The folks over at Seaguar are highly regarded throughout the industry. The company invented fluorocarbon fishing line 4 decades ago and continues to push its research and development into new waters and line classes. Last year the company introduced Tatsu – a world-class fluorocarbon line – and this year made aggressive moves into the monofilament and braid categories.

Seaguar's new mono is named Senshi, which means "warrior" in Japanese. We here at BassFan say the name's appropriate. We tested the 10-pound (which is clear) and fished the Deep South in August. That's about the toughest imaginable conditions, but we countered that by starting late in the day and then fishing for spots at night (it was still brutally hot).

Before the sun goes down, the spots are typically deep and buried in brushpiles. That's where we started and Senshi has such a thin diameter (.010" for 10-pound), we quickly reached bottom with a 1/4-ounce shakey-head in 35 feet of water.

Immediately, we were impressed with the line's sensitivity and how we were able to feel every branch in such deep water – a trait usually reserved for fluorocarbons and braids.

Our biggest question, of course, was whether we'd be able to set the hook that deep with a mono. You have to be fast on the set and the line must react instantly when you're targeting spots, or it's game over. It didn't take long for our answer. Senshi does have more stretch than fluoro, but less than other monos of similar diameter. Several times we set the hook and could feel the spot fighting through the brush. Even though the line rubbed limbs we witnessed almost no line fray. Hence the name "Warrior."

Senshi was also very supple with low memory and excellent castability. One nice surprise: Once the sun went down and the moon came out, the line exhibited a bluish hue above the water, which made it fairly easy to see in the dark. A definite plus for us night anglers.

The next morning (yep, we pulled an all-nighter), we decided to run up one of the rivers and test out Kanzen as we hunted largemouths in blowdowns. Kanzen's a soft and thin-diameter braid made of advanced microfibers in ultra-thin strands in high-density weaves. The biggest benefit of the technology that we discovered was sound. The line flows nicely and quietly through the guides and made casting a breeze.

Although we weren't successful in out quest for largemouths in the blowdowns, we're confident that Kanzen would have horsed any bighead out of the branches.

Notable

> A 200-yard spool of Senshi retails for $9 to $16, depending on test strength (4- to 20-pound).

> A 150-yard spool of Kanzen retails for $17 to $44 and test strengths range from 8- to 80-pound.