Stroft Monofilament

The fishing market in Europe has been keeping a little fishing line secret from us regarding fishing line over the years. Waku, a lines manufacturer in Germany has created a woven nylon monofilament product called Stroft. Stroft, named from combining strong and soft has been proven to be 30% stronger then the fishing lines on the market today, while at the same time decreasing the diameter.

Apparently Stroft provides superior knot strength. Stroft GTM is produced using a multi-level tempering (heat-treatment) process to remove material stresses formed during extrusion, cooling, and drawing. Simultaneously, silicon and PTFE (a type of fluorocarbon) molecules are diffused into the surface to increase tensile strength and maintain suppleness.

The extensive development behind this process yielded a product declared the overall best fishing line by a German body similar to Underwriter's Laboratory in North America.

Stroft ABR, the company's latest product, has increased abrasion resistance while maintaining the high strength characteristics of GTM. This remarkable result is achieved by tempering the monofilament under a high pressure.

The pressure compresses the surface layer, producing a monofilament resistant to UV rays, scratches and coiling. Furthermore, the process improves wet tensile stress by reducing water adsorption and thus should decrease break offs when rubbing against rough surfaces like rocks.

Is this going to be better then good old Maxima Ultragreen? Well, we will see. Being that this line is supple, I think it may actually delay or stall fly turnover. However you can overcome this by stepping up in pound test. Also if you look at it from the standpoint that you will be able to use higher strength lines with more abrasion resistance then yes it should work better. I can also see in low water conditions, sight fishing and while skating flies how having a small diameter line (with higher tensile strength) will be helpful. Look at a quick comparison, 8 pound Maxima has a diameter of 0.010 inch while 14.1 pound Stroft has a diameter or 0.010. Will using a stronger line help me catch more fish? I think so!

This winter I have been fishing Stroft ABR. I have been using 38.5 pound (0.0018 diameter) for butt sections and 23.1 (0.014) pound for tippet. From what I have found is it does hold up to what is said about it regarding break strength. I have found this out not by loosing fish, but rather trying to pull flies off rocks. It is indeed harder to break when trying to free your line.

Last Fall I had two fish break me off on rocks in tailouts, one of which was on a dry fly. I have a feeling this line may help prevent some of this heartbreak in the future. It sure as hell can’t hurt anyway. Oh and Stroft has finally made its way to distribution here in the US. For those of you that may complain that it is not made in the US remember neither is Maxima.

One other neat thing to note is that Stroft has their stuff so dialed in that they are able to make tippet in added half strengths. Such as 4.5x tippet. Pretty cool from a nerdy gear aspect. Too bad I don't fish for trout.