Flouro vs Mono for Steelhead

[Terry Thomas]

Seaguar AbrazX, great product and only runs @ $25.00 for 200 yards. Have been using it for the last 5 years for Steelhead, Stripers and Shad. Seems to hold a knot very well.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Guide Keith Kaneko turned us onto Seaguar AbrazX FC......

[ycflyfisher]

Add me to the list that sees no appreciable benefit to FC for typical steelhead applications.

Maxima is garbage and it's rep as the strongest tippet on earth is a matter of pure deception. Now that may sound an extremely bold statement or that I'm purposely pissing in everyone's Cheerios just to get a response so I'll explain.

I did a test several years ago where I built an apparatus that I could stack iron plates in 1 lb increments on. I devised a means where no knots were used during the test. I tested the breaking strength of several mono tippet materials in several diameters (0X down to 4X if memory serves) including Maxima. Each diameter of each tippet was broken several times to create a suitable sample size of data to miminize variation.

If you test Maxima head to head with any other tippet material with 'advertised breaking strength' as the criteria, Maxima will ALWAYS win. All Maxima by my account broke under what I'd call a significantly higher load than the 'advertised breaking strength'. Maxima (all of it from 6 to 15lb) from my experience is purposely underrated by the manufacturer. It however didn't end there. I never noticed how much thicker 6 lb Maxima was than 4x Rio Powerflex or 4X Dai-riki Velvet (both rated around 6.5lbs and broke right around that weight) until I had several spools of various 4x tippet material and 6lb Maxima in hand at the same time.

How much thicker is it? I just mic'd some 6lb Maxima at 3 locations about 5 feet apart and it mics at an average of .254mm. That's not only significantly thicker than 3x Rio Powerflex but over 10% thicker than 2x Rio Powerflex (.229mm by the same micrometer).

The manufacturer of Maxima does not follow the industry convention of diameter designation:0X, 1X, 2X, etc. When compared to other mono tippets of like diameter, Maxima was a epic failure and was not only the weakest mono of those I tested but it was significantly weaker (upwards of 20% vs the strongest monos.)

[Rick J]

Does not mean it is garbage - just that it does not test the same and may be inaccurately rated - for steelhead do I really care if 8# mics thicker than it says it is and is stronger than it says it is? Not really!! Does it work for the application I am using it for - most certainly.

Do I use it for other applications? Rarely when trout fishing - I will go to better mono or FC for my trout applications but I have always known that maxima was not really what it claimed to be - pretty obvious they underrate it but don't much care - works great!

[RonOtto]

Agreed on the Seaguar AbrazX. Excellent product, and value.
I use it for steelhead and stripers and it's proven to be consistent and dependable.


Ron Otto

[Idadon]

Got to agree with Rick J on this one. I use Maxima because it works. The only reason I go to more expensive stuff is if I'm fishing over leader shy fish or maybe I'm after a record fish (that never happens) that requires a sample of your tippet to validate the record. There was a time when that kind of stuff was all we had and we tied our own tapered leaders with it. Caught lots of fish on Maxima and never worried to much about it.

[Carl Blackledge]

For Swinging flies for Steelhead any fresh, good quality 0X FC or nylon mono material will work.

__________________________________________

The most popular tippet material for the past 50 years for Steelhead is German made Maxima 'Ultragreen' nylon monofilament.

6# for smaller Half-pounder Steelhead
8# for most Fall fishing
10# for bigger Fall fish on bigger Spey rods.

15# for BC Steelhead?


8# Maxima Ultragreen says it is .010" but it is really 0.011" or 0X tippet.

I think 8# Maxima Ultragreen breaks at over 12#.....

.

Bill,

I totally agree with you. Probably more Steelhead and Salmon have been landed on Maxima then all others combined, It's tough and very abrasive resistant plus it's dirt cheap. Now after that being said I stopped using Maxima about 15 years ago and switched to Seaguar "blue label" leader material and my success did increase in low clear situations especially on Salmon , of course when the water is off color then you could use an anchor rope and it won't make much difference.

When I chased Tarpon we always used Clear mono for leaders because it didn't sink near as fast as fluorocarbon, however we did use FC for the bite.

Each material definitely has it's place in the fishing World. To each his own

My 2 cents

Carl Blackledge

[Walter]

Agreed on the Seaguar AbrazX. Excellent product, and value.
I use it for steelhead and stripers and it's proven to be consistent and dependable.


Ron Otto

In my experienxe Abrasx performed poorly compared to Seaguar InvisX. Its much better.

[TaylerW]

I've almost exclusively Used abrazx for almost 8 years. I really use anything else. I use the 12lb for almost everything from swinging to bobber fishing, to gear.

[JD]

Try Maxima Fluorocarbon for the best of all worlds. Cheaper than the Seagar, and performs just as well IMHO.