SpiderWire: Born from the World's Strongest Fiber

To understand why SpiderWire fishing line is the top "superline" in the market and on the water, it helps to know the story of how it is made. You've heard of Superman being stronger than steel? This is superline, also stronger than steel!

"The braided superline story started with the invention of a new fiber with impressive strength at extremely low weight," says Ron Kliegl of SpiderWire. "It is called Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE), which is a mouthful. What's important is the structure of this material gives it some amazing properties. It is so strong that very thin strands are almost unbreakable, yet it is so light it can float on water. This combination of properties makes it a really unique material, ideal for bullet resistant vests and helmets, and performance fishing line."

DSM Dyneema®, the Holland-based inventor of UHMWPE fiber, says it is up to 15 times stronger than quality steel and one and a half times stronger than other high performance fibers. DSM trademarked the fiber as Dyneema and licensed the product to SpiderWire for creating fishing line. This collaboration between fiber and fishing experts resulted in the huge advancement relied upon today by anglers around the world.

"To make Dyneema fiber into fishing line you start with almost invisible strands of fiber with diameters measuring only microns – this is comparable to the width of a fine human hair," notes Kliegl. "Then you take all these tiny filaments and bundle them together to make a multi-strand yarn. Next a number of these multi-strand yarns, 4, 6, 8, or as many as 12 or 16 yarns, are braided together to make a strong, durable structure with the flexibility and strength required."

A superline braid such as SpiderWire 20 -pound UltraCast, which is made using 8 carriers of yarn, might have as many as 400 individual filaments, while 100-pound Stealth might have as many as 1000 strands of fiber. It all varies from line to line. What doesn't vary is that because you start with such tiny fibers, you end up with a very small diameter fishing line with a very high breaking strength for its size. The end result is a small diameter fishing line that has tensile strength stronger than steel, with no stretch, because of its high orientation. "It makes an amazing fishing line compared to monofilament or fluorocarbon lines," says Kliegl. "The zero stretch properties allows anglers to feel everything at the end of the line. It is strong and thin, yet supple, with no memory so spooling is easy. It is so light that it flies off the end of your rod adding distance to anglers' casts."

Naturally white Dyneema fiber is resistant to UV light, chemicals and moisture, which makes it extremely durable. The slick surface of the fiber can make it difficult to add coatings and color; however, SpiderWire engineers have developed special coatings that meet this challenge. These coatings also provide special properties to improve the angler experience, like color for visibility, body for casting performance and wind knot resistance, and reduced friction for faster, quieter casting.

When it comes to creating more sizes of the famous SpiderWire strength, it's simply a matter of adding more of the incredibly strong Dyneema fibers.