It’ll be no8 mate, but it all depends how you tension it really as the no8 won’t stretch as much as the hydro.

I have been playing around wi d8 for over a year now and thought it was the dogs danglies , but am not too sure about landing the bigger stamp of fish around the 7lb mark now it just doesn’t se strong enough or it might just be me being a wuss . Am off to the shop to get some black hydro and give that a whirl

I was the same with the no8 and also had some black hydro but I couldn’t seem to get them under control with it. I am currently trying half lengths of Preston 15h hollo and its pretty good but I can see me going back to the no8 or even a no10 with a pulla as I feel it has more back bone than the hollo/hydro’s.

Craig would u say am wasting my money if I was to go out and buy black hydro to replace d8

You wouldn’t be wasting your money to go buy black hydro. Doubled elastic is perfect for winter fishing or silvers all year round but when it comes to carp in the warm weather you just don’t have control over the fish with doubled 8. black hydro has a lot more power and it won’t bottom out as easily, getting hollows to bottom out takes a lot of stretching anyway.

foxman you hit the nail on the head there mate i think your 100% correct it felt like the d8 was going to bottom out everytime i had a big fish on a run .off to the shop for me it is thn .

@Chris-turner wrote:

foxman you hit the nail on the head there mate i think your 100% correct it felt like the d8 was going to bottom out everytime i had a big fish on a run .off to the shop for me it is thn .

Keep the double 8 for the winter as it’s bang on, black hydro becomes too powerful which leads to bumped fish etc 😉

I fish a lot of venues where the fish can range from 1-10lb and find doubled black spot on for this time of the year.

I would imagen you will have problems controlling fish if your top kits are overly long like some are. I use a Daiwa match kits with the number 1 removed so mine are shorter than average.

i now use double elastics exclusively arcoss the board – but i also only use half lengths of double elastic.
Never had the problems of fish bottoming me out and breaking me because the way the system works – its so soft on the bite, the fish dont bolt – so they’re under control all the way to the net – it then powers right up at your top kit for netting.
I’ve had some proper bags of fish with lumps mixed in at Cob House and rarely, if ever, have to use a number 4 to land fish.

Theres a big difference between new doubled No8 and stuff thats been stretched a few times as it softens up a lot. I use have a combination of hollows and solids inc double 8 and black hydro – they all have their use. IMO black hydro is more powerful than double 8.