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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Tackle & Techniques => Topic started by: Chris Rowbottom on January 01, 2014, 01:57:01 AM
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What are most people using, hollow or solid?
I have only used solid in the past for other species.
Thoughts?
Thank you!
C
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Hollow for big stuff. Solid for small stuff. Plugging---hollow.
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The only real advantage in hollow braid is that you can splice loops or even whole leaders into the main line rather than tying knots. That also means that you can top-up a spool without knots or having to replace the whole line.
Regards,
Trev
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Like Trevor, I have never been able to see any advantage in using hollow unless you intend to splice.
Solid definitely casts a bit better.
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Hi Chris,
If you are targeting big fish in shallow water and you intend to use heavy drag, hollow is your ticket.
I've been using hollow line for GT fishing for the past 4 years and i am very happy with the results, there is a lot of advantages that goes to the usage of hollow and it is proven through time,
Hollow is stronger and take the initial strike better than braid, in case of a breakage you don't need to change your line, you can just splice it as Trevor mentioned, I use heavy drag in general and i barely ever broke a hollow, if i recall correctly it happen once or twice at the most in the past couple of years.
I would only use it targeting big fish on topwater, for jigging i would use solid braided line.
Tight lines
Sami
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Ditto, ability to handle shock and strike impact a lot better. I have now changed to hollow for all lines PE6 class and above.
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I was thinking of 65# on a medium setup so....
Sounds like hollow is the way to go. Can I tie knots in it too, or strictly make loops?
Thanks for the super valuable insight.
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Yes, you can tie knots it in no problem. Just practice ;)
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Hi Chris,
The breaking strength of a 60lb Jerry Brown hollow is at 92lb, thin in diameter and strong many captains use the 60lb in Cape Cod targeting Bluefin tuna for up to 300lb, trust me save your money and go hollow you will not regret it.
Tight lines
Sami
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Very interesting comments about the shock load. That makes switching to hollow an attractive possibility for high drag fishing.
Has anyone ever seen hollow Dyneema? The main American braid companies all seem to offer hollow Spectra but not sure I have ever seen any hollow Dyneema?
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Very interesting comments about the shock load. That makes switching to hollow an attractive possibility for high drag fishing.
Has anyone ever seen hollow Dyneema? The main American braid companies all seem to offer hollow Spectra but not sure I have ever seen any hollow Dyneema?
Mark,
Last time I delved into this topic detail - Dyneema and Spectra are simply "marketing" for essentially the same material. I do admit I haven't quite updated my knowledge on this. The more important variables being how it is braided (assembled) and additional coatings etc.
Luke
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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.
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Mark I have not seen any dyneema hollow core except for a brand called "thunder hollow" (well heard off not actually seen) and suspect its because the us guys tend to use a lot of hollow I. Their game fishing and hence they have volume. I have used jb hollow in the 60 and 100lb for some years now and find it very capable.
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Many thanks Wayne :) .
Yep the JB Hollow seems to be the market hollow braid favourite for sure.
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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.
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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.
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many thanks Luke (and Malcolm :) )
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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.
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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.
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+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 :/
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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!
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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.
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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 :)
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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?
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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
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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 :)
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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.
Hey guys,
I am contemplating switching to hollow myself and I am curious about the quoted question too.
Cheers