Photo by Rob Russow.  Courtesy of Bassmaster.com

Sure, he could tell you that it’s abrasion resistant, that it sinks quickly and that it has minimal stretch, but c’mon, is that really going to convince you to buy it? Every member of the competition tells us those same things, and for the most part it’s true for the majority of brands.

“It really doesn’t break,” he said. “But you’ve heard that from every fluorocarbon manufacturer in the country.” There’s still a trump card up his sleeve, though.

“There is something about it that’s never been done before,” he said straightforwardly, with only the slightest hint of excitement in his Mississippi accent.

The “Quattro” in the name should provide a hint. Does it:

(a)    Come in a handy four-pack for your purchasing convenience?

(b)   Come only in 4-pound test, because that’s what most bass anglers use?

(c)    Guarantee that your fish will average four pounds each? or

(d)   None of the above.

Choose the fourth letter of the alphabet, Jethro. The Quattro, which follows on the heels of a monofilament of the same name from the same manufacturer, is a four-colored line, with the different shades alternating every eight inches or so (did you think we were going to say four inches? Gotta mix it up a little.).

“Here’s why that makes it better,” Pace explained. “It’s all about the way light transmits down your line. When it hits your line, it gets absorbed and it channels down that line into the water. Everybody thinks that fluorocarbon is invisible under water because it’s the same color as the water. That’s not the case. It’s that fluorocarbon has the ability to block out the light.”

“Whatever light gets in that line stays in that line for good,” he continued. “When you put multiple colors in the line, every time the light passes through another color, it breaks it up. It dilutes the light, it eliminates it.”

A side benefit of the coloration process is that it adds a softening agent which makes the line substantially more manageable. No more kinks on your baitcasting reels or endless unmanageable loops coming off of your spinning reels.

If may be difficult to convince the average angler to try a new product, but no one is stingier in giving out praise than Pace himself. While he knew the basic advantages of fluorocarbon for years, he admitted that in most cases he was scared to use it.

“If it helps you get two extra bites but your break off four, where are you at the end of the day,” he asked rhetorically.

He thought back to an early season Elite Series tournament on California’s Clear Lake with a shudder. He’d located a group of quality fish. That was a good start, because it was the type of tournament where “if you didn’t have a five-pound average you were wasting your time.” He managed to sneak into the money line with a 49^th place finish, but two and a half years later, he shudders when he thinks of how much more efficient he could have been.

“The problem I had with fluorocarbon was in setting the hook,” he said. “I was fishing a jig and I had three different rods with the same bait on them: one with regular mono for when it was cloudy; one with 20-pound fluorocarbon for when it was windy; and one with 15-pound fluorocarbon for when I absolutely had to use that to get bites. I was scared to break a big one off.”

By contrast, had he been in the same situation this year, he could’ve gotten a single spool of 15-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon out of his truck to respool up to a dozen different rods. More confidence, more time, more efficiency. He said that it still requires some getting used to for those raised on traditional mono, much like the process that took place five or so years ago when braid became a big deal. Stick to a San Diego knot, he added, and you’ll have fewer problems.

If you see him at a tournament, check out the rods on his deck and you’ll see what he’s talking about. A few years ago, he’d have fluorocarbon on maybe 20 percent of his reels, only for situations where he absolutely needed it. Now the percentages have flip-flopped and he estimated that he uses fluoro 80 percent of the time, for just about everything except topwater, flipping mats and frogging.

Unfortunately, an ad or an article can only do so much to convince anglers who’ve been burned before to try something new – so Hi-Seas came up with a little incentive (other than Cliff’s word) to spool up with their line. Just buy $20 worth of their product and send in the proof of purchase(s) and you’ll be entered in a sweepstakes for an all-expenses paid trip to fish with Pace at a private lake in Mississippi. Check out www.hiseas.net for more details.