I was pulling a large fish of the bottom last week in marginal visibility. It was some what of a PITA following the double wrap of black mono through the murk and kelp. Hard to follow. I started looking for more high vis options in a shooting line. I remember reading some where that guys were using orange or green weed wacker string as shooting line. I liked the colors so I went and pick some small spools up at the Home Depot. It has the appearance of being strong enough for local fishing. I decided to do some testing by hanging some weight from the mono and seeing where the fail point was. It was an eye opener for sure. I tested Riffe 400lb mono, BPS (Bass Pro Shop) 400 halyard line, momoi outrigger line green 2.0 ,2.4mm weed cord and 2.0 weed cord. All were loop crimped on both ends and the length tested was about 18 inches. Here are the rough breaking points:
Riffe mono: 200-225
BPS mono 125-150
momoi outrigger line 125-150
2.4 weed cord 125-150
2.0 weed cord 90-125
Not very scientific or controlled. However, I have some peace of mind and have ruled out the weed cord. It has a lot of stretch before it fails. Some of the failures were at the crimp and I think that is whole new set of test. I reduced crimp failures by going to double crimps on both ends. Not sure why it works but it does. I think it has to do with stretch and stress around the end loops. Anyhow, I thought I would share the results. In the end I decided to go with high vis orange dynema 2.2 line. 900lb test. Not my test. I will do some shooting with it this week to see how it performs.
Mike
