So I’ve been fancying a change for a bit now on my choice of mono for my surf reels. I’m a big fan of the continental style setups when beach fishing and my chosen set up is a pair of 14.4 Sonik Gravity surfs paired with Shimano Ultegra 14000 reels. These have opened a new avenue to UK sea angling for me and where the venue/ground allows I love using them.
One of the important things to consider when using these setups is mainline. Given the use of fixed spools, mainlines have to be low diameter in order to provide maximum casting distance. The right line and the correct casting style will have the business end sailing out as far as any standard heavy duty setup with a multiplier would do.
Up to now I’ve always used Asso Bulletproof in 12lb and it has never let me down – It casts beautifully off a fixed spool and to be honest, outstrips the 12lb rating significantly in my opinion. You always know when you’ve found a decent mainline as it’ll generally perform beyond its rating – 12lb will be more like 15-18 and this stuff from Asso has certainly done a job for me over the last 5 years or so.
But I’ve been fancying a change nevertheless and decided to splurge on some new line – and came across this Trabucco stuff.
Now it ain’t the cheapest of stuff – in fact a 1200m spool set me back £22 online (plus the postage) and I’ve never actually seen or used the stuff before, so taking a bit of a gamble! I’ve heard other anglers mention Trabucco in the past though and after reading a few reviews about the strength and diameter I was interested. In fact in the end the diameter is what sold me on it – coming in at .28 for a breaking strain of 21.03lb – lower than the .30 for the 12lb bulletproof. Lower di and higher breaking strain!?
Time will tell if there’s any truth to it but first impressions out of the box tick a few boxes.
It comes in a posh little tin which will come in handy later for storing bits and pieces. It survived the “pull in the hands” test – I certainly couldn’t snap it without doing damage to my fingers. The first thing I notice in fact is how soft it is – it lacks the springy, stretchiness of monos I’ve used before and at first glance I thought I’d be sent a spool of braid by mistake! Suppose that’s the low memory factor, but the lack of stretch is interesting and I’m quite keen to see how it performs on the bite detection front.
It’s a nice fluro orange colour which will help with visibility at night. Coloured lines put some anglers off, but this will have a 15m clear tapered shockleader attached so I doubt it’ll make any difference.
Haven’t actually cast it yet but the ultegras are all loaded up – hopefully get a chance to test it out in the coming days!
