I’m looking for any good advice as to whether or not it pays to put Hi-Vis line on. I have never used this stuff so I have no clue what the advantage is. Also, are there any concerns with the fish seeing the line? And if anyone has any suggestions on what brand, color, etc. to use that would be welcome too.
Thanks.
Stren Ice Hi-Vis gold is a super line and in my opinion puts more fish on the ice because you can see it. There’s times a rod will show no indication of a bite but by watching the line you can see a bump, twitch or it move off to the side a bit.
Stren Ice is a hard product to find if it’s even made anymore. I’ve been forced to buy Suffix Ice Magic in orange lately which is still a nice line but doesn’t have the silky smoothness of the Stren.
For panfishing with tiny jigs, I really liked the old Trilene Solar XT (yep, going back in time). That solar green was super bright. Couple of things I really liked. With the small diameters, it was much easier to see & Tie. Also, in a few of the gin clear lakes that I fish crappies in, it never had a negative affect. While sight fishing in 8 fow, I could see the line move before feeling the hit, and fish never shied away from it. Trilene made a change to it and it was then garbage. It was off the market for years. I’ve seen a few boxes of it around, but haven’t tried any of the newer stuff.
Cortland Endurance Hi Vis has been pretty good. I stocked up a few years ago, so I don’t know the current availability.
http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/walleye_753019/
As for LOW VIS, I use a lot of the Cajun Red mono. Tough on the eyes for tying at times. But it has great properties and the fish never seem to shy away from it.
Open water fishing…
On my walleye rods I always ran a dark green braid. It was tough to see during the day–impossible to see during the night. Even worse was trying to tie it during the night.
I switched to Suffix hi vis braid last year and like it much better. You have enough visibility to see variations in the line play while fishing–which means you see more hits and catch more fish.
The water I fish is generally stained or turbid so I don’t worry about the fish seeing the line. If I happened to be in clear water, I’d tie on a few feet of flourocarbon leader.
As I stood in front of the fishing line area at Mills the other night I thought the same thing and considered trying the neon orange or neon green. I chickened out. Soo many of the lines push “low-vis” and that started to make me think that “low-vis” is a “good thing” and that if fish can see the line connected to the bait they would shy away??? With everything being equal if I fish with Low Vis line and Neon Orange line will both put the same amount of fish on the ice? Basically does Low Vis line really make a difference because and if it doesn’t why wouldn’t everyone use a neon colored line to make life easier on tying knots and like mentioned earlier being able to see the slightest bite? Deep thoughts by me…:-)
For panfishing with tiny jigs, I really liked the old Trilene Solar XT (yep, going back in time). That solar green was super bright. Couple of things I really liked. With the small diameters, it was much easier to see & Tie. Also, in a few of the gin clear lakes that I fish crappies in, it never had a negative affect. While sight fishing in 8 fow, I could see the line move before feeling the hit, and fish never shied away from it. Trilene made a change to it and it was then garbage. It was off the market for years. I’ve seen a few boxes of it around, but haven’t tried any of the newer stuff.
Cortland Endurance Hi Vis has been pretty good. I stocked up a few years ago, so I don’t know the current availability.
http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/walleye_753019/
As for LOW VIS, I use a lot of the Cajun Red mono. Tough on the eyes for tying at times. But it has great properties and the fish never seem to shy away from it.
Randy,Solar XT is back,and I think it is as good as the line of old.I remember when Iron Silk came out,that WAS garbage.But I wish solar XT came in 2lb test.I like Stren Gold 2lb for ice use.
This happens to be one topic which I have extensive knowledge in so I will contribute my two cents here. Full disclosure I use all high vis line on both summer and winter rods.
Now I also used to swear by using strictly low vis lines in my younger days. However since my father has grown older his eyesight began to fade and he requested I get him some hi-vis line for ice fishing so he could see the line easier. I didn’t hesitate and spooled him up with some Cortland hi-vis neon yellow/green. I immediately thought that it would inhibit his ability to catch the finicky crappies and gills on the tough bite days, in my opinion on good bite days line color, jig color etc. matter very little, if the fish are there and willing to bite with a purpose they will hit anything reasonable, again my opinion. Now on the tough days a lot of time my dad and I kept roughly even amounts of fish so I started experimenting with different colors on different rods and fished them consecutively and along side other anglers using the opposite vis line. Every single time it was basically a push, it never seemed to matter on the bad or good days for the fish discerning the difference. And many of the lakes I fish are shallow clear water lakes so in theory the line should be more visible to the fish, so that pretty much sold me on the hi-vis lines. I now use them exclusively and I have yet to have been out-fished by any substantial margin open or hard water by anyone of my partners who is using low-vis line.
Again this is all my experience but I tried to be as scientific and methodological about my experiment. It might cost you a fish or two any given day but the pro’s of the high vis lines be it easier to see for bad eyesight, or if you are a line watcher clearly outweighs the pros of low vis line which really the only pro for low vis is the fish catching ability of it because it doesn’t spook the fish when they see the line. Hold a strand of low vis and hi vis line up to a light once and you will rarely be able to tell much difference. You will be able to see the filament of the line but the color is often very subtle and hard to detect. My favorite lines are the Suffix ice magic tangarine and the aforementioned stren hi-vis gold for winter. Then the suffix hi- vis neon yellow for summer. Sorry if this got long winded
Exactly the kind of story I was looking for. Thanks Icefanatic…RR
Now the only catch is you can’t blame me if you buy all hi-vis line and get skunked while your buddy kills them on the low-vis variety ha ha. But as long as you are still paying close attention to presentation and cadence I wouldn’t expect for one second for you to have any issue with the hi-vis line. I’ve known a lot of people to blame not catching fish on something like their line when all they really had to do was refine their jigging presentation etc. There was an article by in-fisherman a few years back that illuminated this for me, only they actually did some real scientific testing, wish I could find it online somewhere. But either way I think you will be happy with the hi-vis if you do indeed make the switch.
I believe I once read that some of the pigments of the hi-vis line while highly visible to the angler above water are one of the first colors lost to the fish under water in their color spectrum. All eyes are not alike.
Much like IceFanatic, I used to be a low vis guy. Thinking any added amount of stealth would be a bonus. A good buddy of mine helped me make the switch a couple years ago though, and the only thing I can think of now is how many bites I must’ve missed through the years….
As others mentioned, being able to see the line “jump” will undoubtedly put more fish topside for you, and I do not believe it costs you many, if any bites. I look at it this way, if the water’s gin clear, I’m using a flouro leader no matter what, so no makes no difference what color the main line is. In stained or turbid waters, you should be able to skip the leader if wanted and see no difference in bites. I say this in confidence, as I fish some VERY clear waters, and have seen NO downsides to fishing HI-VIS lines.
For brands, I really like trilene micro ice in HI-Vis green for ice fishing. Summer rods have 832 in hi vis yellow for the most part, but I’m not all that picky on braid.
I either have High Vis, or am in the process of changing over what is left on my spools. I don’t do much ice fishing… but summer stuff, I see no downside to high vis, and only benefits. I do tie on leaders often, but not sure how necessary that really is.
This said… I have had times where using green power pro while fishing slip bobbers for crappies and gills was not as effective as mono, or floro. I will always use a leader in this situation.
Out of laziness, break-offs on snags, or whatever I find with new hi-vis lines, mainly using monos and co-pols, I rarely if ever even bother with a fluoro leader anymore, even in lakes named Crystal, year long. I personally don’t like braids and superlines myself much either. I mainly use fast or extra fast rods and feel I need a tiny bit of stretch like the new lines provide since there is less give in the rod. I’ve also lost fish and tackle to bad spots in the line which are hard to detect but must easier to see or feel with mono.
I’m also spooled up with all hi-viz line. I had all orange, but bought some suffix hi viz yellow for this year. Interested to see which is easier to see with different sunglass lenses.
I’ve used High Vis yellow sufix 832 braid on all my walleye rods for years now. And yes, I always tie on a 20# flouro carbon leader regardless of the lake or river I’m fishing on. (standard rigging as far as I’m concerned)
Basically, every walleye caught in my boat on a spinning rod for several years or so, (for as long as we’ve had Sufix 832) has been caught with this setup.
If you have any doubt about how many walleyes that is, feel free to take a look around my website.
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