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where is the POWER in power pro??

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power pro
15K views 47 replies 21 participants last post by  jimi4290 
#1 ·
hi tiderunner
i too had some bad luck with powerpro,i was using #20 ,great at first.after about 20 trips it started breaking for no good reason.im breaking it off on cocktails.thought they were biting it off at first,then went to cast,loaded the rod & it broke by the stripper guide.in my opinion its garbage,im back to fireline.
 
#2 ·
I've personally had very good luck with powerpro in 20# 30# and 50#... I've converted all my striper rigs to PP from fireline... I've heard of people having breaking trouble with PP and they did have a problem for a while... as with ANY braid or fused line, give it something sharp and your all done....
what I've learned to do is: check hookeyes for burrs, rod guides for cracks etc... inspect the last few feet after each fish for gillplate damage.. retie if even remotely questionable..

to inspect your line for problems tie one end to something solid, say your bumper in a big parking lot or field or whatever.. put some pressure on it, really test it out with a straight pull, if it busts somewhere in the middle, you have either damaged it in the rocks or it's a bad spool of line.. check it thuroughly for abrasions or bad spots.... when it breaks it should break at the knot...

also be sure to use polamar knots... braids won't hold clinch type knots.. they will slip right apart... offshore knot works well and takes a good beating.. that's about the only other knot besides the polamar that I would trust..

what I like about PP is it's thin diameter and it stays thin and round.. fireline tends to frey and affects the free-fall of my jigs.. to me jigging is all about using the lightest jig possible for a particular spot.. with FL frizzies, I have to upsize a jig to get the same fall-rate... me no like that.. shake.gif
 
#4 ·
Fireline and Fireline XDS arent braids. They are "thermal filament" superlines. I used to change the normal Fireline once a year. But they have come out with a newer version of Fireline that is smoother and less likely to fray. As far as Fireline XDS goes, its a totally different make up than normal Fireline. I would have to say that it will last considerably longer.



 
#5 ·
JackD818 said:
How often do you have to change braided line like XDS?
don't know about XDS cuz is hasn't been around very long, everybody is different. I've gone two seasons with fireline after flipping it around on the spool... I'm a full season into powerpro now and it's fine, no freys, still round, still rugged...

you have to inspect it for damage and change or cut back as you see fit.. flip it over on the spool and it's all new again :D no matter what line you have ... 'cept mono... where age is a factor..

I also fish prolly 200 days a year, worn out new reels in half a season.. when I used mono, I'd respool once week sometimes more... braid saved me a pile of money..
 
#6 ·
PP

I'm definitely sold on PP, at least for my baitcasting set-ups. It's made my set-up usable for surf and shore. I use a 7'6 heavy action flippin stik with an abu 6500C. I use to use this set-up in Lake St.Clair trolling for muskies and flipping big plugs along the channels and I used 25# mono and with a big plug I could cast it at max 60 feet (all I needed). When I came here, NYC, I needed a temporary surf set-up and I switched to 30# PP and I can cast it an easy 60 yards with a 3-6oz. fish finder/ bunker rig and this is without any sort of power cast--just a regular overhand cast with increasing speed (a power cast with my frozen bunker from Kapital results in fish bait). I'm getting far fewer backlashes and i have only lost one set-up (on a snag). Next year, I'll see how it performs on my new surf spinning set-ups.
 
#8 ·
Funny, I was going to start a thread about how much I hate this crap.
After all my weekend plans for fishing went to hell in a hand basket, I decided to test a few new plug designs in the lake. So I tie on a nice new swimmer design that I have yet to see anything similar out there. I Pay out a few yards and swim the plug at my feet, nice wobble, no roll and the tail wag is tight. In other words it's doing exactly what I was hoping for. So I'm going to cast it out to check it out on an actual retrieve. I wind up and let it rip. Thirty yards out, for no apparent reason the line just parts, no snap, no pop, just parts like it got cut in mid air with a knife.
Junk, Garbage, and a total waste of money.
I'm tired of losing plugs to this stuff.
 
#12 ·
there is debate after debate. i had one incident in some five years where i was beffuddled about what happened and i to this day chalk it up as a bad spool. that was a few years back. i have had line on my reel for 2 seasons and it never broke. when it is new it is very slippery until you break it in. it WILL come undone at a knot if you don;t tie them right. it will cause excessive wind loops if you don;t cast right ( change from a 4oz plug to a 1 1/2 - 2oz plug and not cast appropriately to get the proper distance out and so on) or are inept at casting at all. it WILL break off if you don;t check your line for damage and it WILL snap a rod tip if you are not careful (not that you were not at the time but i can;t see that happening) so all braids are not the same is true, but all braids are tested to tensile strength/breaking and stress performance, and a series of water and heat related testing. they all claim this or that but value lies in what is tried and true for all of us. i was at the cape and i was unfortunate enough to have brought the wrong canal rod/reel as i only had 150 yds of braid on that setup and snagged bottom and lost all of it at the mono connection. so at the buzzards bay bait shop jimi4290 knows what i spooled up with there and i was never more confident. just my preference and it;s not garbage, it;s just braid and they all will fail the same somewhere down the line. mystery breakoffs are an excuse for not paying attention to detail. there, i said it! fire me~



 
#13 ·
So...................................................
I should just expect this crap to continue as long as I use it? No matter what brand?
For years folks have been trying to convince me that braid is the way to go. I NEVER had any of these problems with mono. If I understand what I was just belittled with, I should check my braid from end to end after every cast, looking for minute little knicks, or wind knots from my lack of casting experiance, and still expect the stuff to fail me when I need it to perform most?
 
#14 ·
Been using PP for years have not had a problem till this year. I buy it 1500 yds at a time, filled my baitrunner before fishing. First cast broke,retyed caught a 12-15# sand shark line broke with fish in the wash. all total 5 times,contacted seller his answer was send it back. Waiting for the new spool. 50# test Line broke at 22# on a certified Boga. Have caught bass to 45# on it,Damm Cownose rays to over 50#
 
#16 ·
I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones...... I dont have any issues with it, I've landed tuna to 300lbs on it, whale cod to 60lbs and countless bass to 50lbs... all my conventionals are spooled with it, my conventional bass gear gets used 4-5 nights a week,raked over clams ,rocks and mussel beds, if that was mono I'd be cutting back 25' after every fish, the line is 3 seasons old... I dont use it on spinning reels, I'm old school and still believe spinning reels and monofiliment go hand in hand....In fact this weekend I winched a 53lb codfish out of 320' of water on 50lb Power pro... the same line that has been on these reels for 4 years now.... it has been raked over rough and rocky bottom and caught countless cod and haddock... I'll not be in a rush to bad mouth it...

One thing I do when I spool up ( I do this with all my line) is wet pack it, maybe it makes a differance...
 
#17 ·
I too have had more than my share of line breakage when using PowerPro, over the course of more than a dozen spools, all purchased at different times, from several different vendors. More than with any other braided line I've used. Perhaps this is due to a weakening of the line where it might get nicked slightly on a rock or something during retrieve, I don't know. But, if such slight nicks are going to so severely compromise the integrity of this "superline" that it parts the next time it is under the slightest tension, I think I'd rather use something else.

In my opinion, it's not enough to check the line prior to casting. When you have a fish on, the line is even more likely to get nicked up/weakened, and you risk breaking off before you even have reeled in the line to the point where you would be able to see the nick or abrasion.

As far as castability goes, I had little trouble with it on my setups, but when it did get tangled, it was not the easiest line in the world to work with. This alone was not enough to stop using the line,,,, it was more the breakoff issues.

All I can say is fishing the same lb test, under the same conditions, on the same rod/reel, I have not had a single breakoff, for any reason, using Fireline.

I seriously don't think anyone could logically chalk this up to operator error,,, perhaps just an inconsistency in the production of the line. Sometimes you get great line,, sometimes not so great. Sounds like Roccus has gotten some great line. I didn't.
 
#18 ·
maybe its the lb test line and what the type of gear its used on. for me it was 20 or 30lb power pro i had issues with...on spinning and conventional...although i feel the occasional backlash on conventional must play a part in weakening the line from time to time..but the spinning set ups im unsure of the contributing factors. maybe the larger diametrs are better..maybe the type or even brand of fishing reel plays a roll too..i dont know.
 
#20 ·
I've used it on everything from 30lb up.... last season I spooled my second ABU with 30lb PP... the only issue was self inflicted, I just put a little too much heave and not enough brake into the cast.....I heard lunar lander found a funny shaped mackerel popper on mars....

Jacob, remember these fish..... those and all the others that day were taken on 30lb Power pro... and that same line has, and continues to take fish without issue...

We all must be carefull when making blanket statements about a product.... must be why there are so many manufactures... the choices are mind boggeling...

On another note, I have a good friend that fishes swords and sails in Florida.... he swears by Cortland spectra, and with the size of the fish he catches... it's worth a consideration... I love their green dot dacron, also their camoflage mono...
 

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#24 ·
well..i have to agree, joe is correct with his statement. many of us, including myself are quick to judge products we use..especially when we have bad luck with them. if it was absolute junk nobody would use it. the poor experiance many of us have had probably had underlying factors we may not have been aware of. however, for me the change to fireline seemed to cure my alements...maybe its just more user friendly on the reel i use..or able to handle the way i cast...whatever it may be, i cant speak for the many people who use power pro with no issues by calling the stuff junk. rather than badmouth any one product maybe it would be better to promote the products we have success with. another one of lifes lessons taught by roc.thumbsup.gif
 
#25 ·
O.K. No more bad mouthing........................................................

But I will not take the chance of launching a one of a kind plug to England again.
Or taking a chance that when a rat schoolie hits a plug the line parts without a snap,
or having the line part in mid air for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

I'll find something that I can recommend from personal experiance and post all about it.
 
#26 ·
In my opinion florocarbon is the way to go for any fishing situation it is invisible underwater and the in some situations just as tough as any braided line at half the cost. it also makes a better hook set than braid. much more managable to cast, and last longer also.
 
#27 ·
I've got 4 poles spooled with 30lb. PP and 1 with 65 lb. PP for the 4th season now. Only once did I have a plug sail away to Tahiti, and it was because the line tangled on my reel and the shock made the line snap. I now use a shock leader on all the set-ups. I had a friend who kept getting break-offs until we figured out that the line wasn't breaking, the knot was coming undone. He switched to the polamar knot and never again had a problem (3 seasos now). If attaching the line to a leader without a swivel, use the Albright knot, but lock the Albright with a uni-knot (3 wraps) as shown on the pamphlet in the package. If not locked, the albright will just slip out. I've dragged the line through rock, jetties, mussel beds, etc. with no problems. The polamar seems to be the only knot that doesn't slip with braid when tying to swivels, hooks, lures, etc. I like PP! :a_goodjob:
 
#28 ·
J. Owen Im assuming you mean flourocarbon coated line - like p line.
Regular flouro is too stiff - just as expensive as braid if not more - and way too much memory to use as a line.

The two braids i like are fireline and Sufix performance. Maybe because thats all i buy now. Havent bought power pro in a while.
If I got it for free i would try it again. :icon_cool2:
 
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