One of the most important but least talked about components of any rig is your fishing line.
You can have the best rod, reel and finest lures available but can wind up being completely frustrated with everything if your line isn’t up to snuff.
For some applications you’ll want to throw a fluorocarbon line. You may be fishing gin clear water, need to get a little more depth on your crankbaits or you’re faced with fish that are completely line shy.
Whatever your reasoning, the next step in the process is choosing a fluoro that you have confidence in.
We have tried an awful lot of them but, until now, haven’t settled on one specific line that we have complete confidence in.
Gamma Edge 100% Fluorocarbon has become our go to in this segment.
Real Performance
Unfortunately, fluorocarbon lines have traditionally been stiff, hard to handle, not very cast-able, expensive and very unforgiving in terms of your knot.
In terms of rigidity, the Gamma Edge isn’t what you’d call stiff. There are plenty of mono’s out there in the same pound test that are much more unwieldy. Even though it has a larger diameter than some it is supple. This makes it a good candidate for either spinning or casting gear.
We have used up to 10# on spinning gear without it trying to spring off of the spool. It casts very well as well and we have had no issues with it trying to dig in during a fight or with wind knots on the cast.
Likewise on casting gear. We spooled 100 yards of 12# on a casting reel to see how it performed without using any backing or braid with the Edge as a leader. Using it this way really does give you the most accurate picture of how a line behaves in various situations.
Here again, the Gamma spools evenly without presenting any negative characteristics.
Easy Handling for Fluoro
The Edge casts extremely well. It casts equally well on spinning or casting gear. It also seems to develop memory much slower than other fluoro’s that we’ve used in the past.
Keeping in mind that all line other than braid has a tendency for memory to set in once it’s on your reel, the Edge takes quite a bit longer for this to happen than most of it’s competitors lines do in the same pound test. A little line conditioner will mitigate the majority of that.
The strength of this line has been truly remarkable to see. We have bent some fairly beefy hooks without breaking the line.
Edge doesn’t seem to be overly picky with the knot that you choose to use. You’ll hear some folks say that the only knot you can use for fluoro is a uni-knot but we’ve tried several that have all held well. Our default knot the majority of the time is the modified San Diego Jam Knot. You can see a video of this knot on our Youtube channel if you’re unfamiliar with it.
Durability has been an issue with some fluoro’s but the Gamma shows no sign after a full season of use of critical degradation. We’re going to leave the same line that we spooled on our reels several months ago on those reels through the winter and into next spring just to see how long it will take for the performance to suffer.
The good, bad and …
Generally speaking, getting a full season from a fluoro line is unheard of. Could we possibly get two? We’re going to keep casting and find out for sure.
Edge is a line that, in our opinion, is “sensitive”. We put that in quotes because a line is dependent on the rod and reel that you use. It can increase or decrease sensitivity but is one part of a an entire system. Gamma’s Edge really is a complete product in terms of doing everything that it is supposed to do performance wise with no downside to it.
If there is a negative, it is the price. This line is not cheap. In fairness though, none of the better fluorocarbon lines are inexpensive — that’s just the nature of the beast.
What every angler has to decide individually is what they are willing to pay for and what they are willing to settle for in the cost difference. Spending a few extra bucks to get vastly better performance usually is the more pragmatic way to go.
| Gamma Edge 100% Fluorocarbon Line | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| A very manageable, tough line | |
See ya’ on the water …
