Most anglers treat trout with kid gloves when it comes to line choice, but I’m not one of them. In fact, I’ve made an all-out switch to superline like FireLine Crystal or Stren MicroFuse when fishing stream trout. Why? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Superline stands up the constant abuse of rocks and doesn’t twist like monofilament or fluorocarbon. Plus, its high strength and low stretch make it much easier to pop baits out of snags and streamside brush, as well as set hooks, which has always been tough when using stretchy, low-poundage monos.

To satisfy my paranoid side, I usually add a 3-foot fluorocarbon leader using a uni-to-uni for stealth, although my tests have shown even that might not be necessary.

Case in point: When Crystal was first introduced, Berkley gave me a couple spools. A week later I was crouched in the dew-soaked grass along an aquarium-clear spring creek narrow enough to straddle without straining your ankles. I tied an in-line spinner direct to the FireLine—no leader—and proceeded to catch 19 trout before breakfast.

The translucent line nearly disappeared under the water, and if the trout saw it at all, they certainly didn’t give it enough thought.