The Choice of Champions
The choice of champions! Stroft is very popular with River Guides and competition Anglers. I know some who use it for both top of the water and subsurface work ( nymphing), on the whole I like it for dry fly fishing on rivers and still waters with smaller average sized fish, having a preference for Fluorocarbon for subsurface and stockie bashing.
It comes in two types, GTM and ABR. The ABR is brown in colour and this in many ways makes it ideal for the type of fishing found in Scotland with peat stained waters. Unusually by UK standards it’s sold by diameter and not breaking strain, though the breaking strain is on the spool in kgs. It uses the European method of sub-millimeter gauge for the diameter, though does have a kg rating on the spool.
Fine for its strain rating
It is very fine for its rating and has really good knot strength in my experience. I have both GTM and ABR and would say that GTM is OK as long as you are not using it in very flat conditions on a stillwater as it does rather cling to the surface film and is quite visible even after taking the shine off with degreasant.
Stroft is very good for presenting a dry fly as its almost flacid in use. The only criticism I have of it really is its is more prone to twisting than say fluorocarbon , especially when fishing bushy dry flies, and it can end up all twisted and kinked as a result. This comes down to the fly being used but its worth keeping an eye on it every few casts when using finer diameters of line.
ABR or GTM
ABR is Brown in colouration and “Abrasion” resistant. So it is ideally suited to applications where the leader might come into contact with stones and rocks like in subsuface nymphing applications. GTM has a blue /grey hue and this would suggest its better for clear water conditions and is apparently “softer” though to be honest ther eis little in it. I tend to make my line selection based on conditions. If the water has a bit colour I use the ABR usually in 1.8 kg rating, and if very clear drop to 1.4kg GTM.
Knot Strength
One of the big selling points of Stroft is it’s knot strength. A knot holds close to the full strain of a straight through piece of the monofilament. Where I have had issues and I am not alone in this, is with knots pulling through, or slipping.
I have not fully worked out what causes this but definitely if you tie a normal half bloodknot to secure a fly it can on ocassion slip out when strain is applied. I find the issue equally with ABR or GTM and wetting your knot when bedding it down does not seem to help. If you are tying on a fly with a bigger eye it becomes almost predictable, Smaller eyed hooks ar eless of an issue. For that rason I now ALWAYS tuck my knots when tying on flies with Strogt and rarely have an issue.
