Varivas Avani GT Casting Max Power PE

[Dan Colebrook]

damm! just put the casting pe8 smp on a spool last month. haha oh well. just wont buy it again! i have been out twice and used it catching kings with no probs tho.. ..maybe because its still new? anyways ill stear clear next time round!

[Andy Rowe]

Troy, funnily enough it was on nomad when i exprienced my SMP failure and the line was brand new, nice soft line but as you note the more supple, the easier to wind knot.

I have seen PE6 Big One break on GT surface strikes as well.

The GT max PE6-10 are great lines though wind knots happen, it's part of the pros and cons.

[Mark Harris]

I exploded SMP PE8 once with a high effort cast and have not used it since.  Was yours a casting failure Andy?

[Andy Rowe]

Mark, no a GT came from under the boat hitting the lure head on, the line popped not far from the rod tip.

I exploded SMP PE8 once with a high effort cast and have not used it since.  Was yours a casting failure Andy?

[troy roberts]

Guys just one thing have any of you tested breaking strain of these lines i think you will be surprised if not dissapointed they dont break anywhere near there rated strengths i only tie a spidr hitch to attach to scales and get as far away as possible 10metres plus and over my popper rod lucky to pull drag before line breaks.Just somthing to look at .
May your fish be huge and your beers icy.

[Andy Rowe]

Hi Troy, can you explain in a bit more detail how you do this test?

Guys just one thing have any of you tested breaking strain of these lines i think you will be surprised if not dissapointed they dont break anywhere near there rated strengths i only tie a spidr hitch to attach to scales and get as far away as possible 10metres plus and over my popper rod lucky to pull drag before line breaks.Just somthing to look at .
May your fish be huge and your beers icy.

[troy roberts]

Yeah i tie a spider hitch in the line run line over my popper rod or whicheva rod i grab move at least 5 if not 10metres away attach scales to spida hitch and load up not never breaks the line breaks between 100mm and 1metre from knot.
Hope this helps.

may your fish be huge and your beers icy.

[Mark Harris]

Guys just one thing have any of you tested breaking strain of these lines i think you will be surprised if not dissapointed they dont break anywhere near there rated strengths i only tie a spidr hitch to attach to scales and get as far away as possible 10metres plus and over my popper rod lucky to pull drag before line breaks.Just somthing to look at .
May your fish be huge and your beers icy.

I am not sure it matters.  I can't think  I would ever fish more than 20 kgs (usually more like 12) of drag for GTs and PE8 line is not going to break in line at that drag rating.  I have caught lots of fish at 40 kgs plus on Varivas Avani GT Max  without incident. It also casts like a dream. Those are the two things that do matter.

Shock load on a line is different kettle of fish altogether and it cannot be tested by straight line pulling.  I have had shock load explosion problems with two leading lines and those are blacklisted as it is not much fun loosing $100 plus lures to such accidents.

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

Troy, breaking strength of any line depends a lot of its ammortization ability. PE is not stretchable, so the sharper you pull, the easier it breaks. You can explode 80LB high quality PE buy only 9-10 kg load in case you pull very very sharply. That's why we use shock leaders, twisted leaders, biminitwists and powerfull but flexible rods - all these things take a lot of load from the PE. Though I also noticed that all Japanese PE break at lower loads when they are tested with scales....

Andy, I was a little bit confused about lines with IGFA mark on them, when I knew what this mark meaned. They put this mark on the lines "which breaking strength is guaranteed to be not more than specified on the spool". in other words, in case it is 80Lb IGFA line, it should break at loads less than 80lb. It is very logic from the point of IGFA record rules, but from the point of view of a usual angler like me (not IGFA recorder), I would prefer overtest line instead of IGFA line...

I use both SMP and Avani GT MP for casting, and though I do not have long experience I can not say I noticed big difference in making windknots between these two lines so far. I was of the very good opinion of SMP till your comments of explosion... Fishing is about so many questions and doubts!

[Andy Rowe]

Dmitri,

Good point on the shock load issue.

That's right on the IGFA meaning, without more information you'd have to assume that the lower breaking factor of the GT Max somehow gives it the higher resistance to shock-load breaking.

So does this equate to a different fibre used between GT Max and the 'SMP' / 'Big One' / 'Tuna' / 'casting max' PE's which are the same PE designation but different breaking strains or a difference in the way the fibre is weaved?? The coatings ... who knows but the PE diameter is the same. 

[Jon Li]

Andy n others ,

Guide wraps is one factor we have to live with during casting and guide wrap causes fiber to be frayed and the ability of a line to absorb the shock load is greatly reduced after several guide wraps , hence the line break by shock load is usually occur a few meters from the knot to the leader . Guide wrap during snap power casting have been known to pull the stripper guide out of it's wrapping , so imagine the shock load of such cast .

Wind knot in some extend causes some fiber to be frayed especially when pulling the line to free the small hitch caused by wind knot is employed , this tend to greatly affect the coating of the PE line and leave the fiber of the PE line exposed . Untangling the wind knot can cause frictions and none of the PE line in the market is especially good against friction , when comared to nylon lines let alone fluorocarbon lines .

The coating protects the fiber from abrasion , after heavy usage the coating will wear off and the fibers are exposed to frictions despite using SIC guides which is supposedly to be friction free but nothing is friction free when the rod is bent under heavy load , micro nicks which can't be seen by naked eyes on the surface of the SIC guides can cause fraying to the already exposed fibers .

Stiff rods can contribute to " explosion " of line during a violent strike but the root cause of such line break is due to the line has been damaged prior to the engagement .

There are many other factors to the causes of shock load line break , I am not discounting the slack QC in the factory as well as mis handlings during and after the line leaves the factory as well as our own equipment failures as as bail arm roller in the reel , corroded spool lip , etc. , etc.

Jon .

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

Andy, I think the only way to know is ask Varivas... or find a person who already asked Varivas and got reply

Jon, you are so right and there are really so many factors affecting line breaks. Once me and 2 my friends got new YGK 8WX Jigman line and during next fishing 2 my friends had several line breaks just without any clear reason. It just broke about 10m from the end during fighting with small fish. YGK is very reliable maker, so we were very surprised. But sometime after we assumed that the reason was mishandling during winding the line on the spool. I winded the line on beforehand using Daiichi winding machine and having applied teflon spray on the edges of the bobbin before the start. And my line did not fail. My both friends winded the line in a haste in the hotel before the fishing - one holding the bobbin, another reeling. I think that line going out from the bobbin got into contact with its edges and the line's coating was affected. May be, it was not that, but it was the only difference in line handling between me and my friends.

[Andy Rowe]

Jon, you have raised some important factors here which can lead to failure, at least some of these are within our control to check. After all the preparation and waiting for a GT trip to be let down by simple things that could have been avoided by routine checking and maintenance especially on the line rollers, rod guides and perhaps stripping a bit of line of the spool which got heavily used last trip, Word!

Dmitri, getting back to my initial question yes looks like a matter of going to the manufacturer, maybe they would be kind enough to explain.

[Jon Li]

Hi Andy ,

For users of Shimano Stella SW , I think bail-arm roller is the one piece of component that could be the main cause of line being frayed , a few anglers in Jakarta have had to change their bail-arm line roller due to the cracking of the coating , unlike the previous FA model which employ line roller made from solid metal , the new Stella SW reels has line rollers are made from formed metal sheet coated with ceramic like coating which is most likely to deform under high drag situation thus causing the crack . This is my observation on the reels , some others may have different view on this issue .

Jon .

[Andy Rowe]

Jon, here is the thread http://www.gtpopping.com/forum/index.php?topic=5133.0

I am in the process of changing all mine out now, I bought two new pieces in Singapore last time i was there, all my SW stellas are early batches so i need 3 more new line rollers. I wonder if Shimano in Jakarta will replace the part for free??

Hi Andy ,

For users of Shimano Stella SW , I think bail-arm roller is the one piece of component that could be the main cause of line being frayed , a few anglers in Jakarta have had to change their bail-arm line roller due to the cracking of the coating , unlike the previous FA model which employ line roller made from solid metal , the new Stella SW reels has line rollers are made from formed metal sheet coated with ceramic like coating which is most likely to deform under high drag situation thus causing the crack . This is my observation on the reels , some others may have different view on this issue .

Jon .