I was re-spooling the Cardinal 301’s a couple of nights ago that I bought for perch fishing late last fall to go with the new St Croix Avid 6 ft. UL’s. I was putting 5 lb Power Pro on the aluminum spools for keeping a non-stretch tight line with the perch rigs. During the winter I had put on 6 lb Trilene mono for walleye fishing on the spare spools.
Started to think what will I put on those spools for spring pan fishing. Why not keep that same line on, after all I just bought it in December, its still fresh. Some purists will say, its 2 lb all the way. That the fish truly can be line shy, and they would get no argument from me. Not even if they said split the difference, and spool up 4 lb line. No argument, good all around choice, you betcha.
But, if I can save a few bucks, and I do like to do that, my mother used to call that frugal back in the day, why not make a simple adjustment. So keep that line, and if there are fish in the area and they aren’t biting, make an adjustment. My adjustment is to add about 4 foot of Vanish to the end with a wet back to back uni knot.
It gives you all the advantage of 2 lb, and because the invisibility factor, the strength of 4 lb line. I even have a 6 lb spool left over from the ice season, so in weedy situations, I can still get my invisibility factor with the strength I needs