Berkley Connect CF600 Fluorocarbon

Why don’t you love fluorocarbon main lines? It’s a big question. Especially for companies like Berkley. While monofilaments have managed to get drooling respect for their castability, abrasion resistance and value-for-money, fluorocarbons still struggle to find their mojo with the bulk of the angling public. They sink so much better than any mono, and when clean, they are truly invisible when compared to mono. So why don’t you love fluorocarbon?

Berkley wants to sort this out with their new CF600. It’s what the American company is calling “the best fluorocarbon we’ve ever made”, claiming it to be “more flexible, more invisible and more abrasion resistant”. But can this new model work its way into the nation’s hearts and make you all love fluorocarbon?

The big question

What’s so special about this one then?
The CF600 is part of a special new line collection from Berkley. You see, in the 90’s, Berkley controlled the mono market – they dominated it with the likes of Big Game and Trilene, but in the last decade new brands have come along and eaten up a large chunk of the main line pie. The new Connect range from Berkley is a collection of four lines – two monos, one braid and of course this fluorocarbon – that uses all of our transatlantic friends hundreds of years’ worth of knowledge, and all of their best manufacturing processes, and is going to put them right back at the top of the main line tree.

I see, but how is this new fluoro any better to what I’ve used in the past?
To produce CF600, the US-based company has used a brand-new production development. The result of this huge investment is a fluoro that’s near-on invisible, has an ultra-high abrasion resistance make-up, is extremely heavy and more flexible than any fluorocarbon they’ve ever produced.

The new make-up means it behaves more like a mono than a traditional fluorocarbon

Doesn’t fluorocarbon sound like a bag of nails when you cast, though?
Traditional, yes! Its stiff, wiry nature doesn’t lend itself well to (a) sitting on a reel spool neatly and (b) going through the rod rings. However, the CF600 is made to be soooo much softer, so it acts more like a mono, which, as we all know, casts wonderfully well.

Ah, but does that now mean it won’t sink too well?
No, not at all. Thanks to this new production unit, they’ve managed to extrude a fluorocarbon main line that casts like a mono, has abrasion resistance like a mono but sinks and blends in better than its competitor fluorocarbons.

Awesome. What’s the score with the breaking strains?
It comes in five breaking strains: 10, 12, 15, 18 and 20lb – and whilst the diameters aren’t stupidly thin like some we’ve seen (0.30, 0.34, 0.38, 0.40 and 0.45mm), that’s what makes it even more superb: it’s thicker but softer, which means it casts well but is super strong, super heavy and super abrasion resistant.

It’s not only the best fluoro we’ve ever used, it’s the cheapest too!

Sounds great, but don’t I have to sell my right kidney to afford fluorocarbon?
Thankfully, with the new CF600, it’s safe. You’re correct though: where most fluorocarbons strip your wallet dry, a 1,200m spool (for any breaking strain) will set you back just £49.99. Now to give that figure some meaning, to buy an equal amount of another leading brand’s fluorocarbon, you’d have to shell out £125.94! berkley-fishing.com