JC the lines are furled, which is fancy I guess for saying twisted. I can't wait to hearfrom everyone and get my lines on the market.
Tight line,
Brandon
JC the lines are furled, which is fancy I guess for saying twisted. I can't wait to hearfrom everyone and get my lines on the market.
Tight line,
Brandon
Brandon:
I received my lines and started fishing with them Tuesday evening. I'll be going up to the North fork of the Yuba this weekend to fish a bunch of pocket water sites along that river. That should give me a good set of test scenarios.
My computer just picked up a virus which has caused it to crash hard so I have to borrow a laptop to post this or to write reviews. That may mean that I can't get a good review written until the middle or end of next week. But so far I really like them. They cast beautifully and the tippet ring is incredibly convenient. They are definitely heavier than a 3.5 level line which I normally use, but that's to be expected for any furled line. I did notice that I was able to cast much more accurately with a furled line than with a level line. At one point I had to cast side arm to shoot the line into some soft water behind a big rock and under a bunch of low hanging branches. I don't think a level line would have been able to shoot under those branches but the furled line certainly did.
Would you like me to simply post the review here or would you like me to email it to you?
Last edited by DruLeeParsec; 08-02-2012 at 05:20 PM.
Brandon fished the 13 ft line on my 12 ft Hirame rod and caught a nice 14 inch largemouth tonight in a pond I had not fished since I was a young man of 17. Line cast beautifully with 5X tippet and large sekasa kebari. The line handled the fish very nicely.
Thank you very pleased.
Sent you some feedback. Sorry for taking as long as I did.
Mike P.
Mike,
I received your feedback, and thank you so much! I am very pleased with the feedback thus far. I appreciate everyones help and response. I am still awaiting some feedback from a few others to complete the test group.
Tight line,
Brandon
I was one of Brandon's testers. Here is my review:
**********
I was lucky enough to receive a pair of Tenkara furled lines from Moonlit Fly Fishing last week. The two lines I received for testing were a blue premium line at 13' long and an orange super premium line which was 13 1/3' long. Both lines appear to be well constructed, nicely tapered, and have a very small tippet ring at the end. They attach to the Lillian with the typical girth hitch.
The first thing I noticed was that they were far easier to cast than a level line. My 13' TenkaraUSA Ayu rod is an extremely soft rod which has some difficulty casting a super light level line. The furled lines made that rod come alive.
I first brought the lines to the Bear river for an evening of trout fishing. As with most furled lines, they cast well but it was slightly more difficult keeping the line up out of the water. This is not a problem just with the Moonlit furled lines, but with all furled lines because they are heavier than a level line. What you gain with casting efficiency you pay for with a bit of extra weight. I found that by using the current of the river and placing my line carefully I could just about negate any problems keeping the line off of the water. However, if I needed to shoot a fly across the river then the furled line won hands down.
The tippet ring is a nice addition to the line. On my Western fly line I always do a loop to loop connection by tying a perfection loop on my leader and attaching it to the loop on my fly line. The tippet ring not only made it easy to attach a leader, but it makes it easier to cut that leader off without worrying about nicking your line.
I did get my fly stuck in a tree and had to break off the fly to get it back. I could claim that I did this on purpose merely to test how easily it is to uncoil a furled line when it coils up after a snap. Like all furled lines it did coil up somewhat when the tippet snapped, but it didn't take long at all the straighten it out. The furls didn't come undone and it didn't kink up at all. After just a minute or two of work the line was back to new.
The super premium line was slightly longer and was made from orange thread. It may be my eyes combined with my polarized glasses but I had a difficult time seeing the line against green river water. If the fish are also having a tough time seeing it then this may be an advantage. The blue premium line vanished almost entirely against the water.
I then took the lines to the Yuba river to catch some larger fish. The spooky Yuba river fish required longer cast so I used the 13 1/2' super premium line with a 5' 6x tippet and a parachute ant pattern. I caught several small rainbows and one hog of a fish. At no time did I feel like the line was stretching or in any way ready to fail. In fact, I had another large fish fight so hard that it pull the knot to my fly loose. The line held up just fine and after many hours of casting and fighting fish it showed no sing of wear.
As a comparison I decided to buy a TenkaraUSA furled line. I find that the TenkaraUSA line cast even more easily than the Moonlit lines, but it's significantly heavier. The Moonlite lines seem to nicely fill a gap between the super lightweight level lines and the heavier furled lines. I find myself fishing with the 13' blue premium line more often than not.
I wanted to add a quick story. Last night I came home from work, had dinner, and felt a need to get out and walk the dog. I just needed to get off the couch and move around. So my husky "Thunder" and I took a quick trip down to the Bear river to walk a couple miles. It was almost 7:30 and I only had an hour or so of daylight left. I decided to grab the Tenkara rod, stick a fly box in my right pocket, the blue 13' Premium line and a spool of tippet in my left pocket, clip my nippers and hemostats to my belt and go. Two minutes later I was ready to fish. After a quick walk of a couple of miles I decided to see if there were any fish in the river. I did see one fish rising in an eddy towards the middle of the river. With the slight breeze we had I probably couldn't have cast to it with a level line. With the Moonlit premium line I had no problem shooting the line out to that soft water. I swung a traditional Tenkara wet fly past it a couple dozen times until he just couldn't resist any more and sure enough, I had another small rainbow in hand.
I'm really enjoying these lines. They're well constructed, the tippet ring is a welcome addition, and they fit a niche between an ultra light level line and a heavier, traditional furled line. I can recommend these lines wholeheartedly.
I am one of Brandon's testers. Here is my review:
I received two furled lines from Brandon. One was a red line 11.5 feet long. The other was a buff colored "Super Premium" line 13.5 feet long.
I cast both lines on my Soyokaze 10'2", my Ayu, and my Amago. I also cast the red line on my new Sakagiri at its 13 foot length (a wonderful rod). All casting was done on a lake, not on moving water.
A visual inspection showed that both lines were very professionally turned out. I was particularly impressed, favorably, by the way the lines tapered finely toward the tippet ring; the end of the furled line was appropriately delicate to blend into whatever leader/tippet material that is to be tied to the tippet ring.
I prefer a tag at the end of the loop that connects the line to the lillian, and both these lines lacked that. But my preferring the knot is just a personal preference; I find that the tag makes it a bit easier to undo the girth knot when removing the line from the lillian. Hardly worth mentioning in this review, actually.
Both lines cast well with each of the rods I tried them on. I was frankly surprised at how well the Soyokaze, a very light rod, handled them. My casting included both flies, such as Sakasa Kebari; a 1" unweighted wiggle tail; and a Cap Spider tied on a 1/124 oz. jig head. In honesty, I have never had trouble casting any of these on any of these rods while using a #3 T-Bum Hi-Vis level line, but the furled line might make it possible to cast them in heavier winds. The wind during my testing was quite moderate, estimated at four knots or less.
So the furled line might work better than that level line in a heavier wind, and the level line would certainly work better when fishing in a stream and seeking to have the line light enough that it hangs from the rod tip in a lazy parabola rather than in a more vertical direction.
I staged a fake snag so that I had to break off a 4 lb. test tippet tied to the red line, the non-super-premium one. The result was, as I expected, some snarling of the furled line, but not nearly as bad as some I have experienced with some of the other furled lines I have used.
A bit has been written recently about floating lines. I've had mixed results applying flotant to furled lines, but when testing the red line I decided to try some flotant (Loon Payette paste) on it. Even thought the line was thoroughly soaked when I applied the flotant, after the second or so cast it floated beautifully, much better than many Western lines I have used.
I relied on memory for the comparison, but it seemed to me that these lines were somewhat smaller in diameter and lighter in weight than other commercially furled lines I have used. For me, that is a plus for the Moonlit lines. Others may disagree. And in really stiff winds I might feel otherwise.
Unfortunately, when I did my testing I picked up only a few random tiny fish (I was casting, not fishing), so no finny pix accompany this report.
SUMMARY: Brandon's Moonlit lines are a product he can be proud of. Other than the connector between the line and the lillian, I have no negative comments.
Would I buy a Moonlit line if I wanted a furled line? YES
Would I recommend Moonlit lines to a friend? YES
Congratulations, Brandon, on a job well done.
~Paul
Hi Brandon,
Sorry for the late reply. It has been really crazy around the shop lately.
Brandon sent me 2 leaders 13.5' one premium 2 color yellow & grey with a 4' hi-vis yellow tipprt end and one super premium hi vis yellow. Construction on both leaders is really top notch. Tight furl, smooth taper and the knots are hidden quite well.
I lawn casted them a few times and finaly got out on the water today.
I was using a TUSA Ebisu 12' 5:5 rod.
Casting was a joy. Had nice tight loops and a very gentle presentation on the water. Like most they sank slowly but a bit of Loon's Aqua Gel fixed that right up. I caught a few gills and 1 yellow bullhead today and the leaders performed very well.
My casting form is not the greatest so I had a little difficulty with some of my larger wooly buggers, then the wind kicked up.
I had a bit of difficulty in the wind. I think that they were too light for the conditions.
Over all in calm to moderatly breezy conditions they performed excellantly.
I would not hesitate to use or recomend them to others. They would be an excellant addition to anyone's gear.
Hi Brandon,
Your lines were waiting for me when I got home last week. I looked at both under the magnifyer and was impressed with the tight, consistent furl and the finish at both ends. Really nice work!
Over the past couple days I've managed to fish both lines on my 12' TUSA Iwana. I tested the 10' line with 5' of 5X tippet and various size 16 & 18 dries and with 3' of 4X and a number of different nymphs, including some time with a #16 beadhead with an unweighted #16 dropper. The line handled all the terminal setups really well, with good accuracy and turnover of anything I tried. I changed to the 13 1/2' line and repeated much of the test with similar results. Just to find the limit I intentionally overloaed it with a heavy stonefly tunghead, which was really too much for my rod - I don't think any line would have worked well with that! It did handle anything I realistically asked the rod and line to do very nicely. I caught a few small trout, nothing to brag about but all were fun on the Tenkara!
I'm very impressed with your work Brandon - the tapers seem to work across a wide range of applications and your furling and finish were excellent. I have limited experience with 'traditional' lines so I really cannot comment on how your product compares to others in the market. I can say your lines worked very well for me!
Thanks for allowing me to participate in your product trial and best of luck with your business venture!
Cliff
I want to thank everyone for their feedback and helping me with the testing. It is nice to be back on board. I will be fully unpacked and ready to go again in my new house in the coming days!
Brandon
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