I am absolutely STOKED that all you fullas have had massive problems with Tasline Elite Hollow!
I thought it was just me being a useless dick as usual.
Seriously - like Legacy, I first got into the stuff about 4 years ago, but due to yet another aberration in my already pretty winky DNA I have been stuck in an addiction cycle ever since. I hate it all Winter, then I see a high pressure system appear on the map, and a bit of 20 degree water and I'm all over it again like a Lost Cause.
And when I was finally broken, it suddenly got much, much worse - my eyes suddenly got old and wouldn't see properly any more.
JUST last weekend I helped out a fellow sufferer who had been shown the Dark Side (by me, HAHAHAHA!) via some Powerpro and thought he'd be qualified after a couple of hours of that, to leap carefree into the Tasline whirlpool. >PeeYOWW--!!! He wuz sooo WRONG...!
What makes a HUGE difference when you're starting out is having an open mind, a philosophical mood, a bit of spare 'sacrificial' line, and ample free time for the learning process. When you 'get it', trust me, it's worth it. (Well perhaps not, but at least find out for yourself).
And, with respect, you WILL want needles. (You will thank this idiot for that advice. And trust me, gratuities would be appreciated, or a crew spot on your marlin machine might do too).
I tried and tried without needles, and eventually I really started wanting to kill something, regardless what cunning tricks I devised (and my mind devises with surprising dexterity if I'm desperate - like after I chopped down my Dad's tree when I was eight). I found trying to splice tasline without needles is just another form of self-flagellation. I know deep down I'm generally useless, but regardless, I'd still STRONGLY recommend some needles. And bonus - they're cool - who
wouldn't want some anyway?
Get some needles. They're cheap as chips in the big picture. And I'd probably recommend a 'set', including a latch needle - mainly because besides being without equal for loops I reckon latch needles are custard cool. How the hell do they even MAKE those things, they're so fine!!!
If you use needles, if you soften the line, and if you make pain your friend, you've moved a bit further towards success and a strut in your strides instead of the limpness of the hordes.
If you check the line carefully as it comes off the spool, you'll notice it is very flat, quite 'hard', and even has 'edges', or 'creases'. (One of the advantages of hollow braids is that they flatten out as they lay on your spool). The Tasline Elite I've encountered almost feels starchy, and trying to get a needle up it in this condition will result in a quick spiral to high blood pressure. The needle just keeps trying to bust out the side, or catch the weave.
First, the idea is to take the line coming off the spool between thumb and forefinger and roll it back and forth, massaging it sweetly, softly... (while the other hand raises a glass momentarily, which is another factor beneficial to happy and relaxed process). The line will soften up quite well and lose its edge and starchy feel. It will then be much easier (relatively) to splice.
A mate of mine also found accidentally, that if he applied a VERY subtle VERY light tension to the braid coming off the spool to the needle, progress is helped. This is very hard to explain but if you experiment long enough, you WILL
(some of you won't ) get it and then it'll make sense.
Swordfish Steve also gave me the advice to be flexible with needle size - sometimes, narrowing the mono down more so it'll go into the next needle size down makes things far easier.
Of course, as mentioned in other posts the Tasline seems to have 'tight spots in its weave' where you will definitely have to slow down and focus again, even if you're as good as me. It's just that with practice these bits won't be the frustration they first appear to be, and then you'll suddenly be back to the easier stuff again. The tighter the weave, the more softening it might need. (But I'm only talking another ten seconds or so here, +/-, maybe twenty???)
Having sort of worked it out, I can now get a thoroughly excessive two metre splice in about ten minutes flat (meaning fifteen) on average (not including whips etc). I do slow down after a couple of joins pretty much soley because of the meagre whiskey-based lubrication involved. But I am struggling to find a suitable replacement for that so let's move on....
The mate I mentioned earlier was really suffering when I arrived to give him a hand. I found him half hidden under a mountain of broken dreams and kilometers of Tasline. To say he couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel was about right. We sat there (me at a self-deludingly safe distance from him and his stack of abused and lethal splicing needles) and we had a massive session on loops and splices - until he ran out of whiskey and mussels I assume...
(Later) the next day I was messaged by him thanking me and explaining that the line softening trick in particular had made a HUGE difference to his progress and that he was now churning out leader splices like a crazy man.
I persevered with tasline mainly because I am a parochial *******. But I'm evidently also masochistic and stubborn too which helps even more.
I also reckon its worth persevering with because I think it's sh3thot line.
If you got this far through my post, you're a deserving machine - Tasline won't be a prob.
Good luck. And don't forget my crew spot (ok - "pleeease").
HAAAANNNG ON! I fergot something. But I kind of assumed everyone knows not to start a splice by trying to stick a needle up the very end of the braid, right? Always start somewhere up a bit, and go in from the side. I read something by someone who actually KNEW what he was doing, that if you leave enough tag end you can use that to do the whip finish. (I tried, and no great surprise, it works well).
Carry on.