Up Close

Drennan is well established in the line arena and has some super variants on offer already, so during a recent meeting at Drennan HQ my first thought was what did this line offer that others didn’t?

Peter Drennan, founder of the company, was highly enthused about this product as he removed it from the simple, clear packaging. “Have a close look at that gentlemen!” he exclaimed, as he handed Jon Arthur, Joe Carass, Tom Scholey and me (the Match Fishing and Pole Fishing teams) a spool of his brand-new Supplex monofilament.

Available on 100m spools the first thing that struck me was how supple this material is – hence the product name!

The more-supple materials can often lack strength, but not Supplex – it’s as tough as towrope, but as soft as silk – the perfect combination for most angling applications.

It’s plainly obvious that Drennan has been working hard on perfecting this material over quite some time. That’s what I’ve always admired about the people at Drennan – they’re plodders… but in the nicest possible sense. They focus on doing things right above all else, whereas for other manufacturers being the first to market is key, even if that means compromising on design or quality.

Supplex is clear in colour, which is something I’m personally not too precious about, but for many anglers a clear colour is the first thing they look for when choosing a line.

It seems to have been eradicated to some extent now, but many manufacturers seemed to have fallen into the habit of overstating breaking strain and understating diameter. Supplex is spot-on in diameter and has actually underrated the breaking strain! Totally the opposite and a rare quality these days, as manufacturers aim to lure us with a ‘bigger is better’ concept.

The breaking strain listed on the spool suggests an easily achievable knot strength, but with a technically superior knot, like a well-tied five-turn grinner, it’s possible to achieve even more.
In my experience and through thorough testing, a palomar offers the highest knot strength, so I’d be confident in saying this rule would also ring true if you prefer this to a grinner.

Drennan’s approach here is unique because most lines give a tensile reading, which is a measurement of a line’s breaking strain without knots. When did you last go fishing and not use a knot? I know I haven’t for a while.

All that’s left to say is that it looks, feels and performs admirably in the hand. It knots very easily and ‘beds’ beautifully if you moisten and draw the knots closed correctly.

I expect you’ll be able to achieve greater casting distance for the same effort when compared to your current monofilament choice and it’s also going to make an exceptional waggler line in the lower diameters. Let’s see how good it is on the spool over the next few months…

It’s available in shops now in a host of diameters, and I’ve listed those that’ll be of most interest to us match anglers.
 

RRP: £4.95 (100m) 3lb/1.36kg (0.14mm) Achievable breaking strain – 3.8lb 4lb/1.80kg (0.16mm) Achievable breaking strain – 4.9lb 5lb/2.27kg (0.18mm) Achievable breaking strain – 5.8lb 6lb/2.72kg (0.20mm) Achievable breaking strain – 6.9lb 8lb/3.63kg (0.23mm) Achievable breaking strain – 8.9lb