The sheer number of fishing lines available today can intimidate even the wisest of anglers. Every fishing line manufacturer taunts their line as having the best qualities and therefore being the best line overall.

How is an angler to decide which line meets his or her needs when so many different fishing lines are available? First you need to understand the categories of lines and what fishing applications are best suited for their use.

There are three major different types of lines on the market today. They include monofilament, super-lines (including braided) and fluorocarbon.

The great majority of anglers still use monofilament lines, but some other types of lines have their supporters and there are fishing applications where lines other than monofilament may be the better choice.

Monofilament nylon line was initially developed by Dupont and uses a by-product from crude oil. It was the mainstay in fishing lines from the 1950s through the early 1990s when manufactures began bringing so called "super-lines" to the line market.

There are more brands of monofilament lines on the market than all others combined, but not all monofilament lines are the same. When you buy an 800-yard spool of monofilament line for $2 from XYZ Company, you get what you pay for and that is bad monofilament line.

If you use monofilament line buy quality line from a quality manufacturer like Berkley or Stren.

Monofilament is often referred to as a single strand of nylon fishing line when in fact monofilament line is made up of several synthetic components that are processed together to form what appears to be a single strain of line.

It has remained the mainstay of fishing lines for more than 50 years and remains the choice of most anglers.

Braided or super-lines began to appear in the in the early 1990s and anglers flocked to tackle stores to buy some and probably tried at least one expensive spool of the stuff before returning to monofilament after being frustrated trying to use the braided line.

For the full story, see the March 3-5 edition of The Union-Recorder