Ive had some in my pole over five years !!Depends what your target fish are to what you need ive landed fish to over 17 lb on white with pulla bungs, for F1s i use white, winter i use blue and for bigger carp 5lb+ i use black and only ever use red for margin fishing!! IMO its worth every penny !

Never bothered with grey its between white and black ratings white and black cover most of my fishing dont know of many people who do use a grey !!

Casper, No I think Dellaboy means white which is a grade under the grey e.g. softer

I can,t remember the exact ratings for each colour but if you look on the back of the packet or the Daiwa web site you will find this information.

White is 6-10 and when used with a puller will land anything in open water. Della it seems i have finally converted you from purple hydro to white? Hope to see you soon at Hayfield for an easy £1?

Casper, I don,t think there is a one elastic that will do every job perfectly and you need to give the grey ago and see how you get on with it. I had a day with Andy May last year and grey hydro is what he uses on all commercials – nuff said.
With care you will land small fish and land carp to double figures but it takes time, puller bungs seem a good option but not something I have tried yet.

Grey hydro is awesome elastic, ideal for fishing shallow with, it’s a very soft elastic but has a lot of power to it I’ve found. I use pulla-bungs on all my elastics, they really do come in handy.

White is better for silvers set soft,use a pulla bung and you can land double figure fish no problem but if its carp from 5 to 15lb i would use black with a pulla bung this would be quicker,grey i guess is a happy medium but too heavy for silvers in my opinion,blue is great for roach skimmers and bream.

@casper wrote:

what sort of fish u ranging from foxman silvers up to double figures?

I don’t use hollow’s for silvers, i find it much too harsh. The grey hydro is for carp upto double figures, it can cope easily with big carp providing your using a pulla-bung.

If i’m fishing shallow for silvers i much prefer a double 5 (preston original slip) set soft, also with a pulla-bung just incase i hook a bonus fish. A double 5 is spot on for silvers imo, it’s so soft on the strike and absorbs all the lunges a fish may take which inturn means less fishing bumping off from the elastic being too harsh for the target fish.

Grey Hydro seems very similar to White Hydro to me just a slight bit stronger.

Its spot on for fishing for Skimmers and Carp. Its soft enough you wont bump anything off but powerful enough for Carp.

Its also very good for up in the water.

Use a Pulla Bung with it though.

It can handle fish into double figures no problems.

Have used grey, but not for a while. I’d say you’d be fine with it for carp 2-10lb in open water, and for big skimmers/bream when fishing deep. It’s also useful for flat float fishing on rivers.

Personally I am going away from hydro though to doubled up preston slip original. Before spending a fortune on hydro, go spend a couple of quid on preston original slip number 8 grade, fish it doubled uip, and see what you think. Effectively you’re only paying £2.25 to elasticate each top kit, and it’s loads lighter than hydro. Granted it won’t last as long, but you can do your pole 6 times for the price of one lot of hydro, and I’ve yet to have to replace my doubled up more than once a year.

I have always being a big fan of hydro and this picked up even more with the invention of pull bungs. However some grades do not seem anything like as robust as they were- I elasticated a new pole 2 months ago and found to my shock that one of the “whites” had “gone” in the last 18 inches when setting up on bolding fisho last week – it was badly cracked, as if through use/ age – it was not frayed as would happen if it had come into contact with something.
So I will be giving the doubled lacky another go and probably normal latex in thicker grades – the double seems a little bit faffy but it lands fish is inexpensive and is much lighter which is an obvious boon when fishing long poles.

I use Black & White hydro in summer and Drennan Green hollow in Winter. Incidently I had white hydro snap on me on Monday its been in Two years but i have some black hydro thats been in alot longer and is showing no signs of wear yet. I think pulla kits reduce the life of elastics because you push them to the extremes but personally i dont think you can beat white hydro with a pullkit for mixed fishing it will land anything and remain soft enough not to bump off smaller fish on the strike.

used grey hydro at the weekend to catch 150lb of carp to 16lb 14oz fishing 16.5m, most were between 8 and 12lb. Coupled with a pull bung, it was perfect, anything heavier would have been too much strain on the pole on the initial run. didnt lose a properly hooked fish all day, and most came in quickly. IMO grey with a pull bung is the most versatile elastic there is.

Would doubled up 6 elastic work for f1s?

Having never used hydro, would you say 13h is the same as grey or is one stronger than the other? also does the liquid inside them freeze in winter?

this is straight out of advanced pole fishing, a double 6 starts like a soft 8 and ends up a number 12 at full stretch, a doubled 8 starts like a soft 10 and ends up like a 14.

I would, and do, use doubled 5 and doubled 6 for f1’s depending on if I expect to encounter alot of silverfish. I always fish them with a pull bung just in case. I don’t often fish for carp, but I have replaced my black hydro with doubled 8 for tench on the fen drains and will see how I get on. if it’s not strong enough I will use doubled 10 instead.

I’m following Scotthorne and Ringer and only use origial slip elastic.

Hope that helps.

Ryan, there’s not much between the two but the 13h is just a touch stronger, I find anyway!

I used Ultima Power Match 4.4lb/3.2lb bottom with double no4 Vespe today and landed 10lb carp without pulled kit while fishing for Roach.

@dellaboy wrote:

Never bothered with grey its between white and black ratings white and black cover most of my fishing dont know of many people who do use a grey !!

I think grey is the best of the lot it will land anything from good size skimmers to 15lb carp