Lots of fishing tackles were announced at Japan Fishing Show 2019 as I have already introduced you a the other articles.
And now, this is the braided line – SHIMANO OCEA 8 is the one for big monster game fishing.
For Big Monster Fish 1: Anti Heating
When you fight with big monster fish like kingfish, Tuna, Marlin.. Drag keeps running and lines are out further, then the reel gets heated. Heat can weaken braided lines, and then… off they go.
Now this new braided line SHIMANO OCEA 8 has a new technology named “Heatsink Coating” which is installed to #5 – 12 size, which is the resin cover of the braided lines to reduce 3/4 of heating and smoothen the surface of the lines.
So, even in the situation above, this line can be tougher and stronger than others.
For Big Monster Fish 2: Tough Cross 2
Tough Cross is the special knitting of the braided lines, used for Ocea EX8. This makes even of strength through whole parts of lines, so any parts of the line can have pretty similar strength.
And now this is advanced – Tough Cross 2, makes more stable strength in whole lines.
This is actually a big issue especially for the cheaper priced braided lines.
As you know braided lines has 4 /8 / 12 thin lines combined and knitted, but because of this system some parts can be stronger, and some can be weaker. So, for example, if you have 20lb braided line, and that has 18lb strength when you checked. Now you may think you can hold your drag power to 13lb or so, as FG knot has about 80% of strength.
But with cheaper lines, this is not really even, and could be much weaker than when you check, like it could be 14lb at some part in this situation. When you unfortunately make FG knot at this part, it can come down to 11lb, so with 13lb drag power, this FG knot can be gone off when you hook big fish.
This Tough Cross 2 protects your line from this issue.
For Big Monster Fish 3: Strongest Ever
If you compare the spec sheet to previous Ocea EX8, you will see what I mean.
Basically, you can get line strength of Ocea EX8 by 20 times of Gou number, like #1.0 has 20lb, #2.0 has 40lb. But this Ocea 8 has stronger power than EX8 at all size. At least 10% stronger than EX8, and see #8.0 – nearly 25% up!
This could mean you can use 1 size thinner line than you usually use, and that will give you more sensitivity and castability.
Here is the video the SHIMANO staff explains about this OCEA 8.
Specs and Release Date
This has some variety of lengths 300 / 400 / 500m with the size of #1.5 – #12.
Price is even more expensive than Ocea EX8, but stronger than that.
Release date is March 2019.
| Gou | Colour | Strength (lb / kg) | Length (m) | Price (yen) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1.5 | 5 coloured | 33 / 15.0 | 300 | 9,800 |
| #2 | 5 coloured | 45 / 20.4 | 300 / 400 / 500 | 9,800 / 12,700 / 15,800 |
| #3 | 5 coloured | 63 / 28.6 | 300 / 400 / 500 | 10,400 / 13,800 / 16,200 |
| #4 | 5 coloured | 76 / 34.5 | 300 / 400 | 10,400 / 13,800 |
| #5 | 5 coloured | 99 / 44.9 | 300 / 400 / 500 | 11,550 / 15,000 / 18,500 |
| #5 | SW Navy | 99 / 44.9 | 300 | 11,550 |
| #6 | 5 coloured | 113 / 51.3 | 300 / 400 / 500 | 11,550 / 15,000 / 18,500 |
| #6 | SW Navy | 113 / 51.3 | 300 | 11,550 |
| #8 | 5 coloured | 151 / 68.5 | 300 / 400 | 11,550 / 15,000 |
| #8 | SW Navy | 151 / 68.5 | 300 | 11,550 |
| #10 | 5 coloured | 152 / 68.9 | 500 | 20,800 |
| #12 | 5 coloured | 173 / 78.5 | 400 | 17,300 |
* Braided line capacity is based on Japanese size “Gou”. Please refer to Gou and Diameter table to see diameters of each Gou.
* All product information and images are basically from SHIMANO official website.
Hi, can you please inform me if the 2019 Ocea 8 is purely a jigging braid or is it now in its new guise useable as a casting line say for poppers or surface lures? And also do you have the dimensions of this line ? as it is impossible to know the length required for a specific spool?
Cheers Colin
Hi Colin, OCEA 8 is mainly for all game fishing types, so it is not only for jigging but for casting as well, like for surface lures.
The line dimension is shown as the number of PE (Gou), started by #, and this is the common Japanese number of thickness.
You can check the diameter of each PE numbers from our page Gou and Diameter table.