the line floated on the surface for a couple minutes - long enough for me to frantically paddle over there and grab the line to save my $8 lure.

So you'd think I would have replaced it at this point.  But I struggled with it for 3-4 months, trying to figure out a way to use it consistently without issues.  I finally gave up.  I figure this line that cost me $28 for the spool ended up costing me around $45 or $50 in additional cost to replace lures that went flying.

On top of all this, the line didn't hold up.  It wore very quickly.  Little frays started showing up all over the line on my spinning reel and not just where the knots had been. The casting reel held up better, but it eventually started showing signs of fraying as well.

Now, I'm a big fan of braided line.  I won't go back to mono and I'm not real keen on fluorocarbon either.  I'd rather tie on some fine braid as a leader instead of using something that will break off with the least strain. But the line has to perform well enough to fish with!

How did the Super8Slick work for fishing?

It did a pretty good job.  I felt like the fish didn't see it as much.  I had fewer issues with the fish bailing at the last minute like I did with regular PowerPro.  This might have had something to do with the lighter color since my normal PowerPro is dark green vs the light green I used for Super8Slick.

I figure it might be good to use if you spool up just before going into a tournament.  It didn't have the normal issues braid usually has for the first 20-30 casts. It seemed to work well for a few hundred casts before it starts giving issues.  I will admit that I burn through reels, rods, and lures faster than most people I know.  So maybe I'm putting more strain on the line than the average person, but for those of us out there who fish like we are in a tournament every time we go out, the line just doesn't seem to hold out in the long run.  I'm used to spooling up braid at the beginning of the season on my personal rods and not re-spooling again until the next winter.  Only 3-4 months of useful life with this stuff.

The moral of the story is that I am considering is this:  Tie on a 10-15ft length of Super8Slick on the end of my regular PowerPro. This will give me the finesse that I need without the tangled mess that I get from spooling up with it. Doing this defeats the purpose of having line designed for "Smooth casting", but I think I'll experiment with it to see if it works.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Tight Lines Y'all!

Mike
TexasRodBuilder

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