Hanak Flurocarbon Review

I first became aware of Hanak fluorocarbon tippet material a few years ago when the Hanak brand burst onto the scene. It has since become one of, if not “the”, main name in competition fishing equipment.

Franta Hanak, the owner and founder of the Hanak company, is close friends with the top Czech anglers who are renowned as the best in the world. He has even held the managerial role in a gold medal winning Czech team so the brand is basically the birth child of an amazing R&D department! 

For those not familiar with competition fishing, all talk surrounding tippet material is in diameters and in Australia we talk in millimetres. This enables us to standardise tippets against each other. For example, the 6lb tippet in one brand may be thicker than the 6lb in another brand, essentially making the thinner tippet more desirable if it breaks at the same pressure. The other thing to mention is that diameters are not necessarily diameters! If you put scientific callipers on tippets they are often thicker than the diameter claimed on the spool. Companies want their material to appear thin but strong. While other companies claim that their material is extremely strong but when checking the diameter, it is actually extremely thick and therefore should be strong! This discrepancy is not the case for Hanak which is notoriously accurate in its advertised tippet diameters.

Since I started using Hanak flurocarbon, I have not looked back. It is as thin for its strength as any other brand I have come across, supple for its strength and extremely high quality. I now use it (and only it) for all of my fishing including river dry fly fishing and western lakes polaroiding. 

It comes in diameters down to 0.10 in 0.02 steps and as such basically covers the full range or desirable tippet diameters and strengths up to 0.24 (11lb). It used to go down to 0.08 diameter (2lb breaking strain for those not a tune to diameter talk yet) which was a lot of fun to fish with. Unfortunately this is no longer in production, probably due to a lack of sales which is understandable. Not many people require such a fine diameter line away from well educated Grayling. The other important thing I love about this tippet is its knot strength. 

Some tippets get significantly weakened as soon as you tie a knot in them. This is not the case with Hanak. While at you expect your knot to be the first thing that breaks (it is a weakness in the line after all), knots in the Hanak Flurocarbon seem to remain very strong no matter which knot I use.

If I had one criticism of Hanak Flurocarbon, it is the spools on which the line comes. These are great at first but quickly become sun damaged during summer as I am on the water every day. I have solved this problem by winding the tippet onto a different spool once this happens. It is an issue that could easily be dealt with by Hanak simply putting their high quality flurocarbon on an equally high quality spool. The smaller diameter spools seem much more resilient and strong than the spools on which the longer lengths of flurocarbon come on. 

A good trick with all of your spools is to write the diameter of the line on the back side of the spool with a permanent marker so as that when the sticker wears off, you still know the diameter by being able to read it off the back. 

I have many memories of this tippet making the difference in competitions and social fishing. Last year in the Tumut River competition, a fish ran me into the sticks on 0.12 (3lb) tippet. Having a reasonable idea just how much pressure I could put through the tippet, I kept a very firm pressure on the fish keeping it from burying itself too deeply into the snag. I quickly waded out and netted the very large fish in amongst the weed and sticks it had tangled itself in. I have dozens of memories of these fish coming off in the past and leaving me with a frayed tippet. 

I will continue to test other tippet materials in case another manufacturer manages to produce a material that is thinner and stronger. For now though, the Hanak Flurocarbon has no equal and is my tippet material or choice.

Stewart Dick

Rainbow Lodge Guide

Champion Fluorocarbon Tippet - 50m & 150m

Thanks to its revolitionary attributes, Hanák Champion Fluorocarbon tippet is ideal for chasing spooky fish. Almost invisible in water, Champion Fluorocarbon is twice as dense as water and sinks quickly so that it does not sit on the surface and scare fish. Compared to monofilament tippet, Champion Flurocarbon is smoother, more uniform in daimeter, more durable and less elastic. Champion Fluorocarbon does not absorb water and is impervious to damage from UV rays.

Available in 50m and 150m spools

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