Ultima Pure Power Line

There has been a lot of interest in pure flourocarbon lines, and most of them have more cons to the pros, and when Ultima asked UKMA to review their new Pure Power flourocarbon reel line, our initial thoughts where "this is probably going to be the same as all the others", but when the box was opened and the line inspected, we could instantly tell that it was not the case.

Ultima have come up with a way of tinting the fluorocarbon to hold colour without the need to merge other materials with the fluorocarbon. We recieved a spool of the Weed Green line (a clear version is also available), and a lot of anglers could be mistaken in thinking that the colouration is going against what the main use of a fluorocarbon is - that a flourocarbon is almost invisble in water due to the light refractancy. Where a lot of anglers get mistaken is that they automatically think that as soon as a flourocarbon touches the water it becomes invisible. Ths is an urban myth. Fluorocarbons are less visible when laying on the bottom or other item in the water, but some fluorocarbons are more visible in the water than a traditional mono when suspended tight. I can honestly say though that during the tests on clear waters that the Ultima Pure Power Carp in the weed green colour is almost invisible even when suspended and tight in the water (we cannot comment on the clear version yet as we have not recieved any to try out). The other benefit of flourocarbon is that it is denser than water, meaning that it sinks like a brick. The Ultima Pure Power Carp does indeed cut straight through the surface tension and sinks very quickly without requiring any degreasing or other treatment. Slack line work is a doddle for this line and it sinks as quickly as some of the super heavy sinking braids that I use for the majority of my angling.

The major con of using a true flourocarbon is that it tends to be thicker diameter for it's breaking strain, wirey and a nightmare for casting. I can honestly say that if I didn't know otherwise I would have sworn this was a standard mon but, Pure Power is a true fluorocarbon that acts like a good monofilament when on the reel . Casting with the line is seriously better than any other fluorocarbon that we have used and is not far off what we would expect from a good casting monofilament. Pure Power is also very supple straight off the spool and a quick run through the fingers straightens it out without any problems. Knot strengths are also very good with all the popular knots, but I would suggest that the Figure of 8 loop knot is not recommended as this gave the lowest breaking strain of any of the tried knots. If you require a loop knot, then I suggest and recommend the Rapala Loop/No-Slip Loop Knot as the line retained its strength in losing only 2% of its breaking strain.

The only thing that I could find bad was that Pure Power still suffers from serious twisting after playing a few fish off the clutch or using the free spool function on a reel, but this is the same with all fluorocarbons and is the "nature of the beast". This can be easily rectified by using the backwind to play fish and by using a device such as a Gardner Spin Doctor at the end of each session to remove any twist in the line. A final little niggle that I found was with the spool that the line is supplied on. Ultima have put a label on the underside of the spool to show which wa the spool should be placed for the line to come off correctly onto fixed spool reels. I found though that when the spool was placed the correct way up, there was a notch in the spool rim that the line kept catching on when putting on the reel. I found that I had to place a piece of insulating tape over the notch to stop the line catching on it.

Diameters along a randomly tested length of Pure Power showed that the line was as close to the stated diameter as possible, and actually very slightly under the diameter given on a few of the measurements. Not once did the line measure as being higher than its stated diameter.

Final Thoughts

Overall I have used most of the popular flourocarbon reel lines available and not really got on with any of them, but the Ultima Pure Power surprised me greatly and al I can say is that if any more finds its way to me, I will be using it!

Pure Power is seriously good stuff and solves most of the problems that other fluorocarbons present. Top marks Ultima!

For more information on the Pure Power or on any of the other products in the Ultima range, please click the image below to go to the Ultima website.