CTFishTalk.com: buying line at walmart - Connecticut Bait, Tackle, Rods and Reels etc… ( CT Bait, Tackle, Rods and Reels etc… ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

djmon · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 493 Location: wallingford

for anyone that is buying line at walmart........dont!

i had some line problem and emailed the company back the info on the boxes like they asked. the boxes were 6yrs old. they looked brand new on the shelves but then again i guess if you dust then thats not hard to do......

NX 882 BASS · Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Terryville

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP,THERES PROBABLY ALOT OF STORES THAT DO THE SAME THING,ARE THERE DATES ON THE BOXES??IM SURE THE BRAIDED LINE WILL BE OK Rolling Eyes

djmon · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 493 Location: wallingford

i dont know if this trick will work for all brands.... (it so far doesn't show on my cabela's spool but something similar shows on my bass pro spool from last year)

for Berkley Products:

open the box and lift the spool out

at the bottom of the spool right below the "0.00mm" spot there should be a series of numbers and letters looking somthing like this ( K-3-3-2)

now that is off my 6lb XL Smooth Cast Pony spool that i had problems with. i also have the same code on my 4lb spool.

6lb 100% Fluorocarbon A - 13 - 8 - 3
8lb XL Smooth Cast L - 30 - 8 - 1

by what the guy from berkley/purefishing explained to me the 6lb and 4lb spools for the XL are from 2003 and the other two spools were 2008......assuming the middle number dictates what year the line was produced you should be able to figure out if its worth buying or not..... if the line is defective then thats another story aka my fluorocarbon problem.

just a thought

flippy · Joined: 25 May 2008 Posts: 1150

All companies are different but if you take a couple of packages of the same company, you can figure it out fairly quickly, as for flouro it has alot better shelf life than mono, and braid,I dont think it has a shelf life, NOW REMEMBER, these companies like Dicks and Walmart always face off their products especially spring with fishing and will always put their old stock out first or in front of the new stock, It doesnt hurt to pull a little line out and try snapping it if you can at the store, its when your at home respooling and realizing, this line keeps snapping, when you could have caught that at the store.

djmon · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 493 Location: wallingford

Dicks isn't bad about turning out there stock but I checked through the boxes front to back at walmart an there a different story. Fluorocarbon does last longer an braid on the other hand should be find for a long time but it doesn't hurt to get fresh stock if you can. Speaking of braid has anyone tried the fireline braid? How does it compare to powerpro?