I've always had a non-conformist approach to selecting my mainline when fishing with a multiplier, for several reasons. To explain this, I'll give you a little insight into when I head out with my traditional beach fishing setup rather than my continental one.
I tend only to fish my multiplier when I'm clipping up and whacking out. This is fishing with clipped rigs and bigger baits for winter matches. A multiplier is perfect for fishing at a distance and catching anything from whiting to spurdog in horrendous weather and snaggy ground. These matches smash up your mainline! Even the big-name brands, when faced with sandy and snaggy ground with a little lump on the water, feel well used at the end of a four or five-hour match. It is for this reason that after I have used a reel for a match, the line is recycled and the reel re-spooled ready for the next trip. This may sound wasteful to some, but there is no worse feeling than getting that match-winning fish, only for your line to go ping halfway through the fight, with the only apparent reason for this being from the previously worn line.
I've been through the majority of named brands and although most are very good for casting, suppleness, smoothness or whatever the bold claim on the packaging is. They're just not good enough to pay the high price to use them only once, and not worth the risk to use them twice. This is why I have been using Axia Mainline on all my multiplier reels. It's not all the bells and whistles of the more expensive brands, but it is cheap as chips and does the job well. I thought it would be partnering my multiplier reels for years to come. This was until I got a couple of spools of Tronixpro Blaze Multiplier Line through the door.
Admittedly, first impressions were it looked “banging” line, and I knew I would enjoy using it, but thought, as with other lines, once those spools had been used up, I'd be back to using my old faithful Axia Mainline again…I was wrong.
Tronixpro Blaze Multiplier Line casts like a dream. It's supple enough to fly off the reel and knots perfectly. It's not so limp that it gets firey when you whack it either, and it's smooth through the eyes on the retrieve. I've had Blaze on a couple of my reels for my pleasure fishing for over four months, and although they're not filled to the rim anymore due to a couple of user error induced birds nests, the line that is left is still going strong and is still smooth.
I haven't cut through it with plastic, put sandpaper on it or any of the other non-fishing related “tests”, but in my personal experience, it has stood up to the Bristol Channels roughest marks. It has been outstanding in the rough conditions I fish in and on beaches littered with freshly smashed up razor-sharp shellfish and its pulled rigs out of countless snags.
Blaze Multiplier Line is a low stretch line. This sends every bite firing to the rod tip alerting you of anything sniffing around, but, importantly, it has just enough stretch to give the fish a little bit back to avoid any hook pull issues. I've found this a massive advantage over non-stretch lines and braids on a traditional multiplier setup, which I've seen and experienced as being a significant factor in fish being lost mid-fight. Due to the unforgiving nature of stiff beach casting rods, I feel you need some stretch in your line. Tronixpro has the amount bob on with Blaze.
The fact it comes in three colour options, allows me to coordinate my reels so I know what diameter of line I'm grabbing from my box straight away — no more fumbling around in my box to check the tiny sticker or mark on the reel foot to identify which diameter of line is on the reel. In the mad scramble of a match when you've lost line in a snag or had a crack off, there is no more losing time trying to pick the right line when fish are coming in all around you.
The balance between quality and the price of £8.99 means I only have to dig out my old friend Axia when fishing the absolute roughest and toughest days, where I know I'll be needing to strip the reel after only two or three casts, leaving Blaze Multiplier Line to partner my reels on match days from now on.
