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David Lumanauw

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Mysterious PE snaps, could this cause it?
November 27, 2014, 08:48:21 PM
Several times I had PE line snaps, during lure casting, or hook-up, snaps when there is little force on the line. All occurs with heavy gauge PE, PE 8, 10, and above.
The same PE brand/type, on lower diameter dont do this. This makes me think, could this cause it?
In mechanical engineering, there is one kind of failure which is called fatique failure. Failure caused by small force, but with repetitive frequency.
Example is when you want to break a single solid wire, say 1mm steel wire, you can do it without any cutting tool. Just bend it repetitively left,right, left, right, so on, several times, and the steel wire will snap.
Back to PE. Here we have 2 kind of PE line on the drawing. One is small diameter PE (say PE2), the other is large diameter PE (say PE12).
We mark both PE with 4 points, A,B,C,D.
AB represent the diameter of the line.
When we cast, or when we stroke a popper, the line on top tip will bend+force following the curvature of the SiC ring.
We can see, the distance between A-C will be larger than B-D. Small diameter PE will have small A-C stretch, but large diameter PE will have extreme stretch, about 3/4 of its diameter.
Since PE line is not rubber, A-C stretch will have permanent effect on the line strength. PE line is made of many fiber bonding. A-C stretch will damage those bondings.
On extreme example, say we have 100lb PE line. 1 bend+force will damage 1lb of bonding. 10 cast, we loose 10 lb of bonding.
On 98th cast, we cast popper, and the whole line snaps. It looks like a popper cast snaps a100lb PE line.
This is where we need a ribbon like (not round diameter) PE for heavy lines, 80lbs or above.
Or like some member suggested, best using hollow PE for heavy gauge popping line. It will be more durable, more reliable. It consists of more strand, and when it bends, it will flattened like a ribbon, thus will have minimal A-B distance, causing minimal A-C stretch, means minimal micro fibre damage during bending+force


Felix Lux

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Re: Mysterious PE snaps, could this cause it?
December 01, 2014, 07:56:57 AM
Interesting thoughts, I think you do have a point here. Although I doubt this has a major impact to the extent of line snapping under minimal fore , like during casting. Generally you rarely hear of problems that extreme.

Might be wrong - think there is a little mistake in your calculations:
1. PE lines as well as Spectra lines are woven (not bonded except some shitty fused lines), so the little gaps etc in the weave should absorb the "kinking" to a large extend.
2. The guide insert of a size 16 Fuji MNST/MNSG (typically used for PE8-12) is a lot wider than the one of a size 8 (typically used for PE2), so the kink would be about the same relative to guide size and line diameter.

Fishing heavy with big leaders casted through your guides, the knot flying through the guides gets damaged sometimes the line just behind the knot too. Also if you don't retie often enough, your casting finger will slowly damage the braid where it touches your finger every cast, more or less in the same spot. Another reason could be, that you might have a very very small chip in one of your guides (usually tip) on the heavy rod you're using, slowly chewing up the line.
You might be aware of this, don't want to play Mr. fishing teacher here, just thought I mention it trying to explain your problems, in case you didn't think about one of them :)

I personally have never had braided line snap on a cast, without any other factors playing a role, like a wind knot, guide wrap, etc. and I cast very hard to get as much distance as possible, fishing from shore.

Or you might have crappy line spooled up? I did have line snap striking fish or on lightish drag randomly 5m or further up from the knot on relatively light pressure. No chips in the guides, no wind knots, or anything similar that could have caused the line snapping. The line had just deteriorated after half a season of fishing (way too early) and I could snap it through my hands even without gloves on under say 5kg pressure and not only the last 10-20m it was like 50m. The line was power pro 30lb and I never used it again. No problems with the other lines I used.


PS: I did find that JB Hollow (only hollow I've used for casting) is ultra durable compared to other braided lines. It also has a pretty good actual braking strain for it's diameter.
Last Edit: December 01, 2014, 08:03:17 AM by Felix Lux

Saltywater Tackle

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Re: Mysterious PE snaps, could this cause it?
December 01, 2014, 12:24:21 PM
You Can't beat the Hollow Line period ;)

  Tight lines
    Sami

David Lumanauw

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Re: Mysterious PE snaps, could this cause it?
December 01, 2014, 10:46:32 PM
Its actually Sami who I read advise on hollow PE on several posts