Korda Kontour
Korda Kontour –
Korda Kontour, 12lb - 200m Spools
In this blog I will report my experiences of the new Fluorocarbon mainline from Korda.
At 12lb breaking strain the line is more than adequate at dealing with most fishing applications; it is strong and very abrasion resistant. It is also considerably more expensive than monofilament at a slice under £20 per 200m spool…
Loading your reels:
It is very important that you follow Korda’s instructions when loading the Kontour on to your reels i.e. lie the spool flat and reel the line through a soft damp cloth – help from a mate at this stage might be helpful…
Fluorocarbon is not monofilament and should not be treated in the same way; it is worth noting that unlike mono it does not absorb water so soaking it prior to loading is a pointless exercise!
The Kontour Fluorocarbon comes on 200m spools which are not enough to fill your reels therefore you will need to use some sort of backing line, Fox Soft Steel in 20lb is a good start!
TOP TIP – how to load your reels with Korda Kontour Fluorocarbon Mainline:
Load an empty reel spool with Kontour as per the Korda instructions
Tie on the backing line and wind this on over the top of the Kontour.
As you wind on the backing line count how many turns of the reel handle you have made. It is very important to keep the line under tension, a friend or line loading device can help at this stage.
You should then be left with one reel fully loaded – but the Kontour will be underneath the backing line.
Simply load another reel from the first spool and everything should go on perfectly with the Kontour at the front, where it should be.
When it comes to the other two spools you can simply wind on the backing line first, counting enough turns of the reel as you go – for my reels [Daiwa Windcast 5000z] 220 turns of 20lb Fox Soft Steel in enough to leave the right amount of room for 200m of Kontour.
Fill your spools – See our knot section for info on which knot to use to join two pieces of line…
In action – what is it like:
Sadly the first cast in a real fishing situation resulted in a nightmarish tangle after ten yards of line had left the reel. For some reason the Kontour decided to tie itself into a knot and basically everything was a mess.
Offending line removed – I made sure that there were no obvious tangles and the next cast was a lot smoother.
I instantly noticed a reduction in casting distances when compared to 12lb mono and even with a 2 ¾ Harrison Torrix behind it Kontour will only reach around 100 yards in normal conditions [i.e. wind, rain and fading light] – but this is not the point, the invisible, fast sinking properties of fluorocarbon are the reason we use it as a mainline –it is however important to point out that it is not a casting line.
Over the course of the session I had a couple more tangles, a crack off and also noticed that algae collects on the line easily – the solution for the tangles was to remove a bit of the line from each reel, and for the algae to reel the line back through a cloth after every few casts or at least at the end of the session…
As mentioned the Kontour sinks like a brick and underwater you cannot see it at all, fishing slack lines with small back leads ensures for a perfect presentation.
It is important to note that with Delkim alarms if you [or a fish] pulls only a few inches of line very slowly the Delkim will not sound…. My alarms are 7 months old and I have tested this vs normal mono – interesting point.
Better with time
As a few sessions have now passed using Kontour I have noticed the line has really settled down, the line lay is now near perfect and there are very few disasters to report.
Unlike other lines I have used there is very little line twist which makes for stress free angling and the line knots perfectly with the Palomar knot…
Conclusion
Not something to rush out and buy if you have other priorities such as bait and hooks but once it is on the reel it will be there for a while, it casts good [for fluorocarbon], sinks fast, and offers the excellent invisible qualities that mono cannot even come close to. Furthermore it does not twist like some mono lines and therefore is going to feature on my reels for the rest of the season.
I will however be loading my spare spools with a good all round casting line for those longer chucks, Watch out for the line test coming soon….
Seven Fish!
Seven Fish
