New K-9 Fluoro givers anglers another option in the fishing line market

K-9 offers fluorocarbon’s advantages without stiffness and line memory

Matching the kind of fishing line to the type of fishing you’re doing is pretty basic for most anglers. There are times and places for braid, monofilament, fluorocarbon, copolymers, even lead-core.

Fluorocarbon lines have taken the fishing market by storm over the past half-dozen years as the advantages of a strong, sensitive and nearly invisible connection to fish become clearer. Used as leader material for clear-water situations, by anglers needing abrasion resistance, and in situations were line with almost no stretch is an advantage — think crankbait fishing for bass — fluoro has plenty of applications.

But fluoro has some drawbacks. It’s fairly stiff and doesn’t cast as well as mono. It has more memory than mono and the superbraids. It’s heavier and sinks faster than most other lines.

So how do you get around those problems?

If you’re K-9 Fishing Products, a Goodlettsville, Tenn., company, you introduce a line that’s fluorocarbon, but not 100-percent. It’s got the low-stretch feel, sensitivity, abrasion resistance and small diameter of fluoro, plus without the stiffness and memory that inhibits castability.

“We feel that our line brings in the best of both worlds,” company president Kelly Albert said. “K-9 Fluoro provides exceptional casting distance compared to other lines. It is a low-stretch, extremely sensitive line with minimal memory. Abrasion-resistance has been very good in our field tests.”

I tested K-9 Fluoro in 20-pound test as leader material this past fall, fishing for speckled trout and redfish in the estuaries of Murrells Inlet, S.C. Its performance was superior. Fishing around oyster rocks, marsh grass and shell banks, I never had any problem with abrasion. The only time I had to retie was when I changed lures three or four times and had to replace the leader with one of the original size. And knot tying, often a problem with fluorocarbons, was no problem, as long as I wet the line before I cinched down the knot.

High sensitivity and low stretch naturally go hand-in-hand with fishing diving crankbaits or other hard baits, which are often fished on rods with a slower action that take up the shock of a fish crashing a bait.

K-9 Fluoro (www.k9fishing.com) comes in 550-yard spools of 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 14-, 17- and 20-pound test, selling for less than $20 a spool —very reasonable compared to prices of many fluorocarbon lines.