Thanks Bob, - Hopefully there will be some robust discussion in Gisborne and some clear direction comes out of it. See you in a few weeks.

I have been on my clubs committee for over 10 years and am currently the Secretary and Treasurer.

Vance a lot of clubs have do have many talented people that probably do contribute or support their club, in the same breath all clubs have there detractors, our club is no different.
I sit on our committee for the purpose of wanting to promote fishing etc our members but when you try to put something in place for members a small minority come out of the woodwork who dont like what youve done and all they can do is ***** & moan. There are also some that their only reason to sit on committees is to further their own agenda, for me these type of people have no place on committees.
I think you will find that the reason some talented people dont put their names forward for club committee is because of the detractors, it can be rather daunting at times when all the minority seem to do is stir the pot up among members.

What is so difficult about actually testing braid line?

That's all IGFA requires - not some silly bloody banning.

PJay - with the current crop of line testers the braid broke with a spike i.e. the breaking strain reading was higher than the true breaking strain. This was found out by comparting results for the same line with a line tester and having an official line test done (much better technology). The NZSFC has developed a manually operated line tester which works with braid and is available to clubs for about $1000. They are currently working on developing a motorised version, but are having a few issues.

Marligator wrote: PJay - with the current crop of line testers the braid broke with a spike i.e. the breaking strain reading was higher than the true breaking strain. This was found out by comparting results for the same line with a line tester and having an official line test done (much better technology). The NZSFC has developed a manually operated line tester which works with braid and is available to clubs for about $1000. They are currently working on developing a motorised version, but are having a few issues.

Yeah, as mentioned above, BOISC used to trot out this one.

It was explained to me by a private individual who owned exactly the same model of testing machine that it was simply a matter of incorrect technique. He demonstrated to me testing up to 160lb braid: no "spike", no uneven results, nothing other than consistent results.

Braid does not hold to itself the same as mono, so you have to attach it to the tester so as to ensure that the break, when it occurs, is of the line, not at a knot or overlap.

There are very many commercially available testing machines, and even in NZ branches of foreign companies whose main business is making machines that will test braid lines. This is far from new technology.

PJay - you may be right but how much do these units cost, they need to be at a realistic price, most smaller clubs will not be able to afford $3-5,000 for a decent line tester.

Boys, I offered to buy BOISC a Shimadzu tester.

However, the club's existing tester, as stated above, can do the job perfectly well on braid if operated properly.

BTW, a couple of years ago this unit still cost <$2K.

Is there an ISO standard for tensile testing braid line and if so are the clubs keeping a copy for their QA????

Oh, yes, every one of my snapper pinfish captures on braid in the last 3 years or so has had the line tested on the BOISC machine; submit a sample of the line with the catch card. I just give them the first 10-20m of line attached to the leader.