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Was lucky enough to get a week from work, and spent the time enjoying the sunshine and fishing at Noosa. This week was going to be the start of my spanish mac season. First weekend was very slow with no bird action and little other action. Had a couple of mates up and fished for two days for one good strike on a livie.
Fished the Tuesday with my Camille on Sunshine. First strike was very strange with small bursts of drag with no hook-up? Then the bait was gone and no weight on the rod tip, and the other starts doing the same. I quickly realise what's happening and grap the second rod and free spool. Counted to five and set the hooks. Bang i'm on and my first black marlin launches from the water out the back. As quickly as it came it was gone. Dropped due to s*#thouse knots or broken braid? They are one awesome creature and the rush of watching them jump is un-describable. This became the theme for the week with over twenty good fish dropped or missed. Scored a good cobe in the last hour that morning.
Next morning we hit the same areas and as we trolled passed a bust-up, I managed to spin up my first spotty of the season. Dropped 2 other spotties and one suspected spanish. Following two mornings were solo, and i managed one spanish on the down-rigger each day. Good result with my first spanish of the season , but with the strike rates it was a very poor fishing on my behalf. Have now changed knots to see if this was the problem, but i have caught all my other fish with the same knots? Fishing was extremely good mid-late week, definately the best i have ever experienced up there. Couple of photo's to follow; trolling, more trolling, cobe, spotty, spanish 1 & 2.
Nice photos mate and it sounds like you found where the fish were.
The mackeral season off Noosa so far mate has been pretty much a dud but it seems to be picking up slightly with a few good spanish showing.There are some Massive Cobes being caught and a mate of mine got a 26kg last week and lost a bigger one boatside.He also got a 30kg Black on a floating pillie.... .....The Marlin season has been good.
my vote would be ur braid has degenerated?? what brand u using and how old is it? have u changed ur leader brand at all? check out the breaking strain of ur line on a set of spring scales and see if it pops under normal 1/3 breaking strain load. if so, dodgy braid, also note the area of the bustoff?
hope that helps,
cheers
Looks you had good time out there...
Sorry about Black & others you lose...I'm not expert over braid knots and hope others can help you out...
There's always next time...
Pistol P - I got a couple of hits from cobes while trolling as the baits would come back mouthed rather than sliced in half. Great fishing all the same.
Land-lubber - I was using three different types of braid on three different rods. Two of which the braid is less than a year old. I have set my drags with scales, have new live fibres, but checked all the guides anyway. I think two of them may have got some overspray with some INOX? This may be my problem as the knots are the same as I have always used, but that still doesn't explain the third rod? I have caught wahoo and mahi mahi with the same knots, so I'm a little confused?
Gazza.Boyne - I was trolling dead baits the whole time, but one combination was working well above the rest. PM me for details.
Oddbudman - The weather was not kind on Saturday and we were the only boat out there. But did get more than half a dozen hits and the knot gave or braid snapped on probably the biggest mac i've hooked to date! He was tearing line off the 24kg outfit like it was 4kg! No happy jan!!!!
hmm, interesting, sometimes ive just found my braid degenerates from just sittn in the sun and having salt on it, stripping a few meters of the working end sometimes fixed the problem. I go through 3 spools of fireline /year at least, just from sun and salt affecting the leading edge (my reels see a lot of sun, storing in the car is NOT a good option, but 1 im resigned to atm )
cheers
try using mono for the pelagics mate as it has a lot more stretch than braid. i found over the years with pelagics and braid that i lost to many good fish - as the braid doesnt stretch, and therefore, a lot of hooks get pulled... i have had way more success with mono off noosa.. i only ever fish mono for pelagics at home.. the braid is good out wide when jigging up ambos or bottom bashing for reefies in deep water with strong currents..
Can't thank you enough for the supply of dead baits not_drowin'. They have become the secret weapon!!!! Try to get as many more as you can as i have already used half of them and the season has only just begun.
Seapup, i have used mono every other season and had an average of dropping one out of four fish. Changed to braid during winter for bottom bashing and this trip I dropped 4 out of five fish!!!! Have changed rods to lighter rods and the lever drags were set lighter. I also think the braid may have got some over-spray of oil (WD-40) which may have had an adverse affect? If it continues to happen, I will keep everyone posted as to how it goes. Can't continue to drop that many!