brissie and surrounds

[LIVE_2_FiSH]

well, after the old mans success last week landing a nice big thready decided to go out again this morning in hope of a repeat. obviously, it never happens so it didnt happen to us. hit the same spot for one dirty great big catty, with about a litre of mucus poured over it. yuck!

after a while, and no action, we decided to head out to the tripod beacons for our first serious fish there. Well, after about an hour fishing there we had been hooked up 5 times, and wait for it...DIDNT LAND ONE!
We got one quite close to the boat, about 10 metres or so, but to our frustation the hooks pulled. Now i have no doubt in my mind these were mackeral, mainly because of the fact that we were cut off so many times and the fish tended to stay towards the top of the water column, but correct me if im wrong?

now i ask...HOW CAN YOU ACTUALLY LAND ON OF THESE THINGS?
it is the most frustrating thing ever, some of them were running halfway accros the channel before...PING...GONE...devastated

instead of having a feed of five nice mackerel, we came home empty handed :(
next time ey

any help would be great :)

LIVE_2_FiSH

[chief]

Hey mate, I think we can all have a session like that on mackeral.Bad luck you didn't score any but i've done that before. if you were fishing baits,ganged hooks are more mac friendly and if useing lures a faster retrieve reel can help with a better hook up success and less bite offs. I always let macs take a bit of line by backing off the drag a bit , i've seen to many loose fish by ripping their mouths by putting the brakes on instead of letting the fish run.Next time mate

[wags on the water]

I agree with Chief on backing your drag off a little. In the event of getting down to the backing on your reel,you should by now have upped anchor and in pursuit.
For spotties I usually fish a 60lb leader as this will last about 4 fish before changing. I've tried 20lb but seem to lose more than I put on ice. Also check your drag washers to see if hey need cleaning or replacing.