Snowbee

Fluoro-Tec

Reviewed by Lloyd Rush & Ian Houlton

RRP £7.99 to £18.00

Snowbee isn't yet a traditional name in UK Sea Fishing, well not outside Saltwater Fly that is, but keep reading, we think that's going to change in the coming years.....

Snowbee already produce one of the best multipliers money can buy in the Accurate Reel range - I've a piggy bank put aside so I too can one day own such a quality piece of kit! The Snowbee Sea Fishing ranges include the Deep Blue Boat Rods, some great looking Jigs, smart but effective clothing and established Braided Lines to name a few. These are all a collective statement of intent to produce a product based on quality and performance and satisfy the most demanding of Angler.

Over recent weeks we've been taking a look a close look at Fluorocarbon Lines and applications within UK Shore Fishing. Snowbee recently released the new Fluoro-Tec line and sent out 3 spools in 10lb, 12lb and 25lb breaking strains - our testers were so impressed they had a quick whip round and purchased an extra spool of the 6lb! [Well done Ian!]

During our test we took Bass, Garfish, Bream, a rare Red Ribbon Fish and a number of other mini-species and concluded there is a place for a top of the market fluorocarbon line in most tackle boxes. As Sea Anglers we spend a fortune on baits and other consumables, £18 for 50m of Fluorocarbon of this quality is very good value.

Snowbee supply the lines on extra wide spools to help reduce any memory coil, we found a light stretch or simply a small bait would straighten a new snood, if indeed there was any memory remaining at all. The line isn't over supple, I guess to assist in turning large Saltwater Flies and Lures, which makes it's application to shore and boat fishing ideal. It goes without saying when we used it as a fly leader the line behaved impeccably.

• 5X / 0.148mm 4lbs/1.8Kgs 100m £8.00
• 4X / 0.185mm 6lbs/2.7Kgs 100m £12.00
  
• 3X / 0.205mm 8lbs/3.6Kgs 100m £14.00
  
• 2X / 0.235mm 10lbs/4.5Kgs 100m £16.00
  
• 1X / 0.260mm 12lbs/5.5Kgs 100m £18.00
  
• 01X / 0.310mm 15lbs/6.8Kgs 50m £14.00
  
• 02X / 0.370mm 20lbs/9.1Kgs 50m £16.00
  
• 03X / 0.405mm 25lbs/11.4Kgs 50m £18.00

Ian Houlton owner of Moonfleet Angling depends on Quality Lines to produce some of the best Custom Built Adjustable Sea Angling rigs we've seen, so it seemed perfect to ask Ian to a complete the Snowbee Fluoro-Tec Review.

Review:

Ian Houlton, Moonfleet Angling.

Snowbee Fluoro-Tec 11.4kg diameter 0.405mm - [Used on Rig Body]
Snowbee Fluoro-Tec 2.7kg Diameter 0.205mm - [Used on Snoods]

I was asked to try the line by www.shoreangler.co.uk on behalf of Snowbee, I believe it is more in the Fly Anglers domain but to be straight from the start I think it's equally at home in a tougher environment, so into the sea it goes.

All of Moonfleet Angling's products are built on specialist jigs that allow you to tie millimetre perfect rigs and snoods on demand, they also allow the finished rig to be stretched up to and beyond a lines stated strength. The first thing was to build 4 rig body's.
Washing Line rigs and Mullet rigs were the obvious choice and we built 2 of each to be used during a pre booked Coaching session on Weymouth Pleasure pier.

Washing line rigs are pretty species specific and we intended to target Garfish with them. When the rig body was put together, the very first thing I did was to stretch them to go beyond the 25lb mark. [The Moonfleet Angling Washing Line Rig ... more here]

Fluoro has a benefit in my opinion in that when you tie a knot, and pull it tight it does not so much run down the line causing friction and overheating but will resist movement until the very last minute and simply "snap" into place. Poor Fluoro will cause the line to overheat when tightening knots, however the Fluoro-tec behaved as it should. No trial and error, no messing but a quick clean knot and when you produce rigs that is the most important issue.

Tying knots in any line will give an average line strength loss of 10% and this is when you need to test each rig. We placed the first rig onto the jig and slowly added power. Baited breath ensued as we took the first rig to 26lb, held it there while we had a coffee and came back to give it some more. We got this rig body stretched to a massive 28lb 5oz before it gave out with a crack. Anyone want to guess where it broke? You got it, clean on the knot and that is by far the best result you could ask for!
Any line that will go past it's stated strength by over 3lb is worth using. Lets not forget we used no clutch here guys.

Next trial was a direct hit, straight up to 26lb, no slow start here, we simply hit it up to 26lb in an instant and got our heads down! Same result, yes it broke, but it broke at the knot and that again is what we expected and what we wanted. Two more Washing line rigs were built, and these were the rigs we would use.

Snoods Built using Fluoro-Tec 6lb

We built 4 to test, nothing special here using size 6 Aberdeen's and a loop at the end to connect to the rig body. Tying the loop and adding a hook can cause some bend in a line. We found that on 2 snoods (18" and 24") we found a slight bend, so adding a tiny section of Mackerel bait and hanging the snood simply removed this issue. Sorted! snoods are good and we now had our 2 washing line rigs. It is worth pointing out that we hung 2.5lb of lead on these snoods with no damage, that's all the testing you need because that's what you set your drag for!.

Testing the Snowbee Fluoro-Tec based Moonfleet Washing Line Rig
Venue: Weymouth Stone Pier.

Off to Weymouth I go to meet up with the student "Woody", we drop in a whole bucket full of oily ground bait to see which way it goes and decide where to use the rigs. The washing line rig is specific in the sense that it sits on the surface. A clear bubble float is used at the front and 3 ft behind at the other end is a sakuma 16mm floating bead. This has the effect of the bubble float going with the tide and the floating bead following in a straight line. The last thing you need is for your rig body line to be so springy/coily that it brings the two together causing a possible tangle with the snoods hanging underneath.

The Fluoro-tec rig body behaved well enough, found the current and stayed straight. All we needed was a garfish to hit it and see what happens. Woody was first up, the oily groundbait had the fish in a frenzy and using Polarized glasses allowed us to see when the rigs were going to get hit. Woody spotted it and stopped the rig form drifting so the garfish was actually hitting tight line.

The fish came clean out of the water when it hit the bait! literally hit the lower snood and entered into a loop that took it 2ft out of the water. It was going frantic and woody went to give it some clutch, I told him not to because I wanted to see how the snood behaved. He got it in and up the wall for his first ever garfish. We did 8 in the finish.

Conclusions

For light line gear you cannot beat it, I do not know what the retail price is, I will look for a half decent trade price and use it for my personal gear by all means. I will make up a 100% Fluoro bass rig in the week and give that a go locally. A bigger fish will test it but there is not a lot a fish can do that we cannot simulate here so i expect the same result. Too rough for mullet last night so I will use the rigs for them later next week..... and take a camera!

A last note for the Specialist Comp Anglers!

One last thing, I tied a 6ft length onto my 20lb braid, connected a 4oz lead and cast is on a 15ft rod. Usually this is not the brightest thing to do with 25lb line but i got the lead halfway into the harbour with no effort. Comp anglers will do this a lot, using light line and an oversized lead but it is down to casting technique so be warned. [We don't recommend it, we just saying it can be done with the right skill sets!]