The new Black Magic Fibre Glide lives up to claims of ‘outstanding castability’ and can tame stroppy fish like this skipjack tuna. Reviewed by Scott Cushman
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An unassuming spool of Black Magic line arrived in my letter-box; looking at the description I couldn’t see the words ‘braid’ anywhere, but instead the code SSP preceded the Fibre Glide marketing description. I queried the good guys at Black Magic and was informed that this line is unbraided and more easily understood as a single strand of line that would be used to usually braid together the fibres to make conventional braided line.
This means you end up with a very supple line, retaining the advantage of a high strength-to-diameter ratio over traditional mono, plus zero stretch. It also means it doesn’t retain the same strength-to-diameter ratio as a traditional braided line; however from my experience of fishing with it, it’s not far behind. Karikari Peninsula and the blue water was lapping the shore ... my friend had hooked a skipjack tuna on the troll but my line had been untouched, so I quickly picked up my spin outfit, spooled with the Fibre Glide, and fired out a 40gr chrome spinner. As we’d already travelled a distance from where the other tuna had been hooked, I pumped out the lure as far as I could to increase my chance of a hook up. Three turns of the handle later, a blue bullet grabbed the lure. The tuna sprinted high and low, left and right but eventually succumbed to the pressure. From that fish and later encounters, I have concluded that the line’s major advantage over traditional braided lines is its casting performance. It’s light and smooth and lays very flat on the reel. It’s measured at .18mm in diameter whereas Black Magic Rainbow braid is measured at .12mm – yet the Fibre Glide took up less room! I can only conclude it lays flatter on the spool. It produces little or no resistance as it flies through the guides and the word glide seems to describe very well the way it leaves the spool and follows the weight carrying it at the end of the cast. Is it very abrasion-resistant? It’s on par with regular braid; in fact it scored some brownie points after being pulled over the bail arm roller that wasn’t rolling (it had seized before I could get it serviced). No sign of weakness or wear was found, and the line still held up well despite some sizzling skipkjack runs and encounters with some scrappy Doubtless Bay snapper. The product is off-white in colour, with 1-metre markings. If casting distance is at the top of your list of line qualities, I would certainly recommend the BM Fibre Glide line. |