Korda IQ2 / IQ Extra Soft - 20m 20lb

Korda IQ2 / IQ Extra Soft - 20m 20lb

We have Steve Renyard to thank for this soft version of the IQ Fluorocarbon. Steve had had great success with fluorocarbon leaders on his favorite waters for some time. Of course, when he joined the Korda team, we gave him our traditional IQ to test. His surprising feedback: "The IQ is a bit too stiff for my fishing."

IQ has to be stiff, then you can catch it better than with a conventional monofilament line. That was our belief. But we at Korda are open to new ideas. So we listened carefully to what Steve had to tell us.

Steve loves fluorocarbon lines because they are almost invisible. “I'm so concerned about the fish seeing my rig that I use the 25lb version of the standard IQ as an anti-tangle leader. I'll go with about four feet of IQ, for lead I'll choose a square pear or a tournament swivel lead on a lead clip.”

"Fluorocarbon as a leader material also prevents tangling on long casts," Steve continues. "And in the water, a fluorocarbon rig is hard to spot, which gives me the edge."

Steve even uses fluorocarbon as the main line, so he consistently implements the camouflage idea. "More is not possible", says Steve and refers to his successes. On one occasion he caught 30 fish over XNUMXlb in just four weekends along with several smaller carp. For English waters, which are often extremely overfished and where the fish usually do not reach the size of German or French carp, this is a proud result.

But over the years Steve developed his own special preferences. He likes monofilament leader materials that are a little softer. That's why he loves our IX2 Fluorocarbon. Because a soft monofilament leader causes the bait to sink after the cast so that the leader does not lie completely stretched out on the bottom, as can be the case with stiff mono leaders. If the fish now takes the bait, it has a few centimeters of leeway until the leader stretches completely. If that were not the case, the stiff mono leader would lie completely stretched out on the bottom of the water after sinking - then the fish might not be able to suck the bait in at all.

“I have often seen fish feeding over a field of scattered boilies. Big fish tend to approach the lure head down and tail up. Then they suck in the boilie, stand up and swim on to the next boilie. A slightly longer leader of around 30 centimeters gives the hookbait the necessary leeway so that the fish can suck it up clean.”

With conventional, i.e. stiff, mono leaders, Steve likes to use stringers or PVA bags full of boilies. Because then, according to Steve's theory, the leader lies curved on the bottom of the water rather than with just a single hook bait. The reason for this is that the stringer or PVA bag weighs more than a single boilie. As a result, the whole construction sinks faster and comes to rest closer to the lead, i.e. with a curved leader.

In addition, there is the stronger attraction of a stringer with several boilies compared to a single boilie. And that handful of boilies will stay on the spot until a fish eats them. A PVA bag with pellets or groundbait, on the other hand, is easily scattered by the coarse fish that are present. If you don't believe that, you should take a look at our Korda underwater DVDs.

A stringer or a PVA bag full of boilies means that even a stiff fluorocarbon leader like our standard IQ will come to rest in a circle after sinking. “But if you don't want to use a stringer or PVA bag and just want to use a single hookbait – then only the softer IQ2 allows the hooklink to not be stretched out,” says Steve. “Therefore I prefer