By Chris Jones
April 6, 2011
Over the years, I’ve come to depend on the great soft plastic baits that Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits produces. If someone is talking about catching fish on a weightless worm the first bait that comes to my mind is the Senko. In my mind, if you need the best soft plastic flipping bait you’re picking up a Flappin' Hog or one of the many creature-style baits that GYCB's produces. It’s safe to say I’m an avid fan.
That being said, what would make Sugoi Fluorocarbon any different than anything else Gary produces? Yep, absolutely nothing. Gary wanted to make sure his fluoro was the best quality line a person could buy.
Abrasion resistance and low stretch are probably the most recognizable traits of today's fluorocarbon lines. Don't get me wrong, I still do a lot of retying throughout my day of fishing but I find it amazing how abrasion-resistant Sugoi is. Everyone knows you should check your line often and retie every time you feel a scuff or bump or nick in the line. It costs little to retie compared to setting into a good one and having your line fail. But I’ve noticed over the past five years since I began using Sugoi that it holds up a lot longer fishing in heavy cover. Rock, wood and grass do not seem to rough up the line near as often as older fluoros and mono.
Low stretch: I cannot say enough about this property of the line. Set the hook on a fish using mono line and then pick up a reel spooled with fluorocarbon and tell me you can’t feel the difference. Just think how many solid hook ups you would have years ago if fluoro had been as wide spread as it is today. I find Sugoi particularly effective with crank baits as well. A good, sharp lean into the fish and the hooks drive home!
I’ll admit I’ve never been a big fan of fluoro when it comes to topwater fishing. An excellent quality of fluorocarbon is that it sinks quickly but in regards to topwater, it brings the nose of my bait down a bit lower than I’d like and causes it to underperform.
Longevity is another great feature with Sugoi Fluorocarbon. Yes, it’s more expensive than a lot of brands on the market today but it lasts so much longer, especially if you know how to take care of it. When you spool up the first time the line is limp and ready to go. I fish with it as normal and occasionally I’ll spray line conditioner on the spool.
I do not re-spool every time I go out, unless I really caught ‘em good and abused that particular spool of line on my previous outing. If I haven’t been out in a week, I usually stretch the line a bit. I hook the bait to a post in my backyard and then I walk up my drive way about 30-40 yards with my rod. I point the rod tip at the lure on the post and gently pull to me on a level plain. I will hold it for 8 or 10 seconds and then let it rest, giving the line some slack, and then repeat the step again. I do this four or five. This takes any coiling (or memory) out of the line that occurs while it is spooled up for a week or so and not being used. I can usually get three to four fishing trips out of a spool before I re-spool.
Also, I never fill the spool all the way. By that I mean I leave some backing on the spool. Halfway down I never take that line off of the reel, so I’m only putting on 50-75 yards of new fresh line each time I re-spool. I tie a blood not or simple over hand knot to attach the two lines together.
Sugoi Fluorocarbon is extremely UV resistant also which increases its longevity. Of course I don’t recommend leaving the line outside for days on end exposed to the eliminates. Store your boxes of line in a dry place out of the weather and you’ll get more life out of it.
If you’re like me you’ve come to expect quality from the products GYCB produces, so if you haven’t tried Sugoi yet, give this brand a try. It’s a quality product, just like everything that Yamamoto puts out.
