P Line Hydrofloat

[thousandcasts]

Anyone used this? How's it perform? I'm thinking about loading one of my salmon baitcasters with it.

[Alpha Buck]

I have not heard too many good things about it, the only one is that it floats nice. Sounds like it is pretty thick for a braided line, but I did hear they are coming out with some 10 and 15lb. If you try it let us know what you think.

[fishintheblood]

I pulled this info from another site. It has some good info (biased maybe but good info none the less) I hope this may help. I myself have not used hydrofloat

There have been some questions about P-Line's new Hydrofloat. So I wanted to spend a few minutes trying to educate fellow anglers on the line. I must first start by saying that I am an addicted steelhead fisherman, and the Vice President Of Sale and Marketing at P-Line, I want to be completely honest about who I am and how this product came to market.

Our company has built a braided line called Spectrex IV for a number of years, it is a 4 carrier spectra line. The company that makes this line for us provided samples 5 years ago of a non-braided spectra based line with a fused coating. This is the line that eventually became Hydrofloat. I immediately started using this line for float fishing, and have used it for 5 years fishing an average of 50 days a year. So the line has been thoroughly tested. Because "Float Fishing" is a small segment of the over all fishing business we questioned whether it would be worth introducing such a technique specific line. So for the first few years the only people that had this line were friends and guides that I fish with. Each season I had a number of buddies asking me where they could buy the line, and I explained it was a prototype, and was not available ( it was my own secret stash) so they would show up at my house or the office wanting to fill up reels. Although most braided lines work well for float fishing, we collectively felt that Hydrofloat outperformed the average braided line, it's more buoyant, and has more body which helps eliminate tip wrap. Last year while fishing the Situk I had 2 complete strangers show up at my hotel room late one night asking if they could fill a few spools of the "yellow line." They ran into my brother and friend on the river that morning and were amazed at how much better the line worked than normal braid. At that point I knew it was time to come to market with the product because of the growing float fishing community. (I did fill their spools and they were extremely impressed at the results.)

So let me take the time to answer some questions. Is this line a braid? No. It is made of the same material as braid, which is a gel spun polyethylene called Spectra. Spectra in it's raw form comes in carriers made by Honeywell. Carriers are braided together and coated to make a braid. With Hydrofloat, we take a raw carrier and use a fused coating to protect the Spectra Fibers. The coating does make the diameter larger than a traditional braided line. Braided line can sometimes feel rough going through the guides, Hydrofloat has a smooth coating and does not feel rough. Can the coating wear off of Hydrofloat? The answer is yes. If the line is thrown into over hanging willows, wrapped in a tree, snagged on a rock, then yes the coating can be separated from the core spectra. You simply would cut and re-tie. The same as you would do when you feel a rough spot on your mono, or a leader with abrasion. As steelhead fisherman we know retying is part of our sport. From time to time, it is possible to separate the coating or shell from the core. If this happens, remember the coating does not add any strength, it simply helps the buoyancy, and makes the line smooth going through the guides, and provides a high-vis color, so you are not sacrificing strength. But if the coating is breached, you should cut that section out and re-tie. This is not a common problem, but can happen. I've had reels filled with this line for over a full season. I've had friends in the past knowing the line was impossible to get, use the same line for 2 or even 3 seasons so it is durable. When sliding your bobber stops I recommend using your fingers to slide the knot of the stop up and down the line, as opposed to grabbing a tag end and pulling the line, which tightens the stop, and can cause the stop to cut into the coating. There are many types of bobber stops on the market, bobber stops with a very small diameter will cut into the coating easier than larger diameter stops. What is the true breaking strength of the line? The line will break at exactly the listed pound test, so make sure your leader will break below the Hydrofloat rating. I've caught hundreds of fish on Hydrofloat and have never broken it off, nor have I personally talked to anyone who has broken it off on a fish. I use 8 and 10 pound CFX Fluorocarbon leader material. Because the line is made of Spectra it has virtually no stretch, so it is a good idea to fish the line with a loose drag, which will help eliminate pulling hooks, and breaking leader material. Does the line have memory? It has slightly more memory than braided lines, but less than mono, and it certainly will not tangle like mono on a spinning reel. I think it fishes best on a size 3000 spinning reel. A 2500 has a small spool and you might not get enough capacity.

Is 20 pound the smallest size available? At this time the answer is yes. We have responded to consumer demand and announced 2 new sizes 10, and 15 pound, which will be available in 3 weeks. Remember, the line will break at the exact listed pound test. So make sure the leader material you are using is a true rating because you always want your leader to break before your main line.

I hope this answers some questions and clear up any misconceptions about this product. If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact me in the office at 800-537-2394 or by email at DONPLINE@AOL.COM.

When on the water good luck and tight lines!

Don Newman

[Steelhead Addict]

I wonder if line freeze is an issue.

[fishintheblood]

This is not my review, but I thought that it might be helpful.



It's no wonder that people rarely switch fishing lines, 'ya almost never know what to expect.

Jess, Irie, and I spent the day fishing floats and jigs for steelhead, using samples of P Line Hydrofloat mailed to me by the company. We were using the '20 pound' test as mainline, with '10 pound' test CXX for leader material. I can tell you that was my mistake right there. CXX in the 10 pound test has about a 3 pound advantage in strength over the 20 pound test Hydrofloat. Does that make any sense to you? Well it's because the entire fishing line industry is screwy. Sometimes what's marked on the box is dead accurate, and sometimes...

What's marked on the Hydrofloat box IS accurate, it does break just under 20 pounds. What's marked on the CXX is not accurate. The stuff is incredibly strong; 10 pound test breaks at 22 pounds. If I had done the home lab tests on the Hydrofloat first, I'd known to pair it up with 6 or 8 pound CXX. Lets just say I lost a few floats today.

Performance:

The stuff floats like a cork. Is easy to see, which makes it easy for me to direct the anglers up front to mend, pick up slack, etc. It has enough stiffness that it doesn't wrap the rod tip like some braids I've used for floats. Casting performance is just ok. It doesn't come off a spinning reel as easy as more limp braided spectra lines. That is the trade off that comes with decreasing the tip wrapping.

Downsides are; The coating seems to flake off easier than I'd expect. Just spooling up the reels yesterday I came away with a yellow dandruff all over the floor, running the bobber stop up and down the line ate the coating away pretty quickly, although the line continued to float. With the box being marked as 20 pound test, I expected the line to perform like the average 20 pound mono as far as strength; Which is to say I expected the stuff to break at about 27-30 pounds, it broke at just under 20. It gave the impression of being an easily frayed line, because of my own assumptions/expectations. We did seem to need to cut and retie more often than I remember having to do with other gel spun lines. Cutting and retying mainline when bobber fishing is a bigger pain in the ass than with drift fishing.


Recommendation:

For marketing I'd recommend that P Line market the 20 pound line as '14 pound test'. With that most anglers would have an accurate expectation of how the line would perform.

For guys who are interested in fishing this line I'd recommend using a single bobber stop ( I like to normally use two nail knots, and it dug into the hydrofloat). Don't spool this on anything less than a size 3000 spinning reel, it's thicker than traditional braided line. A 2500 or 2000 sized spool doesn't give enough capacity. Use a leader material that will break under 20 pounds. Almost any 10 pound leader material will meet those expectations with the exception of CXX.

My thanks to Don Newman who was kind enough to send me a massive box of different P Line products. I hope he understands I value my credibility, and independence with regard to product reviews. As such, I can't say I was dazzled by this line. It has to compete with the incredible performance of lines like P Line Evolution (my new favorite line for drift fishing), and CXX.

I will give the 30 pound samples a trial later this year for springers, with adjustments. And I also have a spool of 20 pound Hydrofloat line if someone is interested in giving it a field test as well. Free to the first person to come and pick it up.

For those who are hardcore float fishers, for $14 it might be worth a trial to see if it'll fit into your arsenal.

Preliminary Grade C+

[r_smith188]

I did happen to see some 10lb. spools at Al and Bobs in Grand rapids. I will give it a try. If only they made suffix that floats. I love that line.

Bob

[Kory]

I heard from a few guys that used the stuff they had issues with the coating coming off. They had not had that many days on the water with it either. It definitely sucks with a pin "well if you do any wallis casting it does", but I can see some advantages with this line with a baitcaster as long as the coating stayed on and they offered it in some lighter pound tests...

[Flyfisher]

I used the 20lb last year and was very happy with it...yes, be careful with bobber stops (and the coating) but other than that, expect not to lose any floats anymore. It picks up off the water and mends great, without moving the float and hooksets are dead on. I just spooled a baitcaster with the 15lb and as soon as I am finished building my 11'6" casting float rod I look forward to trying it.

And because it floats so well, it tended to pick up less water, consequently, less ice in the guides. Diameter on the 20lb is comparable to 12lb Ande and thinner than 15lb Siglon.