Normally, I'm mildly anal about leaders and so forth but I guess I have been a little lax this year, just haven't got into it with all this crappy weather and crappy life issues. I bought a bunch of fresh leader material back in the beginning of May but hadn't done anything with it. Failures started when I broke off a hung up fly with mild pressure. Tied on a new fly and a couple of hours later dropped a nice fish at my feet with a brittle fracture at the hook eye, knot still in tact. Then last Saturday morning I'm walking down the beach blind casting and I notice my fly's gone. Line broke in the butt at the loop knot.
Anyhow, it's mid June and time to get a little serious and make sure all the links are up to snuff. I did get to see a little backing last Saturday and got to thinking. What's a reasonable life for Micron saltwater backing? I've got a couple of spools with 3 seasons. Assuming visual inspection says it looks ok should I be concerned about breakdown of the material?
Fred, I believe that the Micron will last a lifetime! At least our lifetime. A sidenote...I had a few hangups the other day and I am breaking Daiichi saltwater hooks at the bend with less than 20 # of pressure.
Just to clarify, the hook didn't break, the tippet did where it was looped around the hookeye. I don't know about how the hook manufactures process hooks after chemically sharpening but I've thought about throwing the on a cookie sheet and baking at 300 -400F to counter the possibility of hydrogen embrittlement.
I have backing that is getting moldy, don't remember what year it was loaded on but I haven't replaced it yet. I was thinking about dying it in Rit dye for aesthetics or giving it a mild chlorine bath but it's still very strong and I'd just as soon keep the stuff out of the environment and on my reel. I suppose if it snaps I will replace it. I think it's lifetime is several decades.
jfb -
I fish the thin wire TMC 811s and never seem to break them... but I fish in almost pure sand situations, just curious are you guys fishing in rocks?
You are going to need to rig a whole set of new leaders for the big fish we'll be chasing with Capt. Todd next week - I expect you'll be seeing quite a bit of your backing too.
Juro,
I was fishing the drop off into the channel at South Beach with a sink tip and getting hung occasionally with what seemed to be mungy stuff (deep weed?). This was with a new Daichi SW hook with first half hour use. At one point it got hung pretty good and I straightlined it and it came back broken at the bend.
Your point about light wire is interesting. Over about the past ten years of largemouth tourney fishing I have used light wire Owners and Gammis and have never had problems with broken hooks.. Maybe the heavier wire hooks have to be processed differently for chem sharpening. I have had no problems with cheap Eagle Claws on my salt streamers.
DON'T use bleach on backing. It actually attacks and degrades the fabric. Just test it (tie it to a tree and pull) - as long as there are no weak spots, clean it in water and a little detergent, wipe it down, and don't worry about it.
If you detect weak spots, invest in new backing.
BobK
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