Australian anglers took to braid like a duck to water and while monofilament doesn’t get the same limelight on the tackle stage these days, there are still thousands of anglers and many applications where braid isn’t suited. While braid is sensitive, thin and strong, it lacks abrasion resistance, tangles to a point of no return and has no stretch. The stretch factor is one that keeps people from returning to mono, and it does feel like a big step backwards when you’ve been using braid.
One area that relies heavily on braid is Melbourne’s snapper fishery. Anglers most commonly fish a spread of rods, where 12 rods out the back in a rack isn’t a rare occurrence with three anglers on board. These rods eventually tangle at some stage, especially when fishing wind against tide, so mono is the best choice as tangles can be easily cleared.
Snapper hit a bait with speed and ferocity so anglers are always looking for an edge to help increase hook-ups. Minimising stretch via fluorocarbon leader and the use of fast tapered graphite rods help negate the stretch and when I was sent Yo-Zuri’s new Hybrid Line for review, I instantly recognised it as another factor that would help strike conversion.
Yo-Zuri claims that Hybrid is the first and only fishing line that molecularly bonds nylon and fluorocarbon during extrusion. Hybrid’s extrusion process creates a true molecular blend of the two materials that is 100% waterproof with the abrasion resistance and sensitivity of fluorocarbon but incorporating the flexibility and stretch of nylon.
Essentially you’re getting a more sensitive line with less stretch than mono, with the added durability of it being waterproof and resistant to UV rays and salt exposure. During testing I noted it was definitely more sensitive than mono and cast further. It’s soft, lacks memory and is less prone to line twist. It also seems to sink better and is less prone to bowing in wind and current flow. You may be asking why you wouldn’t just use fluorocarbon as it seems to offer the same benefits. The answer is that fluorocarbon stretches to a point where at a molecular level it breaks and weakens; Hybrid doesn’t do that thanks to its nylon blend, so you can be confident that after you’ve battled with a large fish you can keep fishing without the risk of it breaking.
We tested Hybrid in the Camo Green colour and landed fish to 8kg. I’ll definitely be spooling all my reels with it this coming season and using it for casting big swimbaits and glidebaits for Murray cod. I paired Hybrid with Yo-Zuri’s Topknot fluorocarbon in 30lb for leaders, which I ran on all my rods for the season and it proved an outstanding fluorocarbon.
