The sheer number of lines on the market today is enough to make anyone's head spin. Mono, co-polymer, braid, Kevlar "superline" – the list goes on.
I've said before that I'm a mono guy at heart. Of course there are exceptions, like a good braid for topwaters, or FireLine for light jerkbaits. And although I've used fluorocarbon for about 10 years now, I still find myself returning to mono over and over again. It's affordable, durable, and the recipes can be tweaked from low-stretch to high-stretch with all sorts of color options.
Over the course of this summer I had the pleasure to fish a lot of Lake Fork's new Parallelium FlurorHybrid FH line. I first heard about the line last fall, when the Gamma Technologies pro staff largely faded away and pros began to talk about Lake Fork's new line as the next hottest thing. I always take that sort of talk with a shakerful of salt – largely because it can take years to tell if a line truly lives up to its hype.
But I can say that after a season with Parallelium, I'm highly impressed.
Here's what 10-pound FluoroHybrid FH looks like coming off an average-size spinning reel.
The line's of European origin and won Best New Line at last year's European EFTTX fishing show (the equivalent of our ICAST). That's significant because European-style angling is demanding on line in many ways that U.S. bass angling isn't. For one, Europeans fish for what are arguably the most educated fish in the world, and techniques there stress the concept of critical weighting – the need to achieve an exacting balance between line diameter (float) and bait weight (density).
And reels tend to be large spinning varieties where line memory and springiness are poison.
While some of that might not matter for a U.S. angler who likes to flip 25-pound line on a broomstick, it is of high interest to U.S. finesse anglers who like to dropshot, splitshot, darthead or shakey-head (or multi-species anglers who also might pull bait-rigs or pitch a jig-and-minnow).
That's where the unique construction of Parallelium comes into play. The line features a co-polymer core, wrapped with a fluorocarbon shell. The result is a blend between the advantages of mono (or co-polymer) and fluorocarbon.
The line handles like a mono – it doesn't spring off your reel. But it fishes more like a fluorocarbon in terms of low stretch, abrasion resistance and sink-rate. And because only the core is a co-polymer, underwater visibility is significantly lower.
Lake Fork's FluoroHybrid takes a knot well, sits comfortably on the reel week after week, and stands up to a day on the water.
Anglers might initially be a little confused about the test strengths on the package. A better signifier is line diameter. For example, the 10-pound FluoroHybrid is .010 diameter – equivalent to the diameter of U.S. 8-pound. That means you can fish a smaller-diameter line without compromising break strength – a key for both presentation and camouflage, as well as line handling. The advantage increases as test strength increases: 32-pound Parallelium is the same diameter as 20-pound Berkley Big Game.
I fished several test strengths for various techniques like finesse-fishing, dock-skipping, Carolina-rigging, jerkbaiting and more.
The line's performance was excellent in all areas, although I was most impressed by the lighter test strengths, again because the line handles so well. It's nice to fish a 10-pound that handles like 8-pound. In flipping test strengths, I'm not sure the line gives you any distinct advantage over any other, but I can say the same about 50 or so different lines out there right now. When you're fishing rope on a broomstick, there's seldom a line problem.
However, the line-diameter difference in the upper test-strengths in huge, and line visibilty's very important in techniques like Carolina-rigging, Texas-rigging and swimbaiting. In fact, I see Parallelium capable of gaining a lot of momentum with swimbaiting.
I'd certainly recommend any BassFan take the line out for a spin – especially if you struggle with fluorocarbon in lighter test strengths.
My only complaint about the line is very minor. The spools are molded with a "hanger" for store shelves, and this has to be clipped off with scissors when spooling up a spinning reel – otherwise you can only peel line off the front face of the spool. It took me only a few seconds to remove.
Lake Fork Tackle's reputation rests on innovative, high-performance products that flat-out catch fish – especially big ones. I personally know the company wouldn't bring just any line to market – especially given how crowded the category already is. The bottom line for me is Parallellium FluroHybrid fits the company's mold perfectly. It's unique, it's high-performance, and it's ahead of its time.
Notable
> The 240-yard spools of Parallellium FluoroHybrid range in price from $16.99 to $25.99, depending on test strength. Lake Fork Tackle sells the line on its site: LFTLures.com.
> Parallelium also comes in a "Pro" version with slightly altered properties for high-demand tournament fishing, like less stretch and greater abrasion resistance.
