Hello folks!
There isn’t ever too much hurry to miss a fishing trip. Well, one day I needed to start work at 4am to get to the lake before the early winter sunset.
I get motivated to upgrade my fishing equipment and became interested in multifilament ice fishing lines. I’m specially interested to get better sensitivity when compared to the conventional elastic monofilament lines. I also believe that the hooks will bite the fish more firmly if I can deliver more direct strikes through a tough line.
I quickly found myself pondering between two popular option: Berkley Fireline Fused Micro Ice and Sufix 832 Ice Braid fishing lines. Both are very interesting, really advanced fishing lines, and super tough! I’m planning to use them with my favorite ice fishing technique, with the small, sensitive, and irresistible marmooskas! Thanks for our Russian neighbors for inventing these advanced jigs! Anyhow, for testing I bought both types of the lines having nominal thickness of 0.10mm. Although I think I need to go even smaller to maximize the sensitivity with the extra-lightweight marmooskas. I was worried about the surface roughness of the multifilament lines, do they build up so much ice that the fishing sensitivity is quickly lost.
So, I attached the same marmooskas to the fishing lines, took our coppery sauna bucket full of water and put it into snow, put some snow in the water, and poked two holes in the icy slurry. I hold the lines in one hand, submerged the marmooskas, and made vertical movements for a while, then inspected the lines. I did not have a monofilament line as a control, but I think the build-up speed of the ice wasn’t much different with these lines. However, after a few trials of building up the ice on the lines and clearing them by pulling through fingers, I noticed that the ice was rather firmly attached to the the Sufix line! You see, the filaments in the Berkely line are thermally fused together making the line much more smoother. Thus, the winner was clear for me, I will use the Berkley Fireline Fused Micro Ice! Someone else might benefit from the other features of the lines, but I need to maximize the sensitivity for my lightweight marmooskas and ensure smooth movement of the line through the surface. Now I just need to buy the smoke colored version of the Berkley Fireline to have better visibility on the snow. I will use the low-visibility Crystal version at the end, if the big and shy perch decides to look at my marmooskas at some day π
Here are some photos from the fishing line experiment and some fishing trips with the earlier monofilaments I used!
Here you can see the icy bucket that mimics ice holes in a lake. The white line is the Berkley Fireline Fused Micro Ice Crystal, and the neon green one is the Sufix 832 Ice Braid. The marmooskas are under the water while I’m making vertical movements with the lines. After a while, ice becomes build up on the lines.
After a few trials, I think the build-up speed of the ice on the lines was approximately the same.
On the left, the neon green colored: Sufix 832 Ice Braid. On the right side, the white one: Berkley Fireline Fused Micro Ice Crystal. The amount of the ice on the lines is about the same.
However, I tried several times to pinch and pull the lines through my fingers, and the ice was always detached from the Berkely Fireline, not from the Sufix! Here you can see that the ice was pulled down onto the marmooska on the right side, while almost all the the ice was still stuck on the Sufix line! I tried even more forcefully bend the lines while pulling through my fingers, but always more ice was stuck on the Sufix line. The cleanability of the Fused Fireline resembled more the traditional ice fishing monofilament lines. Thus, the Berkley Fireline Fused Micro Ice won this competition, as a more slippery ice fishing line which sensitivity is easier to maintain even in freezing weather.
Okay, some ice fishing stories. It has been rather cold here in Finland, almost -30 Celcius at times π But I have really, really enjoyed the bright and crispy weather, the winter is awesome! Much better than warm, muddy and gray weather. And after a good and chilling trips it is so comfortable to light up the fireplace and enjoy the warmth at home π
Here we go!
Look at that scene! I was like in a dream, as I dived into the brightness and loneliness π
Here is a thermal photo of me after a chilling ice fishing trip. My fingers hurt!
Waiting the fish, it doesn’t take long with marmooskas. A warmer day.
Nice perch.
A couple of otters have walked here. Even the foot prints look hectic! π Slap slap slap…
These two otters are my wife and my charming son. It is nice to spent time in nature with the family!
Tried to teach some fishing techniques, but the student was sleepy π As a side note, the weather wasn’t too cold to take him outside and we know the ice was thick and safe! We are responsible parents and do not put our child at risk. In a longer run it would be more risky to lock him inside with a television and game console for example, destroying the inherent longing to nature we all have at the beginning. I’m so sad about the many people who have lost this connection, and they do not even know the freedom they are missing. Human beings have wandered most of their presence in nature, these synthetic cozy times are only a blink of an eye in our history. I want to preserve something important and fundamental for future generations, I don’t want to let that ancient chain break.
Nice to get home after ice fishing, to enjoy the warmth π
Here are some of my marmooska equipment. I usually use a couple or even three marmooska attached on the same line.
One evening as I came back to home, the last rays of light hit our trees. It was a mesmerizing sight!
Even more mesmerizing was when we heard a mighty eagle owl howling outside at our yard! I went to outside and saw it flying into the orange sunset. The sight was so effective that I even saw dreams about the owl within a couple of days.
The end!