The Board

The idea of using a shock absorber to protect light tippets seems to come around every few years. There used to be stuff on the market called power gum or shock gum, and it worked. I used it for a while to try to get around the smash takes on English reservoirs, but then I stopped for some reason that I cannot remember. I think it had the tendency to lose strength after being used for a while.

Bernd’s idea of using the shock absorber effectively parallel to the leader is the same concept as we used to use to deal with wave action when mooring boats. There’s now a better product for that on the market which has the elastic inside a length of braided rope. I even have one that stretches from something like 10’ to 50’ for holding an anchored boat away from the shore. Same concept would work at a small scale for fishing.

N.

Boiling the butt section of a leader in water which has some winegar makes Nylon stretchy and when kept wet in ziplock bag it stay soft few months.

Esa

Twisted leaders work too.

Cheers,
Graeme

Beware power gum and barbless hooks

I could never understand why they wanted non-stretch lines and used powergum to compensate!

Paul Arden wrote:I could never understand why they wanted non-stretch lines and used powergum to compensate!

The actual answer to this is that it’s about controlling the amount of stretch. With 30 meters of stretchy line out you have 30 times as much stretch as with 1 meter, but if you have a non-stretch line you can use power gum to get the exact amount of stretch that you want and have it be the same no matter how far you have cast.

It’’s a good argument. Have never heard it before Nick! Like everyone else I tried non-stretch lines in the late 80s but hated them for their memory and tendency to snap mid-cast. Like everyone else I kept buying this shit until I realised I was being conned. Stretch in lines wasn’t a problem before and it’s not been a problem since. It’s always always been about marketing.

Steve Parton told me a joke that was going around the industry about then. Apparently there had been a death threat against the Burgesses. The joke was it would have been the first murder in the UK with 200,000 suspects... everyone who had bought an barstool line

Cheers, Paul

I had one of those lines too. I actually liked it, until I used some sort of line treatment on it and it turned into a sticky noodle. At least it didn’t snap.

These days I use a non stretch running line with shooting heads for salmon in saltwater. I have found that it helps a lot with hooksets at distance - though my previous running line was a Cortland thing that stretched like a rubber band. I always felt with that thing that I could never get enough force at the hook to actually stick it into the fish.

That's very interesting Nick, I can definitely see how it works at distance. I've found it easier and more effective to feel takes and set the hook using lighter lines at distance. (Well 90ft plus)

Cheers, Paul

Paul Arden wrote:That's very interesting Nick, I can definitely see how it works at distance. I've found it easier and more effective to feel takes and set the hook using lighter lines at distance. (Well 90ft plus)

Cheers, Paul

I think it’s only in a really specific set of circumstances where having a non stretch line really helps. They are relatively big fish, so the flies and hooks are large. I am fishing a 7 weight with a shooting head. Flies are 6” long with big lead eyes, I can’t get enough distance with anything lighter. The fish don’t hold on to a fly for more than a microsecond, so you only get one chance to set the hook, and they tend to take either right after the fly hits the water or they will follow it for a long time and hit right next to the boat. I was landing maybe one in ten of the hits I got at long range with my old setup. With the new setup it’s maybe one in three!