Gardner Ultra Skin Coated Braids
Two new coated braids from Gardner which will cover you for most of your rig requirements
There can’t be a carp in the country that hasn’t fallen to a coated braid in one of its guises. The incredible versatility of this hooklink material has led to literally hundreds of competing products hitting the market, so how the hell do you go about choosing the right one? Well, you’d do worse than making a beeline for the Gardner stable, because they’ve been selling coated braids since they first hit the market!
As you’d expect, that heritage means that they’re still producing benchmark hooklink materials to this day. The Gardner development team, headed by big-carp man, Lewis Read, have released a couple of new coated braids recently, under the Ultra banner, and we love ’em!
The standard Ultra Skin is, in fact, anything but standard. The subtly coloured, matt coating is super-easy to strip, and the braid within is among the most supple that we’ve ever seen. We were geekishly excited about the matt coating, which won’t reflect light and spook fish at the crucial moment. Ultra Skin is available in three breaking strains: 15, 25 and 35lb, and in three muted colours: Brown, Green and Silt. We were immediately drawn to the 25lb version, but the thinner, 15lb option has already found favour with carp anglers and specimen hunters alike and the 35lb is man enough for the very biggest carp, in demanding waters.
If you’re a fan of the out-and-out combi link principle (stiff boom section, with a supple section by the hook), you’ll be interested in the newest addition to Gardner’s skinned hooklink range, Stiff Ultra Skin. The coating is stiffer than the standard Ultra Skin, which helps to ensure that your hookbait is kicked away from the lead system every cast, without sacrificing suppleness at the hook end, thanks to the supple inner core. Both materials are available on 20m spools.
“GIMME”: £14.99; gardnertackle.co.uk