Welcome to the FishingMad article The Truth about Fishing with Straight through Fluorocarbon – Pros and Cons. It’s important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of emerging fishing tackle and techniques. The use of straight through fluorocarbon is one such fishing technique that fits into this category well. Why because there are many advantages in using it but objectively there are as many disadvantages too. Because of its pros and cons, the choice to use this will become more of a personal preference.
This type of setup is quite popular among tournament anglers. I have fished with both braid and straight through Fluro for many years and often have multiple rods with different setups. Straight through Fluro is generally used in finesse situations when chasing species like bream. You might read or watch content claiming that fishing with straight through fluorocarbon is a game changer that will greatly increase your catch rates. For some parts, this is true however there are major pros and cons to fishing with straight through fluorocarbon. We will detail the truths uncovering the good and the bad of this fishing technique in our article.
Advantages Straight through Fluorocarbon
Straight through fluro works particularly well when fishing with treble-based lures including shallow and mid-diving cranks and minnows. This works great when using slower action rods having stretch all the way through the rod and line and preventing you from pulling hooks. Straight through fluro allows you to fish lighter and works great in situations when fish are being finicky. It’s abrasion resistant and provides additional stretch that can be helpful when tackling some bigger bream.
It also provides some great convenience in no longer needing to continually tie and retie braid to fluorocarbon leaders. It also helps with casting with no knots running through your guides when you cast. When fishing with straight through fluro I will generally fish between 2 and 4 lb. ( 3lb Sunline FC Sniper for me being the sweet spot ).
The breaking strain for straight-through fluro is generally pretty accurate. It’s a good idea to buy a decent grade straight through fluoro and stay away from some of the cheaper ones which don’t have the same performance and breaking strain. The better quality ones are generally a bit softer, thinner, and have less memory.
- Can fish ultra-light.
- More durable and abrasion resistant to braid
- Less visible and can be helpful when fish are being very finicky.
- One breaking point
- Don’t have to continually retie leaders.
- Reduces the action of some lures which can be exaggerated.
- No knots going through the guides as you cast.
Disadvantages Straight through Fluorocarbon
However, there are downsides to using straight through fluor and because of these downsides I still use braid to fluorocarbon leader more than what I do straight through fluro. The main downsides include loss of sensitivity when working lures and when battling fish. Significant reduction in casting distance and casting accuracy. Plus, you cannot fit as much line on the spool and it retains its memory which can often coil up. Tournament anglers who fish with straight through are known to go to great lengths to straighten this out before fishing in events.
- Doesn’t cast as far as braid.
- Doesn’t cast as accurately as Braid.
- Cannot fit as much line on the spool as braid.
- Less sensitivity.
- Has memory and will coil which can be frustrating.
Now there are some minor differences between fluorocarbon leader and straight through fluro. Straight through fluro generally has less memory and is more supple. You can generally tell when buying this as it will be sold in larger spool lengths up to 200 meters and will generally say straight through somewhere on the packaging.
Again, I think much of this will come down to personal preference. Don’t let anyone tell you which is better for you. The best thing to do is to get out there and experiment. Have rods with braid to fluorocarbon leaders and also have rods setup with straight through fluro. Use them in different situations and different systems and make your own opinion on what works better for you.
Thanks for reading The Truth about Fishing with Straight through Fluorocarbon – Pros and Cons if you have any suggestions font hesitate to let us know at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au we hope this article helps you with your bream fishing. Feel free to visit the FishingMad YouTube channel which has countess videos of us catching bream with these lures. Or the FishingMad how to fishing guides for more help.
