Is There a Difference in Brands of Fluorocarbon Fishing Line & Leader?   By Dave Reed

If the question is, “Are all Fluorocarbon fishing lines and leaders the same thing"? The answer is, “No way!” Have you ever noticed that every time someone spends years of their time and expense to develop something special and exciting that there is always going to be someone else that will try to capitalize on it? The story of how Fluorocarbon fishing line and leader actually came into existence is an extremely long and complicated one. If you have the time and want to do some searching online you can find pages and pages about it. For the sake of your time and sanity I’m only going to give you the highlighted version and why it is important for you to understand these facts in order to improve your trout fishing results.

Condensed History

When did you first hear about Fluorocarbon fishing line …… 2000, 2004, 2007? The original idea that fluorocarbon could be developed into a fishing line was actually hatched way back in 1966 by a Japanese chemical engineer working for Kureha, Japan. This engineer realized that Fluorocarbon was less absorbent then monofilament and very dense making it sink faster and not absorb water like monofilament. An added bonus in the eyes of the original developers was that its opaque look would not refract light and be much less visible especially when silhouetted against the sky. 

Kuhera, Japan International Patent

Kuhera, Japan applied for and was granted an international patent in 1969. Note that the patent was international and not just Japanese. Fluorocarbon was also in the development process for many other uses by Kuhera, Japan. Development for fishing line and leader ended up being put on the back burner for more important company projects. Through the 1970’s and 1980’s Kuhera, Japan continued to work through the inherent problems of Fluorocarbon like knot strength and compatibility between sizes and inconsistent line strengths in various diameters. Much of the development of this product was accomplished with the aid of the Japanese commercial fishing industry.  

In 1995 Kuhera, Japan through its distributors licensed sale of a few brands of the original product to be sold in the US as Big Game Leader material. This new material in larger pound test sizes cost up to $1 per foot but anglers still bought it anyway because it was a proven fish catcher. From there the legend of Fluorocarbon fishing line and leader grew by leaps and bounds.  

Am I Using Real Fluorocarbon?

The popularity and price was bound to attract the attention of profiteers. During the early 2000’s suddenly came a flood of Fluorocarbon “blend” variations of the original. Large US fishing tackle distributors were selling Fluorocarbon lines and leaders coming in from Germany, Italy and even private labeling these “unknown” lines to take advantage of the growing reputation of the original. The rip off sales skyrocketed and the reputation began to suffer because much of this new stuff just didn’t work like the original. 

If you have ever tried Fluorocarbon or Fluorcarbon blend and you were not impressed then there is an excellent chance that you were not even using the original patented product and there is an even better chance that it wasn’t even Fluorocarbon. The fact is that most Fluorocarbon fishing line and leader available in the US today is not the genuine Japanese internationally patented product. That’s because there are only a very few companies worldwide that are licensed to sell the real thing. 

How can you know if you are using the Real McCoy? In this country our fishing products are required to have the country of manufacture printed on the label. If your Fluorocarbon says “Made in Japan” on the label then it is most likely the original. If it doesn’t then you really have no way to even be sure that you are fishing with Fluorocarbon.  

I actually began using Fluorocarbon leaders back in the early 90’s and I can tell you that after twenty years of using them that there really is a major difference in catch ratios. For many years this material was my own personal secret weapon.  Now I want to share it with you. You owe it to yourself and your trout fishing when making line and leader comparisons to use the real thing and not get fooled by a market flooded with imitations.