Fishing Line Soaking

[jtwill98]

A thought occurred to me when I was getting ready to add line to my weed trimmer.  I always soak the line for 12-24 hours in water before filling the spool because the line lasts longer when trimming.

Why don't I do the same with monofliament line before spooling line? Is this worth doing? 

My initial response, it shouldn't matter. 

However, thinking about it more, I think there some valid reasons for doing so.

One, it would make the line more pliable and may reduce the coil memory.

Two, it refreshes the line with moisture.  Who knows how long that line has been spooled and sitting in boxes or on the shelf at the store. 

Does anyone have experience doing this and have some insights to its usefulness?

[JasonGotaProblem]

No but there was mention in a thread a while ago about using 200# mono in place of weed whacker string. So one day when relatives were on their way over and I couldn't find the proper string, I remembered that and used 200# mono. That mono did a great job and took for freaking ever to wear down. So when it finally ran out, months later, I decided to refill with more mono.

I couldn't find that thread again to post my experiences there.

On topic: this sounds a lot like selection bias to me. Not that I've never been wrong before.

[Keta]

My weedeater would have to use 400# mono.

[Brewcrafter]

In a pinch I have done the "Zip Ties in place of trimmer line" repair, and it WORKS (as anyone who has ever sliced themselves open on an improperly installed zip tie can attest). - john

[quang tran]

 I soak mono and braid line to wash out salt ,it make line soft and easy to cast ,for braid line add a little laundry softener

[oc1]

One euphemism for fishing is "soaking a line".  It works every time and fishing doesn't disturb others as much as a gdam weed eater.

[jurelometer]

Water is a very good plasticizer for nylon. As it absorbs water,  the line will swell a little and get softer. But then the moisture content will fairly quickly equalize with the humidity of the surrounding air, and the line will go back to it's original state, probably within a couple of hours.  Assuming that the weed trimmer line is nylon, the same will be true for it.

The memory is the result of creep- the plastic deforming over time due to the uneven forces from being coiled.  Getting it wet will make it temporarily limper, but it won't change the deformation.  The memory  will seem to go away, but it will come right back as the water evaporates out.

 I use nylon for 3D printing, and you have to heat dry  the source filament spool  before printing, and then keep it in a sealed container while printing, because it  equalizes with the surrounding air so quickly.

Modern fishing lines use a type of nylon that absorbs a lot less water.

I can't see much of a benefit in soaking for spooling.   

In terms of fabric softener and line treatments, there is a whole recent thread on that.  I'm not going to touch it, other than to say if you like using fabric softener, maybe try doing a blind test of freshly fabric softened and unsoftened but wet nylon and see if you can tell the difference.  Water and fabric softener do the same thing to the line, as far as I can tell.

-J

[boon]

I've heard of the reverse as well - using heavy line trimmer line as bite leader when gamefishing. The last spool of trimmer line I bought was made by Sufix anyway.