Braid: hollow or solid?

[Malcolm Crane]

For what it's worth I've been using nothing but JB hollow in their 80lb designation for quite a few years now and can't fault it in any way. I do take advantage of the ability to splice loops in it and therefore eliminate knots wherever possible.
I really appreciate the fact that you can easily and very quickly splice line onto your spool if you need to replace a worn section.

I've never been able to notice any appreciable difference for me in casting distance between PE line, solid or hollow braid, and as Luke states its easily obtainable, good value for money and I've never had cause to question its reliability.

[Mark Harris]

many thanks Luke (and Malcolm )

[Mark Gonsalves]

I've used JB hollow for about 4 years now and it has always held up under the most adverse conditions.  Using L2L connections with up to 400lb wind ons.  I did recently try ToroTamer hollow and it has worked well for me since this September.   I will be trying the small 20 and 30 lb hollow 16 strand this year.  Hollow works well for almost ALL of my fishing applications from plugging to casting baits from the beach.

[Wayne Brown]

I have some of the new seaguar threadlock hollow on order as we speak to try out. Basil from bhp tackle, who sells a lot of jerry brown, rates it very highly. Will be interesting to see how it compares to the jerry brown 60 and 100lb I am using at present. Supposed to have exceptional impact strength. Personally I love being able to top up worn sections of line via a line to line splice which saves a bucket load on line in the long run.

[Alex Jordan]

+1 for Hollowcore - with Nick's Yucatan knot I can't fault it for mainline with a bombproof leader connection ...

When I was out in S Oman in Oct last we had all sorts of issues with the Sunline Monster Battle - it was almost too brittle and didn't like being knotted ... between Andrew and myself we busted around 5 leader knots on his setup's compared to none with the hollowcore :/

[Mark Harris]

Interesting that you had problems with Sunline Monster Battle Alex as this is is a line put forward as an alternative to Varivas Avani GT Max. 

What exactly were the knot problems please?

[Andy Rowe]

Second Mark's request on the monster battle Alex, I had put PE8 on a couple of my spools last year as well, no issues FG knotting but I unfortunately did not get to test it on fish yet.

[Luke Wyrsta]

Touching on Andy's mention, the hollow ties fine for friction knots, no real additional effort required. Splicing and loops are a big advantage but for anyone out there concerned about friction knots - you can be confident.

[John Cahill]

Mark Harris, thanks for directing me to this thread as I was going through all these same questions - really good to hear I can take confidence in friction knots on hollow AND their are sound reasons to use hollow..... will be spooling up with JB130 now!  cheers guys

[Mark Harris]

Yep John. After the reassurances posted above and the fact that the JB hollow seems to do so well under shock load, I will be giving it it a try as well. Apart from anything else I am so over paying Varivas Avani Max prices!

[Chris Leong]

Just a silly question. With a spliced loop on the hollow line, what knots or how do i connect it to a single strand leader.

Thanks.

[Joel Leong]

Good day Guys!

I was wondering have anyone used the 60lb JB Hollow for GT fishing? ... I know the standard is the 80/100lb

Thank you !
Joel

(its my first post so be gentle

[Dmitrii Novgorodtcev]

Hi Luke

My understanding was that Spectra is made by Honeywell Corp and Dyneema by DSM, and that these are the only two types of Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibre.

Dyneema: http://www.dsm.com/corporate/about/business-entities/dsm-dyneema.html
Spectra: http://www.honeywell-advancedfibersandcomposites.com/products/fibers/

They do tend to feel noticeably different but as you say that might be because of coating or other processing.

Your understanding is correct, however, as stated - it's the same material - Poly-Ethylene (PE). The names are trademarked and branded for obvious reasons.

The differences come down to construction/braiding with that original fiber, coatings etc.

 Back to your question, on recollection perhaps Tuf Line XP is made from "Dyneema". The line was fantastic although felt somewhat "delicate". I've also used Jerry Brown and Power Pro Hollow. I continue to use JB as it is reliable, good value and easily obtainable.

Hope that helps.

Ditto, ability to handle shock and strike impact a lot better. I have now changed to hollow for all lines PE6 class and above.

In case the material for both spectra and dyneema is the same poly-ethilene, and if we put aside coatings, braiding technology, etc., my understanding of the ability of hollow braid (Spectra) to take shock loads better than PE (dyneema) is mainly because that hollow spectra is braided from more lines. Hollow braid is 12 braided or 16 braided while regular PE is maximum 8 braided. The stretch ability of poly-ethilene (base material for both lines) is 4%, but when you braid it, the braided line becomes more stretchy than the original 1x line and achieve 7-8%. So, when you braid from 16 lines, the resulted braid will be more stretchy than 8x braided line. Stretchy line will absorbs shocks better. It is like twisted leader in comparison with mono leader.

And in case this logics is right, 16x hollow will take more shock load than 12x hollow.

What do you think?

   

[Saltywater Tackle]

Good day Guys!
I was wondering have anyone used the 60lb JB Hollow for GT fishing? ... I know the standard is the 80/100lb
Thank you !
Joel
(its my first post so be gentle

Hi Joel,
The JB 60lb brakes at 92lb and it is been used and abused in Cape Cod for the past 4 to 5 years with some great results on Bluefin tuna,
It really depends on the size of fish you hook and the drag you initially set on your reel for the initial strike, if you use 30lb or less I believe you will be Ok,
I just broke a 130lb JB hollow from my recent trip to Madagascar, things happen and sometimes you don't know what you might encounter, for a second I thought the rod broke when the line departed, I had a full 66lb drag on the reel and 60% of the line was out in the water, I could not stop that GT my all means

  Tight lines
   Sami

[Joel Leong]

Hi Sami,

Thank you for your kind reply ... yes most likely my drag settings will be more or less 30lbs

and 66lbs of drags is jus crazy