Good for floatline?

    BTW TM orange or yellow for a float line is no advantage as far as I'm concerned. You know I prefer something least visible. Besides the float being there it will always be seen instead of the float line if that's a consideration. Only thing it's good for is marketing.

    I do recall your position, but I'm curious if you think the color makes any difference in the "visibility" of a floatline to fish if we are talking about cord that is 3/8" or 1/2" in diameter. Seems like it would be hard for them to miss no matter what color it was. And below some relatively shallow depth, they would all look the same anyway as colors filter out.


    But don't you think that the added visibility of red or orange is a benefit to the diver when working line on the surface? When I was diving two weeks ago, I noticed that it was quite a bit easier to keep track of the orange floatline that we were using, as opposed to the second diver who used a white cord inside of clear tubing. In this case, floatlines tended to overlap and get tangled, as both divers sometimes worked close together around weed patches, but maybe that is an infrequent occurrence in general.

    There are a few ideas there. First who really knows what fish see. But I had an epiphany a while back where I realized a line is like a moving wall to a fish depending on where in the water column it is and how it's moving relative to the fish. You can't discount that there's a big lore in H&L and that generally they try to make the fishing line as least visible as possible. This is based on hundreds of years of practical experience. So I think that least visible is a worthwhile goal when considering color, width and whatever else. But as you know everything is a compromise and in the situation where I need a thick line to pull up a diver the other considerations become secondary. I believe that the least we have to go on is how visible the line is to us and why should it be that much different to other animals. You yourself said that you want it orange for visibility purposes :)


    I propose that judging by the great variety of coloration among fish, and their ability to change color to reflect mood, and the capacity other sea creatures have for camouflage using colors, indicates that fish are very sensitive to color. Of course I haven't yet become a better spearfisher because I know this.


    As far as usefulness to the diver. A member on this board I believe uses clear tubing without anything inside as a float line and let me tell you that thing is hard to see and would be difficult to me from a handling stand point. However I've had no problems handling any other color. By this logic if a polypropylene line was made clear it would be difficult to handle too. So maybe something not completely invisible just less visible.


    It's hard to isolate most of the time when you have success with a fish what it was due to. Most of the time it seems to me it's really up to the fish not anything I do in particular. Some species are more oblivious than others but that changes in dependence of locations. It takes a lot of experience to start making for sure judgment calls on what has what effect. Two very experienced spearfishers told me that fish don't like float lines. Well, they don't like them because they can see them.

    I think that I read somewhere that birds see at least partially in the ultraviolet spectrum, making their bright colors appear different to them then they do to us. It made me wonder if fish did too.


    Dan - Here's a twist. I wonder if it would be possible to take a relatively dull, sargassum colored rope, and weave strips or threads of reflective mylar or something similar through it. If we can't easily make it invisible, then make it visible in a way that works like a flasher, and might actually attract fish?




    Anyway, back on track. Novabraid, the manufacturer of Polyfoam, also makes it in a dull orange (not specifically labelled as "hi vis"), and a fluorescent pink . . . Not sure that I'm secure enough in my masculinity to sport a hot pink floatline.


    They will sell directly in 600' spools, but the price on 3/8" was $122! Best to find a local or internet distributor and ask if they can special order other colors for the normal price.

    Edited once, last by Guest ().

    Quote from Tin Man

    The floatline is probably a hollow braid to contain the foam inside, instead of the twisted design in the pics above, so the spliced loop would have to be different, I think.


    check out the link under the picture I think this is how RA are made minus these pictures don't show the foam innercore.

    when i look at the RA it seems thats how they do it. the way it shows on the link below the picture. but they first cut a section of the foamcore out then do the eye splice. . .

    Quote from seahunter49

    Larry, that's not how the RA is made. The outer sheath which is basically where all the strength is can't be taken apart like in the pic you posted.


    I know how to back braid(eye splice) a rope/line etc. The RA looks like a splice that has been sewn onto itself.
    Oh, a Beckett(sp?) type splice wouldn't work either because the core is foam(solid) not a braid.

    Edited 2 times, last by Toledo970 ().

    What they do is remove about 1.5-2 ft of core, burn the end and pass it through the rope transversly, repeat about 4 or 5 times each time entering about an inch up. Then place the tag end in the rope like an eyesplice. Then tie a constrictor knot under the burnt end and heat shrink the knot.

    Davie Peguero

    Yeah, it looked something like that from the pic posted. I fugured it would be hard to splice with the core being foam. There's not a piece of foam where the clip and swivel are at? It just looks thicker(puffier) in those spots.

    This is how I've always made loops in hollow braid. Splice the tag end through a little ways. Then pull it out through a side. Tie an overhand knot, tighten, and then reinsert the tag end into the main line. As long as the overhand knot is in place around the outside, there is no way for the tag end to pull through, the way it can with a simple splice.



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