Two (lost) bass in particular are always going to bounce around my brain. One fish hooked on the IMA Nabarone 125F hard lure (doesn’t get nearly enough love) quite simply went the wrong way on a very shallow reef on the south coast of Ireland. A bit earlier in that session a mate had a couple of trebles literally opened up on another big fish which tore off. The second bass I will never forget was on the south coast of Cornwall early one morning, hooked on a Fiiish Black Minnow bumped along the bottom. Again the bass quite simply went the wrong way and I didn’t have the angle on it to prevent it happening…………….
Both times my braid parted on sharp rocks. You don’t need to tell me that mainlines breaking on sharp rocks is obviously an unavoidable part of lure fishing for bass. As much as I love fishing with these modern, silky-smooth braids which are a joy to cast, there is no avoiding the fact that if a tight braid touches a sharp rock it’s usually going to break. I don’t think bass are particularly dirty fighters like say wrasse are, but in very shallow water especially you’re playing with the angles - and the angles don’t always work in our favour. I pull the living hell out of my hooked fish, but if you hook a fish a fair way out over rough shallow ground then the odds of something not working out in your favour are surely increased.
By no means am I saying that different mainlines would have made a blind bit of difference in either case - you will never actually know though - but if there is one thing I do it’s to take an interest in how other anglers go about their own fishing. Leader or no leader aside, I obviously took note of the fact that Simon who I have fished with a few times now in Guernsey swears by Berkley FireLine as his mainline. If you know the Channel Islands then you will know how much shallow rough ground their bass anglers are fishing, and if a very good local angler swears by a specific item of fishing tackle I have no experience of then I’d be a fool not to at least sit up and take note.
Then I was listening to an episode of the USA based “The Surfcast Podcast” the other day and one of the blokes was raving about Berkley Fireline as the ultimate mainline for heavy duty striper fishing amongst the really rough stuff. Again I’d be a fool not to file it away in my head. I take the claim on the Berkley website that its “8-strand fused technology provides unmatched abrasion resistance making it 5X's tougher than conventional braided lines” with a pinch of salt, but at the very least my interest is pricked. I obviously know that Berkley Fireline is nothing remotely new in the world of increasingly hi-tech mainlines, but for the life of me I can’t remember trying it for my own fishing.
Okay, so I am lucky because I have enough spinning reels here to be able to load one up with a different mainline and try it out, but what would be the point of all my spinning reels running only Sufix 131 or Berkley Sick X8 or perhaps the fantastic Samson '36 Strong braid which is performing so flawlessly for me. What if I loaded up one spinning reel with some Berkley Fireline to use purely around the roughest ground I fish for bass? I don’t know if this stuff is an awesome casting mainline, but for the most part I am not remotely concerned with big distances when I am fishing ground like this. Nope, my ultimate concern as such is that one potential bass of a lifetime which might work the angles on me. What if a specific mainline for ground like this might just resist the clutches of a sharp rock for long enough to get the fish to hand? Damn right it’s all speculation at the moment, but if I don’t try it I will never know. You know how I enjoy trying different stuff out, so let’s see if there is any merit to this experiment……………..
Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.
Bass fishing, Fishing tackle, Lure fishing, Podcasts
Henry Gilbey
March 2025
22 Comments
