On SpiderWire Lines and their attributes, you may find this of interest:
Born from the World’s Strongest Fiber - SpiderWire
Also, please see:
Product Information
Strong, silent, and deadly, SpiderWire Stealth Braid is made from super-strong Dyneema® and features a smooth, thin diameter for whisper-quiet action. Its no stretch design enhances sensitivity so you can react faster to bites and structures. SpiderWire® Stealth® Braid sports unique colors to blend in with its surroundings. Fluoropolymer Treatment on the microfibers causes the line to shoot through the guides like a bullet.
FEATURES:
- Made with strong and smooth Dyneema® PE Microfibers
- Fluoropolymer Treatment on the microfibers causes the line to shoot through the guides like a bullet
- Thin diameter for whisper quiet action
- No stretch design increases sensitivity and strike detection
- Enhanced casting and colors with Color-Lock coating technology
- Resists “digging in” on reels
- Varying color patterns to blend in with surroundings
SPECS:
Pound Test: 6
- Diameter: 0.005 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 1 lb.
Pound Test: 8
- Diameter: 0.007 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 2 lbs.
Pound Test: 10
- Diameter: 0.008 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 4 lbs.
Pound Test: 15
- Diameter: 0.009 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 6 lbs.
Pound Test: 20
- Diameter: 0.10 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 8 lbs.
Pound Test: 30
- Diameter: 0.012 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 10 lbs.
Pound Test: 40
- Diameter: 0.013 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 12 lbs.
Pound Test: 50
- Diameter: 0.014 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 14 lbs.
Pound Test: 65
- Diameter: 0.015 in.
- Superline Mono Equivalent: 17 lbs.
Pound Test: 80
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Diameter: 0.016 in.
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Superline Mono Equivalent: 20 lbs.
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Brand : Spiderwire
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Country of Origin : United States of America or Imported
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Style : SCS
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Web ID: 15SPIUSTLTH10LB30FLI
For comparison, the 65 pound test SpiderWire Invisi-Braid, @ 0.015", is about the same diameter as Size 4.5 Flurocarbon Tenkara Level Lines, which means it will not cast nearly as well in the wind but will be much easier to hold up and off of the water.
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Well my spool of 65 Lb. SpiderWire line arrived the other day and I made up a 12 foot long line and cast in the back yard on a pretty windy day, and I found it to be pretty impressive and much better than I expected it to be, and that was with out a leader and tippet on the line.
Then I took a hand tied tapered leader off of a Floating PVC T-line I had and added it to the SpiderWire line and did some more casting. With the leader but less any tippet material, the SpiderWire line cast even better in the wind with the leader than it had before with out a leader! The whole set up had the feel of casting with a Weight Forward Taper Fly Line. And I was amazed at how delicately the SpiderWire line cast and landed on the grass, and how super visible the line showed up against green tree foliage, gray fencing and blue skies. But I could tell the SpiderWire line will not handle wind as well as Fluorocarbon Mono and PVC Floating Fly Lines will, but it handled the wind a lot better than I thought it would. I was so impressed that I immediately went in and started making up second line for a T-fishing friend of mine to try.
In doing so I noticed that the SpiderWire Invisible-Braid label listed the line as being: 125 YDS. of 14 Lb Test Dia, which explains why in casting the line and leader it had a weight forward tapered line casting feel to it. The leader is made up of: 24” of Nylon RIO Steelhead/Salmon 16 Lb. Tippet material, then 18” of Fluorocarbon in size 3.5 Valcan Sanyo Stealth T-line, then 12” of size 2.5 Valcan Sanyo Stealth FC T-line, and 9” of Cabela’s No-Vis 8 Lb. test Spinning Line, with Perfection Loops at both ends of the leader to Loop-to-Loop the leader onto the SpiderWire Line, and 5X FC Tippet material to loop on to the leader.
The SpiderWire line to Lilian connection is made with a 20 Lb. Dacron Backing Loop, half-hitched around the SpiderWire line, then you tie a loose Overhand Knot at the end of the SpiderWire line and stick the knotted end of the Dacron Backing loop through the center of the loose Overhand Knot. Tighten the SpiderWire Knot down to form a Stopper Knot and pull the Dacron half-hitch up tight against the stopper knot and you are done after a second tightening of both knots. This makes for a very tight, compact and secure joining system that is also light in weight. The Lilian also needs a stopper knot tied in it. To connect the line to the rod, you just half-hitch the line-Lilian loop on the Lilian behind its stopper knot, and tighten. To release the line from the rod, you just pull on the Lilian loop tag-ends behind the knot in the Lilian loop and the Lilian loop comes right off of the Lilian.
I just got a fishing report Back from John on how the SpiderWire Line did under actual fishing conditions. He liked how the SpiderWire line needs no stretching, how well it casts, how easy it is to hold up and off of the water, and that it did float flush on the water if the fly he was fishing was not too heavy and pulled the line underwater. It was breezy on the pond this morning and the 65 Lb, SpiderWire line handled what wind he had Quite well. The line and knots also went on the Small Side of the Two-Line Tenkara USA Line Spool quite nicely, with his Floating PVC Rigs Floating Tenkara Fly Line occupying the wider line slot. All in all, he was pleased with the outcome and he caught some fish to boot. The water was 80 degrees and the air temp was 92 degrees when he left before noon. We are to be in the 100 to109 degree range in a few days and I am not looking forward to that…Karl.
2 Likes
Karl, I am glad you found the line to work as I noted in my threads. Good to hear all of it, as it is always hard to tell if other people will receive the attributes of recommended item the same way. The 65# has some utility. I also bought both the spiderwire invisibraid and stealth…both in the white 65# and 50#. The stealth of the same weight is slightly thinner. They definitely are a little different from eachother but all cast nicely.
They dont hold a ton of water but @dwalker noted he could soak it to give it a little weight and then false cast a couple times to shed the weight if he desired. The extra weight may help in wind. Sort of giving a single line more utility depending on conditions.
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Hi G, Personally, I am most grateful for your excellent and informative posts on the SpiderWire Lines. I would have never thought to try it otherwise and I am very glad I did. As time goes on and I use it more, I am sure I will discover additional uses and applications for it. I was primarily interested in it for Stillwater applications. But after casting it, I can see it’s utility and advantages for stream fishing as well when there is little to no wind. Thank you very much for letting us all know about your discoveries…Karl.
We had about a 50% of normal snow pack last winter. So by this late in the summer, most of the trout are hanging out exclusively in the biggest pools they can find, because the riffles and runs in between the pools are down to trickles, with not enough depth to safely harbor the fish.
The previous stream fishing outing it was windy, too windy to hold your line up and off of the water because the wind would blow your line all over the place, causing drag and your fly to be blown into the bushes. Dropping the rod to anchor your line on the water to beat the wind caused the fly to also drag, mostly because fluorocarbon level lines sink. So this week, under similar conditions, I decided to give the 65 Lb. test SpiderWire Line a try, and it worked surprisingly well though strong wind gusts were still problematic. But the SpiderWire floats, so it was much easier to get the drag free drifts the rainbows and browns required on the lake like pools with very slow moving water, if any.
The 65 Lb. SpiderWire Line has a diameter of 0.014”. The 6X FC. Tippet I am using measures 0.005” and 3.7 Lb. breaking strength. A difference that proved to be too great and the tippet hinged badly casting into the wind, accuracy also suffered. What is needed is an intermediate line step Down to better transmit the heavier line’s energy to the much lighter tippet material.
So, this morning, I tied in a one foot long length of 8 Lb. test - 0.009” (or about 3X in tippet material) FC. Line to the SpiderWire Line with a Perfection Loop tied in at its end, and loop-to-looped on the same length of tippet I was fishing yesterday and cast it in my back yard to see how it would do. And near as I can tell, the hinging problems are solved.
But tying knots with the SpiderWire Line presents some real knot tying problems. SpiderWire is a really slick and slippery stuff. Tying a Double Surgen’s Knot to join the two lines together, the 8 Lb. Mono would just pull right out. But by tying a Double-Overhand Knot around the Mainline of SpiderWire Line and pulling it down to jam against the Double Surgen’s Knot fixed that problem, and made a compact and tidy joining knot to boot.
The only glaring problem we still have is the hideous shadows all floating lines cast on stream bottoms, but there isn’t much that can be done about that. Still, I released 3 rainbows and 9 brown trout yesterday, on a # 16 Two - Toned X - Rated Ant Dry Fly Pattern, under very difficult fishing conditions, so it was not too bad, all things considered…Karl.
Karl.
Almost all braid is pretty slick out of the box.
If you look at my link at the head of this thread. Note how I burn the tag on every knot or termination.
Melting the knot with heat is an binding option but be careful not to weaken it.
Superglue is also an option.
It being slick is a positive attribute. It resists catching dirt and debris…but yes…knots can be challenging.
Under normal use with reels this coating breaks down after a dozen outings. But with tenkara it takes a whole season.
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Hi Gressak; thank you for the helpful information. At one time I tied damsel nymphs with the melted mono eyes, which had a nasty tendency to break off if you banged them against the rocks too much. Super glue is also brittle. Just for added insurance, I welded the knots together with a drop of Liquid Fusion, which I use for head cement.
Actually, I like that the waxy surface does not pick up dirt on the SpiderWire Line surface. I am using white 20 Lb. Dacron Backing loops to half-hitch the line to the Lilian, and you can really see how much faster the Dacron gets dirty than the SpiderWire line does. I do not care if the coating never wears away.
In a situation like this, where you need all the stealth you can muster, the fact that the 65 Lb. Spider Wire Line is 0.010” thinner in diameter than a PVC coated Tenkara Floating Fly Line would be gives you a huge advantage over using the heavier and thicker floating fly line. And you get all that with out any decrease in visibility at all that I can see. Sure, because the SpiderWire is so much lighter in weight, you loose some power to cast into the wind but, that is more than compensated for by your increased ability to hold your line up and off of the water better than can be done with a PVC line, as I am sure you are well aware. The SpiderWire Line is working out to be a much better Tenkara Line than I ever thought it could be…Karl.
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I agree and whenever I venture back to Level Line, i always find myself missing the spiderwire. It is a pretty good fit for my fishing.
I’m our first season, we stuffed mono inside hollow spectra braid and created some interesting lines.
We experimented with spectra and Kevlar lines as well. I still have those lines.
The Fujino Level Line that Dr.Ishigaki created with them is a very serious contender for my number 1 choice for this style of line.
But, in order to learn and understand tenkara techniques you should be doing what you are doing in order to understand what you want from a line system.