Tag: fishing line

Will Braided Line Damage My Rod?

If you’ve ever had a chain pickerel flop while you were holding braided fishing line, you know how deeply braid can cut. After tending to your wounds, you might start wondering if braided line will damage your rod, or at least damage the rod guides.

If you ask around, you’ll find no shortage of people who will tell you that braided line once damaged their favorite rod’s guides. Early braided fishing lines certainly could damage older fishing rod guides, but newer braids (and rods) have been designed to avoid this. It’s not exactly in either manufacturer’s interest to have such a destructive fishing line, or delicate rod guides. As a result, modern braided fishing line is going to be fine for most fishing rods and their guides.

Why Did Braid Used to Damage Fishing Rods?

In the early to mid 1990’s, some fishing line manufacturers started using a material called kevlar in their braided fishing line. While this manufacturing process was celebrated for all the usual benefits of braid (reduced stretch, enhanced sensitivity, decreased diameter), kevlar was a very abrasive material that did not mesh well with certain line guides. At some point, people started to wonder, “why does my fishing line snap when I cast?” After some investigation it was observed that there were grooves in the fishing rod line guides which was causing damage to the line over time, and Kevlar was given the blame.

It seems that since that time, most manufacturers have abandoned kevlar (or at least the earlier versions of it) in favor of different techniques for making braided line, such as using gel spun polyethylene fibers instead. These won’t damage line guides as they aren’t as abrasive as the kevlar braids.

While manufacturers adjusted (no one wanted that press), the damage had already been done. As a result the internet is rife with stories of guys claiming that braid damaged their fishing rods. However, you can buy modern day braided fishing line and use it with confidence on modern day fishing rods. They won’t damage each other.

Modern braid will not damage fishing rod guides.
Modern braided fishing line won’t damage modern fishing rod guides.

What Braid Won’t Damage Fishing Rod Guides?

Any braided line that isn’t made from kevlar is going to be just fine for modern day fishing guides, but if you’re looking for a recommendation, I really like PowerPro braided line. I’ve been using it for years on all sorts of St. Croix rods and haven’t had an issue with it. It casts well, is durable, and stands up to every fish I’ve encountered. It’s also sold in giant spools of 1,500 yards so you can buy it in bulk. Since braided fishing line doesn’t go bad, I like to buy giant spools of it so I can get a good value. I use 20lb braid on most of my spinning rods, 30lb braid on most of my casting rods, and 50lb braid on my frog and jig rods for throwing around heavy cover.

If you’re interested, head over to Amazon and try a spool of PowerPro braided fishing line out. It’s so manageable and works so well I’m sure you’ll be buying it in bulk like me soon enough.

PowerPro braided line will not damage your fishing rods.
I am a huge fan of PowerPro braided line. I’ve been using it for years and it has never damaged my fishing rods.

Best Rod Guides for Braided Line

As mentioned, so long as you aren’t using an older, kevlar-based braid, you shouldn’t have to worry about braid damaging your fishing rod or line guides. Regardless, if you are one of those in the “better safe than sorry” camp, In-Fisherman ran a story a few years ago called The Essentials of Ceramic Guide Inserts that will be of interest to you. In it, they examined the different types of material used to make fishing rod guide inserts. The article indicates that ceramic inserts are rated on their hardness. The harder the insert, the better it will withstand braid.

Good Ceramic Guide Inserts for Braided Line

That In-Fisherman article was a good starting point for my research. It mentioned five types of ceramic guide inserts that are commonly credited with being good for braided fishing line:

  • Silicon Carbide Inserts
  • Nanolite Inserts
  • Alconite Inserts
  • Nanoplasma Inserts
  • Torzite Inserts

I looked into these a bit more and determine what popular rods feature them. It’s clearly not an exhaustive list but you can see some notable names in there. As a comparison, I’ve also included a benchmark for aluminum oxide rod guides just to give you an idea of what types of rods use them (it’s usually the entry level offering for given manufacturer).

Guide Insert MaterialRod Brand and Model Using Them
Aluminum OxideSt. Croix Triumph, St. Croix Premier, Shimano Scimitar
Silicon CarbideG. Loomis NRX (titanium SiC), Shimano Poison Adrena
NanoliteKiller Bass Baits Sicario,
AlconiteSt. Croix Avid, Shimano Curado
NanoplasmaAppears to be more popular on the custom rod building scene.
TorziteSt. Croix Legend Xtreme, St. Croix Legend Elite
Again, any of these rod guides are going to stand up to modern braid.

What Else Could Have Damaged Your Rod’s Guides?

OK, so we know that a modern braid won’t damage a fishing rod, yet your rod guide is still damaged. What gives? Let me ask you a question: are you using your rod guides as a hook keeper? If so, stop. You should never use the rod guide (or at least the circle/insert part) as a hook keeper. Hooks, as you may have noticed, are rather sharp and pointy. They can easily damage rod guides if you aren’t careful. Once you get a little kink or scratch in them, it could cut your line.

Most fishing rods come with a dedicated hook keeper near the reel seat that you should use instead. If your rod doesn’t have one, you can buy one (just click on the photo below to go to Amazon to check them out). This is one of those good ways to spend a little money – it’s much better to have a proper hook keeper than to damage your rod guides.

Can Braided Line Damage Your Fishing Reel?

Braided fishing line won’t damage your fishing reel unless you have your drag improperly set, or attempt to free it from a snag the wrong way. If you have your drag set properly, no braid (not even kevlar) is going to have a chance to dig in against the line roller enough to damage it. There really shouldn’t be that much force placed on the line roller in the first place while you’re fighting a fish, as your rod should be absorbing much of the energy of the fish long before the reel can be affected.

The only way I could realistically see braided line damaging a fishing reel is if you got caught on a snag and tried to free it too forcefully using your rod. Braid can dig in against itself very easily when snagged, and if it digs in enough it might damage a less durable reel. When you get snagged with braid I highly recommend that you give it some slack and then wrap it around a heavy stick or paddle well past the rod and pull with that. Let the braid cut the stick, not itself or your rod (or your hand).

Conclusions

While older, kevlar-based braided fishing line was known for damaging fishing rod guides, manufacturers have adapted. Modern braided fishing line doesn’t damage modern fishing rod guides. Remember, neither line nor rod manufacturers would have been pleased to hear that their products were incompatible with one another. It’s just bad business. Both have made great strides the past 20 or so years to fix this early issue, and as a result, it’s fine to use braided fishing line – it will not damage your rod.

Thanks for reading this article. I frequently add new content. If you’d like to be updated when this occurs, please join FishingFather’s facebook group. Thank you.

John Paxton

Will Fishing Line Melt or Burn When Boiled, Baked, or Exposed to Flame?

Sometimes when I put on my little cape and scour the internet looking for pressing fishing questions to answer, I find weird things. I’m going to chalk this article up as one of them. I’ve seen some people ask, “Will fishing line melt or burn?” Well, yes. Emphatically yes. Fishing line can melt and burn. But, if your fishing line is about to melt or burn under anything approaching normal use, you probably have waaaaay worse problems to deal with.

I’m reminded of an old The Far Side comic where two fishermen are marveling at the arrival of a nuclear holocaust and deduce that they no longer need worry about fishing regulations. If you are doing anything sensible with your fishing line, such as putting it on reels and casting them, you don’t need to worry about your fishing line melting or burning. You’re even fine leaving them in the rod locker for extended periods. No melting should occur. You only run into trouble when you try to get creative with finding solutions to problems, such as trying to boil fishing line to reduce its memory.

Let’s dive into this a little bit more.

Why Is This Even a Question?

I ask myself this a lot sometimes when I search for article topics, but here at least it makes sense. People usually want to know if fishing line will melt or burn because they’re trying to think of ways to reduce fishing line’s memory. Memory refers to the way fishing line will retain its shape when coiled around a fishing spool. When a line with high memory leaves the spool, it comes off with a spiral. This leads to line twist, monster tangles, and eventually reduces the strength of the line. It’s no wonder people are looking for a way out of this situation. Even so, the solutions leave me scratching my head…

The Three Main Types of Line

Just to level set – there are three main types of fishing line: Monofilament, Fluorocarbon, and Braid. The latter is basically a fabric so I’ll cut to the chase: it’s not melting and it will burn like any other thread. This article is going to focus on monofilament and fluorocarbon which are both made of types of plastic.

Of the two, fluorocarbon is going to have much worse memory than monofilament. If you’re using monofilament and it’s giving you trouble with memory, it’s likely time for a new spool. I prefer Berkley Trilene XL – it has very little memory and is great for using on kid’s fishing rods (where, believe me, you don’t need any other reasons for a tangle).

If you need to use flurocarbon, I’d search for the most pliant you can find. I pay a bit of a premium for high-quality Seaguar products like Invizx as it is one of the softer ones out there. Even with this, I still use a line conditioner as I’ll discuss further below.

fishing line will melt or burn if exposed to flame.
That candle will ruin all of these fishing lines.

Can You Boil Fishing Line to Reduce Memory?

The internet is rife with forum posts asking if you can boil fishing line to reduce memory. I can’t imagine why this would be a good idea. There may be some merit to warming it with hot water under the faucet, or letting it soak for a bit. This can warm it up a bit and help reduce memory without damaging your line or spool (source). Boiling however is just a bad idea. There’s a few things to consider:

Your Fishing Line Could Become Weaker If You Boil It

There’s not a ton of science out there on this topic, but the folks at Berkley (the fishing company, not the university) did write an interesting article talking about why it’s so important to respool. Though they spent far more time talking about the effects of sunlight on fishing line, their article did make mention of heat caused by friction a few times, and how this too damages line (source). Given that the folks at Berkley mentioned that heat damages line, I don’t know why you’d take a risk by exposing it to the considerable heat of boiling water.

Even if your fishing line didn’t melt or burn if you boiled it, I wouldn’t try this. I can’t stop you from trying it, I suppose, but I’d chalk up boiling fishing line as one more way to make it snap. If you don’t want fish to keep breaking your line, try something else!

You Could Damage Your Spool

If you’re planning on boiling your fishing line, you’re probably planning on doing so while it’s on some sort of spool. Most likely, you aren’t trying this when you first put the line on, as it is still supple at that stage. This leads me to infer that you’ve found this post while staring at that spool from your fishing reel with the coiled line on it. If you’re wondering if you can just dunk the whole thing in boiling water and be OK, eh… I wouldn’t recommend it.

Again, with the caveat that I’m not a scientist, and there are limited resources out there to draw on, let’s apply some common sense. Even if the fishing line itself wasn’t damaged, some spools may have components that don’t react well to being boiled. Consider tiny, precise little elements of the drag system. How will they hold up? Does your reel have one of those “braid ready” spools with the little rubber lines? I wonder how well they’d resist melting. It’s not the kind of thing I want to find out!

Can You Put Fishing Line in the Oven or Will It Melt?

This is a bit of a secondary question. I did a little research to see if people were curious if you could put fishing line in an oven or if that would burn it. By and large, this question comes up more on cooking forums than fishing forums. It seems some folks are asking if you can use fishing line to tie up various concoctions in your oven (think pinwheeled steaks). NO. Do not do this. Fishing line is made of various plastic compounds. These can melt if exposed to heat. They can then be absorbed into your food. Do not use fishing line to tie up your food for cooking!

Save the Science Experiments and Buy Line Conditioner Instead

Look, I’m never going to fault someone who tries to save a few bucks and make fishing less of an expensive hobby. All the same, I have to tell you, spare your line the science experiments. Seriously, think this through. Your fishing line is the critical connection between you and the fish, right? I imagine you probably check it for nicks and frays routinely? You might even strip a few feet now and then to prevent breakoffs, right? Ok. So then why on earth would you take the entire spool and plunge it into boiling water? Why even risk that your fishing line might melt? Why not just buy a dedicated product that will keep it nice and supple? Do you really want to take the chance that something could go terribly wrong?

There are multiple fishing line conditioning products out there that you can choose from that are an infinitely better idea than boiling your fishing line to try and prevent memory. While you’ll have to check Amazon for the best price at any given moment, they cost less most spools of fluorocarbon. They also can be used on multiple setups and spools and will last quite some time. They are, by far, a better option. Here are some of my favorites and links to where you can find them on Amazon.

My Recommended Fishing Line Conditioner

Of these, I’ve used Kevin VanDam’ offering and found it did a good job of keeping my fluorocarbon line supple (I’ve never felt the need to use it on monofilament). With that said, I’ve heard great things about Ardent Line Butter too. That’s not to say the other products aren’t good – I just don’t have experience with them nor have I heard others rave about them. But, it might be worth checking out the reviews and seeing what works for you. At some point I’ll pick up the others and review them for you, but for now, I leave you to brave that challenge yourself.

Conclusions

Fishing line will not melt or burn unless you’re really trying. That doesn’t mean it can’t be microscopically damaged and cause you to lose the next big fish. While I’m no scientist, and might be completely off base, I’m not willing to risk it. Why, after all, invest so much time and energy into this hobby and then do something (such as boiling your fishing line) that just seems like a bad idea?

Go to the links above and buy a can of line conditioner. Save the science experiments for science class. You never know, your personal best trophy bass could be on the line.

Thanks for reading,

John Paxton