ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: ANGLERS NEED TO USE THE RIGHT LINE FOR THE JOB TO EARN SUCCESS

Two extremes on opposite ends of bad fishing judgment are casting crappie jibs on 20-pound line or flipping a bass bait into heavy cover with 4-pound line.

In each case, it's a little like wearing a blue striped tie with a green plaid shirt: The elements just don't go together.

Matching line size to the chore at hand is basic good sense for anglers. If there is a prevailing rule in line size selection, it's to opt for line of the minimum size to do the job necessary. Go as light as you can without making your line a glaring weak link in your tackle.

At first notion, it would seem that the fisherman would want all the line strength he could muster. Well, he does, but there's a trade-off to be made. As line strength goes up, so does its diameter. As the line goes fatter, casting distance and sensitivity generally go down.

As for the example of casting a crappie jig on 20-pound line, an angler couldn't fling his tiny lure much farther than he could spit with such an arrangement.

Conversely, someone who offers a bulky bass lure in heavy cover on 4-pound line can pretty well expect to lose that bait (and a fish) the first time something large and sly grabs it down to the snaggy habitat.

I once fished with a fellow who, confronted with a spread of shallow lily pads, began casting into the vegetation with a weedless spoon on ultralight spinning gear and probably 4-pound line. That was a little like staking out Fay Wray as sacrificial bait for King Kong. If you get a bite, the offering doesn't come back.

Both oversizing and undersizing on line size/strength create inefficiency for the fishermen. Instead, what the angler ought to do is match his line sizes to the conditions. Those conditions have to do with the place fished, the method, the lure/bait and the tackle as much as they do the fish themselves.

There's no reason someone couldn't catch a 10-pound fish on 2-pound line if the hypothetical whopper is in open water, if the drag on the reel is set to allow the fish to take line as he demands it and if the fish is not one of the sort with jaws that are prone to abrading the line to the point of breakage.

The advantages of spider-web line are that it's less visible to the fish, it has less dampening effect on the action of a lure, it has less drag in the water to muffle sensitivity, and it doesn't bog down casting distance. Conversely, heavier, thicker line provides more brute strength, is less prone to stretch and offers more margin of error against abrasion.

"The number one issue for fishermen when they're buying line is strength," said Michael Fine of Stren Fishing Lines. "Strength is their top concern. If they make a mistake in picking a line, it's usually that they oversize."

Still, there is a trend among fishermen toward smaller diameter lines, Fine said.

"Up until a few years ago, 10-pound test line was the overall best seller," he said. "Now, 8-pound test is the top seller."

Correlating strength to diameter, in original Stren line, a fine general purpose monofilament, the following pound test ratings correspond to the accompanying fraction-of-inch diameters: 4-lb/.008, 6-lb./.010, 8-lb./.011, 10-lb/.012, 12-lb./.013, 14-lb./.014, 17-lb./.016, 20-lb./.018.

That gives a feel for what's going on when one goes with heavier line. The thickness of 20-pound Stren (.018 inch) is well more than double the diameter of 4-pound line (.008 inch). Even an increase of just .001 inch increase in line diameter makes a perceptible difference in the feel and how a line fishes.

The line sizes that are most popular with the general fishing public are those in the light to middleweight range -- 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-pound tests, Fine said. Higher sales of other sizes are reflected in special segments of the market. The bass fishing community, for example, buys mostly line that ranges from 12- to 20-pound test, he said.

The general applications fisherman -- the angler who owns perhaps just one spinning or spincast outfit and uses it for all his fishing -- tends to be spooled with 8- or 10-pound line that he applies to everything from bluegill to catfish. A fisherman who uses specialized gear, meanwhile, might have outfits spooled with flyweight line, burly tackle bearing very heavy line, and other rods and reels in between with mid-range lines.

Common line usages in this part of the fishing world span upward from 4- to 6-pound line for ultralight spinning, light spinning and jig rod tackle for bluegill and crappie fishing with tiny lures and jibs. Where there are trout fishermen, they also subscribe to the 4-pound class lines for tiny lures and baits.

Middleweight outfits spooled up with 8- and 10-pound line are often applied to casting for white bass or jigging for sauger. Some lightweight black bass lures often get workouts with line of the same size. Bass anglers who seek plenty of casting distance and depth from their crankbaits often choose line in the 10-pound class.

Lines of 12-, 14- and 17-pound test get a lot of general purpose black bass fishing with worms, jigs, spinnerbaits, topwater lures and crankbaits. They also find their way into a lot of catfishing activity. The 17-pound mono is popular among striped bass anglers. When it comes to 20- and 25-pound stuff, that's the territory of flipping into heavy cover for black bass and bottom fishing for big catfish.

Even heavier strand finds its way onto some bottom-fishing rigs for catfish and onto the snagging rigs for paddlefish.

In every case, it's a matter of selecting a line that's enough on the strength side without being too much in terms of bulk. Therein lies the balance.

~Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of The Paducah Sun.