FC is not good wound on the reel.

12 - 20 lb makes good leaders, it does "vanish" as advertised.

Tie the knots as JacobF suggested.

Have used many of the flourocarbons and have to choose Seagars hands down. i have pretested some Maxima flourocarbon and loved it. Seems just like ultragreen but in a flourocarbon. We were straigten out hooks on 8 lb test. great abrasion resistance and knot strength as good if not better than mono. It should be out soon.

~steelymann~

I have a saying about Berkeley Vanish.............."you hook a fish...and it vanishes." No really my and I were using it a few summers ago flyfishing the N. Fork Stilly, 8 lb. vanish had to breaking strength of 4 lb. maxima. I had a spool of 8 lb. seagar and it was every bit as tuff as maxima.
Tim

I am from Michigan and have tried alot of the FC leader lines out there and I find vanish to be one of the worst. The only FC lines that I would recomend would be Seaguar, Drennan, and Ashima. I find the two latter to be stronger and more abrasive resistant than seaguar but more $ also. Hope this helps

Maxima flourocarbon? That sounds exciting!
Right on, something to look forward to for sure!

Exactly my experience. Bad batch? Maybe, but I wasn't going to try another batch after the miserable way the first stuff performed.

I switched to Vanish earlier this season and was satisfied at first. At some point I a read a post from Dan S which essentially said that Vanish got its name because that is what happens to fish when you hook them on it. I should have heeded that warning. I got burned several times and have now gone back to my standard...Maxima Ultragreen.

The only thing flouro is needed for is fishing reefs in tropical waters. There it's durability is helpful. For fishing salmon and steelhead there is no need, in my opinion, for anything other than maxima. I've caught way too many fish on chameleon to think that these fish are that leader shy. They'll spook from us waving our arms, but 8 lb ultragreen doesn't faze them a bit. Flouro is a waste of money and time.

SH , I totally agree with you. What do you think we used before flourocarbon was invented? Mono of course. I hate the stuff it's stiff and brittle and yes it's breaks easy . I use Trilene XL clear for my leaders in all conditions.

To each their own I guess.
Chameleon or XL for leader material? Neither would be on my list at all, let alone in the top ten. Clear water conditions call for a better solution than dropping to 8lb test in my opinion. In the winter- why tie leaders with separate materials for differing water conditions? Why not just prepare for the worst and be ready for anything. A less visable leader can't hurt and for me the minor additional expense is not a factor.
I used to run straight 12lb test- Riverline to a Ultragreen leader. The Maxima ALWAYS broke first. (Ultragreen is very consistant- I have never had a bad batch)
Now, with 17lb Stren FC I have exactly the same results regarding breaking stregnth and better abrasion resistance with a less visable leader. And why would the leader being stiffer be a problem? XL would be the problem, it is way to limp for leader material and has no abrasion resistance. Chameleon sticks out like a sore thumb. You may catch some fish advertising like that, there are suckers in every population.
Lastly, the benefits of flourocarbon is self evident. Who cares what it looks like in a glass of water. As scientific as that sounds, I wouldn't consider that a fair test at all. Run your gear beside the boat and see for youself. Ultragreen is visable and FC looks like your offering is magically suspended.
All I can say is that it works for me and this board is about exchanging ideas, right?