Below was the review based on my first field tests, however on the second field trial I upped the products grade to at least a "B". Follow along with the thread to see what day #2 brought.--VHawk

It's no wonder that people rarely switch fishing lines, 'ya almost never know what to expect.

Jess, Irie, and I spent the day fishing floats and jigs for steelhead, using samples of P Line Hydrofloat mailed to me by the company. We were using the '20 pound' test as mainline, with '10 pound' test CXX for leader material. I can tell you that was my mistake right there. CXX in the 10 pound test has about a 3 pound advantage in strength over the 20 pound test Hydrofloat. Does that make any sense to you? Well it's because the entire fishing line industry is screwy. Sometimes what's marked on the box is dead accurate, and sometimes...

What's marked on the Hydrofloat box IS accurate, it does break just under 20 pounds. What's marked on the CXX is not accurate. The stuff is incredibly strong; 10 pound test breaks at 22 pounds. If I had done the home lab tests on the Hydrofloat first, I'd known to pair it up with 6 or 8 pound CXX. Lets just say I lost a few floats today.

Performance:

The stuff floats like a cork. Is easy to see, which makes it easy for me to direct the anglers up front to mend, pick up slack, etc. It has enough stiffness that it doesn't wrap the rod tip like some braids I've used for floats. Casting performance is just ok. It doesn't come off a spinning reel as easy as more limp braided spectra lines. That is the trade off that comes with decreasing the tip wrapping.

Downsides are; The coating seems to flake off easier than I'd expect. Just spooling up the reels yesterday I came away with a yellow dandruff all over the floor, running the bobber stop up and down the line ate the coating away pretty quickly, although the line continued to float. With the box being marked as 20 pound test, I expected the line to perform like the average 20 pound mono as far as strength; Which is to say I expected the stuff to break at about 27-30 pounds, it broke at just under 20. It gave the impression of being an easily frayed line, because of my own assumptions/expectations. We did seem to need to cut and retie more often than I remember having to do with other gel spun lines. Cutting and retying mainline when bobber fishing is a bigger pain in the ass than with drift fishing.


Recommendation:

For marketing I'd recommend that P Line market the 20 pound line as '14 pound test'. With that most anglers would have an accurate expectation of how the line would perform.

For guys who are interested in fishing this line I'd recommend using a single bobber stop ( I like to normally use two nail knots, and it dug into the hydrofloat). Don't spool this on anything less than a size 3000 spinning reel, it's thicker than traditional braided line. A 2500 or 2000 sized spool doesn't give enough capacity. Use a leader material that will break under 20 pounds. Almost any 10 pound leader material will meet those expectations with the exception of CXX.

My thanks to Don Newman who was kind enough to send me a massive box of different P Line products. I hope he understands I value my credibility, and independence with regard to product reviews. As such, I can't say I was dazzled by this line. It has to compete with the incredible performance of lines like P Line Evolution (my new favorite line for drift fishing), and CXX.

I will give the 30 pound samples a trial later this year for springers, with adjustments. And I also have a spool of 20 pound Hydrofloat line if someone is interested in giving it a field test as well. Free to the first person to come and pick it up.

For those who are hardcore float fishers, for $14 it might be worth a trial to see if it'll fit into your arsenal.

Preliminary Grade C+

VHawk

let me know if this was helpful.

So how was the fishin' ?

As always, a great read, Vince.

I hadn't floated the Satsop for about a year. Decided on a late start since I didn't have an updated report on navigation hazards. I did not forget how tricky that river could get. I also wanted water with lots of woody debris to put the Hydrofloat thru some real world abuse.

I'm confident a pre-sunrise start and some eggs/sandshrimp would have paid off with chrome, BUT so would have any number of other rivers this week. I'll be doing some 4AM wake ups later during the week. Open seats if anyone has Tuesday, Wednesday, off. I have some writing to finish up or I'd be out on Thursday as well.

My shoulders are aching.

VHawK

As always, thanks for the objective review. I've been thinking about picking up a spool of the hydrofloat but now I'm not so sure. The flaking off of the coating doesn't seem right. Oh well, it might be worth trying with the rebate.

Thanks Vince, We haven`t been able to keep it on the shelfs more than two days at a time. But have only heard back from one customer. He gave it an F-. But was using it on a 2000 size reel. To much memory for this size.

I really think that if they mark the 20 pound stuff as 14 pound it'll give people a better idea of what to expect. Nobody should be putting #14 mono on a size 2000 reel. I'll be saving the #30 Hydrofloat for the baitcasters.

Maybe I'll run for political office as a consumer advocate. I'd force all the fishing line manufacturers to market their lines as to actual breaking strength like the Europeans already do. P Line would come out a winner if that were the case. And consumers would always know what to expect.

And since I'm in daydreaming mode I'd also propose legislation that says if you sell penis enlargement pills that don't really work, the people who own the company get to spend six months in a prison cell with a guy who doesn't need enlargement. Worse than that, I'd also make them manually delete 5 million spam emails before they could be released from prison.


VHawk

iv always liked P-line products. i seen a compairison 4 years ago at the sportsman show and was sold .but they havent sold me on the hydrofloat .i exclusively use 40# power pro for fishing floats and have never had a problem if it starts to sink a little i just melt some canning wax dunk about 75-100 feet in the wax and it floats like flyline.and prevents it from freezing in low temps.i think its gonna take them a little time to perfect it like anything but im sure they will refine a very good product with some input

An honest review is a good review. That flaking off problem and its inability to work well with bobber stops (a virtual requirement with a line designed for fishing floats!) would be enough to keep me away from it. I hope they continue to work on and improve the product but I guess I've never had a problem with regular braid when float fishing anyway.

I appreciate the report, Vince.

-Kaiser D.

We got out late, but I managed to land one.

It doesn't work well when using two (2) nail knot bobber stops. That's how I had always rigged up. Using a single bobber stop it functions much better. The flaking problem, whether it affects performance or not, it definitely affects perception.

Hohbomb remember the hour you spent trying to get suckers to bite? Irie managed to land a 5 pound sucker that inhaled a 3/0 siwash on the ass end of a clatter tad.

VHawk - Thanks for the great review! I recently bought a spool of 30lb Hydrofloat at the PNW Sportsman's Show in Portland. I plan to use it for jig/bait/float fishing for spring Chinook but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I have it on both my levelwind and a spinning reel. I'll give it a good workout this spring. But I can see how your 20lb test might be too light. I normally use 30 to 50lb mainline with 20lb fluorocarbon leader.

In your post, you indicated that you lost a few floats during your test. Presumably your mainline snapped instead of the leader. I've eliminated that problem by tieing a bobber stop and beads at BOTH ends of the float. That way, if the mainline snaps at the swivel, the bobber stop will keep your float on the mainline.

BTW, I really value your reviews. It's difficult to get an honest review in a fishing magazie (e.g., STS or SSJ) since those magazines live and die on advertising dollars from fishing tackle manufactuers. For an example, see the latest issue of SSJ for the article on steelhead hooks (they're all great.... even though nobody believes it).

Keep up the great work.

CohoAngler,


Oh I read that hook review in SSJ, it was worthless. I can't remember reading a product review recently in any fishing magazine that wasn't 100% positive. I won't be any company's whore, that is unless I really think their product is da' BOMB. I'd rather pay out of pocket for the best, then settle for some product because it was free.

I did pitch the idea to SSJ a while back to do a write up on the home line tests. I initially got some interested feedback, but then the idea was dropped. It might have been from my inexperience at writing magazine queries, or maybe it was just to unflattering to too many advertisers. It really could be my inexperience. Writing on the internet is easy, but sending in stuff for real ink and paper makes me feel as insecure as a fat 13 year old girl.

I did hear thru the grapevine that Nick might be interested in the line tests. I think fear of rejection has kept me from sending him an email about it. I need to have a few beers and just get 'er done.

I'd even love to do a short article on how to set up your own testing set up. Can be done, with results really closely matching equipment costing thousands, for under $50. I might be the only nerd though who would be interested in it. I think that would account for 1 additional magazine sale.

VHawk

Yeah but Vince... Why would I want to do a home line test for $50 when I already use the best line availible ? (Little yellow smiley/rolly head inserted here !)

Joe, set the spool of UG on the floor and back away from it slowly and nobody will get hurt.


Really you ask, "Why?" I say people should check it out for themselves otherwise be duped into being blindly led around like sheep. Of course that attitude is so 18th century New England. I might as well start wearing old fashioned spectacles and flying kites in lightening storms. Actually might subcontract that last part out to Blades. "Hey Blades you mind holding this wet string for me?"

B...Just kiddin ya. Your easy to pick on. Couldn't resist.

Vince, I bought three spools of P-Line CXX today to try out on your recommendation. It better not cost me a #25 spring Chinook

P-line cxx 17lb on the divers with double Owner hooks ... Here Nookie,Nookie,Nookie....

No Maxima UG used here for over 15 years Vince... XXX and CXX.

Thanks for the little yellow rolly dude, reminds me of myself yesterday walking the bank in the "stun-shine"...

Stever,
Unless you forgot how to tie a knot, or the CXX was 4 pound test, I think you're safe. If you played it easy, I think landing a #25 pounder is doable on 6 pound CXX.


RVRFISHR,

If you are interested in a mono line with less stretch than the P Line Extra Strong, a bit limper than CXX Extra strong, and even stronger than P Line Extra Strong when equal diameters are compared you should really give [censored] a try.

Send me a PM.

VHawk

If that ain't the [censored] pot calling the kettle black .