Let's talk (ice) fishingline

[Cowboypirate]

I picked up a couple new, very light action, ice rods. Went back and forth on line type, wt, ext. Finally went with my comfort zone. Mono in 4lb clear

When I picked up the rods, the lines were spooled with mono 4lb but in a gold color. I tried, them. I do love seeing the line better, when fishing these light ice jigs, but was shocked at how far down I could see the line. Wondering what your all experince is with colored lines. If I decide to switch I am also wondering about your favorite type of line for your ice rigs.

Photo of the line type attached
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[Cowboypirate]

Photo
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[EyLayo]

If you like that line, you can always add couple foot of flouro or ice mono leader to help reduce visibility to the fish. I've yet to find a favorite universal line
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[fishnate]

That's great line in my opinion. I also like Northland Bionic in 2, 3, and 4 lb in the blue color. I haven't notice any ill affects in my catch rates. The blue seems to blend well in the water column. When I jump to 6 lb, I go clear mono. This year I'll be re-trying braid with mono leader on a few rods. I tried it a few years ago and didn't like it because it froze up too much, but I thought I'd give it another try with the advances of the new ice superlines. We'll see what happens with those.
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[Hook_set]

Like you, I do like the hi-vis yellow 4 lbs crappie max. I haven’t notice much difference about the catch rate with panfish, not sure on trout.
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[RonPaulFan]

I've been using three pound test Nano line in yellow for the past few years and not changing it for ice fishing. It seems so thin as to be almost invisible, so it's not much for ice to grab onto. I like that it's limp to fish the lightest of ice tungsten lures for it to go down to the fish active level fast and without the typical coils of other lines that won't transmit feel. I use my Revo Rocket spinning reel and not a dedicated ice reel, so the smaller spool that would tend to make coils more pronounced that would be a problem with stiffer line isn't a factor at all for this Nano line.

I plan to spool up the same on my Diawa AccuDepth low profile reel with an even smaller spool and expect this limp thin line to similarly not have coils which would be a challenge for just about any line, but I want to do this to quickly and accurately go to the depth where fish are most active by using it's digital line counter.

I bought ice line, but haven't even tried it yet because Nano works very well.
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[2knots]

Ron
Curious if your seeing any line degradation with the nano, I ran it for a couple years chasing steelhead, the lack of memory was great and it casts very well, but after 2 years I had issues with it breaking
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[Cowboypirate]

I used it Saturday at Willard. Got frustrated with limited takes and tied a 2 ft clear leader on to see if I was spooking shy fish. Did not make a difference. I think the bite was just off. But Willard is murky anyway. I am anxious to drop it in Echo where I can observe the reaction a bit

But oh my did I love how it handled little ice flys and atomic ants. The ability to keep contact with that light of a presentation on the drop was amazing
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[RonPaulFan]

2knots,

I suspect line abrasion that you might not even see.

I've seen no problem with age on the three pound test, but I keep it out of sun by covering the reel when I'm not fishing it at the moment.

One mistake I made with the three pound test was a cast near the dam at Strawberry where I was catching large fish right next to the strong current of the dam, but to cast that close I got the line in a chain link fence. My mistake was to continue fishing it without pulling off enough line to remove line that touched the fence. I caught a big fish with my drag set correctly as proven by it working for the previous fish, so it shouldn't have been able to snap the line. I believe the line is sensitive to abrasion and any section that touches anything that can be abrasive should be removed. It's not worth being thrifty by continuing to use it. I had enough spooled that missing some wouldn't have been a problem at all. I learned to be willing to sacrifice lengths of line that might have even the slightest of abrasion.

Related post:
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...5;#1018655

That was over two years ago and I've used this same line a few times since then and haven't noticed any difference with age. If you have experienced problems with age, I wonder if it could be related to sun exposure. I notice many people allow their lines to be out in the sun when not in their hands fishing it. It's easy enough to cover the spool.

On 10 pound test Nano line, which I had much longer, with time and many years of use it went from round to flat like dental floss. It still worked. My choice of reels are typically large enough to have a lot of line length for the rare times that I get a fish so big that it needs to run or break my line, so I had enough to remove it and reel it on from the other end to have fresh line where it counts.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

If you haven't tried Nanofil line, you are missing out. I totally quit using any mono several years ago due to Nanofil's sensitivity and durability. It doesn't absorb water like other superlines, holds up well with rod-eye icing, and flows through the rod eyes in cold weather like greased lightning, and has NO spool memory. I do use a piece of 3-4' long flourcarbon in 4-6 pound test. The Nanofil I use is 8 lb test but its diameter is more like 1 or 2 pound test mono. I will never go back to mono/flouro for my main line. You simply can't beat it for jigging light jigs....even in deeper water.
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[catchinon]

Thank you for the excellent information, Scott.

On a side note, do you know what the ice conditions are at Bear Lake? Any forecasts or guesses?
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