Loops stainless steel pike wire

The downfall of living in a country where fly-fishing for pike is still in its infancy, is that I find it extremely hard to sometimes track down specific tackle for the sport. One of these products is a decent trace wire and wire tippet. Now I am certainly not endorsed by LOOP to write this review of their product but as its one of the best of its kind on the market here in Finland I feel I should let others out there know about it just incase you come across some in your local tackle shop someday.

Having used several products over the years (Blue-water designs; Surflon; Leeda) to name but a few, and some were better than others. I eventually settled on Drennan 7 strand 20lb pike wire but as I cant get it here I was forced into buying sub standard trace wire and for a while I became despondent with fly-fishing for my beloved Pike….Its funny how something so small like trace wire affected my attitude towards the sport…..but it did!

Then two years ago I came across Loops stainless steel pike wire, and I haven’t look back ever since. I have always preferred to use a steel trace with a snap link to attach my flies and when I first started I would generally have a steel trace of around 50 cm attached to my braided shooting head but since using Loops Stainless steel Pike wire I have been able to shorten the steel wire trace with the snap link attached to less than 20 cm and then attach a length of loops pike wire of around 30 cm behind it……... so is my confidence with the product! Sure its not the best product I have used but it has some fine qualities. The first of these Is that it is terribly light for the 26lb/11.8kg test strength. Secondly it is extremely flexible and I find tying in with a blood knot no problems at all. Lastly it is made from stainless steel which for me is a god sent now that I am fishing in the Baltic sea.

With it being so flexible though I have found myself at least once a session replacing it with a new piece as it does get kinked rather quickly and if you are a stickler for perfect fly presentation you will probably end up doing the same. My only gripe with this product is that it only comes in 3m and 5m lengths and would like to see it being sold in 10 to 15m reels. I had several fish last year where the wire was wrapped around and though the pikes jaws and not once did they manage to bite through it. So I can recommend this product whole heartedly.