How dark is it down there? - Flurocarbon and lumo beads?

[Tony_N]

I've just been making up some paternoster rigs for bottom bashing. complicated and time consuming little suckers with lots of swivels to get around tying dropper knots that I have lost faith in. I've been using 4'' droppers of 30lb flurocarbon with a lumo bead from 50 lb shock leader material.

Most of my fishing is in 15 to 32 fathoms of water and I'm beginning to wonder whether one or other of the flurocarbon or the lumo beads are unnecessary????

If its really dark down there then I believe the lumo bead might provide a little visual attraction to the fish. However, if it is dark down there then there seems little point in using (expensive) line whose purpose is based on its low refractive index of light - ie its "invisibility"in light .

Conversely, if it is light enough for the flurocarbon to be a useful tool then its likely that I'm wasting my time with the lumo beads.

So my question again, is how dark is it down there?

I'm hoping the answer isn't that I should stop wasting my money on gimmicks, spend my thinking time more productively and get a life

Tony

[dayoo]

Tony,
I have been using lumo beads just above the hooks on both paternoster and snooded rigs for the past 12 months with great success.
Did a trip to deep tempest yesterday with two others, I caught 3 snapper to 4.5 kilos and the other two caught zilch, I was using lumo beads and they were not.

Make sure you use the proper light creamy green ones and light them up with a pocket torch before you drop your line.

I know they are very effective with pearlies and threadfin salmon.

Cheers
Barry

[mbt]

There used to be a product called “glow bait” don’t know if its still available but it worked at times as well, was a liquid couple of drops on the bait and it became luminous..

[finding_time]

giday tony

Mate light penetrates much further than you think! But in saying that you sure do notice glow beads under water and the fish really do seems attracted to them. I was diving a wreck one and no sooner had located the wreck from the anchor( 40 meters away) than i noticed a bright speck in it's rigging i started to swim over to it and half way there it was apparent that a large proportion of the fish on the wreck were attracted to the beed and were hanginging around it. ever since i've been a fan of glow beeds ,They do work!!

As far as light penetration goes, it can be quite light at a 100m during the middle of the day, when the sun is overhead and speaking to people that have done 200m dives the light doesn't seem to run out until about the 180m mark in the warmer waters. Thermoclines have a big effect on light penetration and in cooler climates ligh starts to fade at about 70m


I know lots of people have seen this shot but it illistrates the light well the photo is taken on the wreck of the jennifer Kay and she lies in 85m or 263.5 feet of water. We had about 60 meters visability on this day! Awesome!

Ian

[Tony_N]

Thanks for the replies fellas

Yeah Barry, I've been using the beads for about 4 years and I'm totally convinced they catch at very least, the fishes attention.

Great pic Ian. I hadn't seen it before. If beads are attracting fish in that sort of light, I'll keep using both the flurocarbon droppers and the beads. I'm guessing that fishes eyes are similar enough to ours for them to be able to see more shiny (more light refraction) line in the water. In fact if I could afford it I'd probably make the total rig out of flurocarbon. Actually it probably wouldnt be any more expensive than a bought sinker. I (begrudgingly) paid $1.70 each for some 6oz snapper leads the other day!!!

cheers

Tony

[honda900]

Tony_N

Mate I was not convinced about the fluro stuff until, one morning up early for a trip 3:00am, turned off the lights in the garage (was overcast and pitch black), out through roller door, I see something glowing at my feet, curiousty got the better of me, picked it up, turned the lights back on to find it was a flake of paint off my 200mm knife jig.

The trip that day was out of the gold coast seaway, out to a kingie spot, about 100 meters of water, got 2 kingies and a bonito on the jig. no smell, no light, got to be the lumo..

Regards
Honda

[snelly1971]

I always use flro beads ...especially the green ones....seem to be great on the deeper water fish...I even go to the extreme of cliping a glow stick to my sinker clip when fishing beyond 50 fathom...

[onerabbit]

Hi Tony,

forgive me, by flurocarbon, do you mean stuff like Jinkai?? I tried it for traces, I found the 70-80lb mono was just as good, if not better.

As for the glow beads,
sounds like you have already found them,
I also prefer the big green ones, (3/4 of an inch, about $4.50 for 6). Although the smaller pale ones work well too.

Have thought about the glow sticks Snelly, not put into practice yet.

Muzz

[snelly1971]

Hi Muzz...I only tried it because a commercial tuna fisherman friend of mine told me that they used them extensively up your way with great results....

cheers Mick

[2DKnBJ]

If the beads work well offshore in deeper water it would be interesting to see how they would go in the bay at night.
Just might give it a shot on the next trip out.

Cheers Dazza

[snelly1971]

That would be a wise move Dazza...Definatly worth trying at night....I will all but guarantee an improvement in your catch.....( I Hope) LOL....Cheers Mick

[blaze]

About a dozen of us lined up fishing a gutter one night from the beach, only one fisherman caught fish. He got two gummies, only difference beteen him and us was he was using glow beads, water was only about 3m deep
cheers
blaze
ps
I still rarely use them though

[snelly1971]

Too tight to buy some Blaze..???....haha...I just purchased 500...We make our own rigs up...mine look like a bloody pearl necklace....beads and more beads...but they do work...

Cheers Mick

[kingtin]

The number of times I've caught taylor on them at the pin, whilst reeling in when pickers had taken the bait, convinced me to use them more often.

I've even caught spotties on them when the rod has been hanging over the side of the tinny whilst I was getting bait out of the esky

I've had 4 knife jigs sitting on the table in the garage for a year now. I use 'em to direct me to the fridge without turning the garage light on

And last, but not least. I was the only one in the boat with glow beads on my paternoster tackle. I caught consistently in 100 ft of water whilst the deckies and kids, without glow beads, hardly had a touch.

kev

[Tony_N]

Hi Tony,

forgive me, by flurocarbon, do you mean stuff like Jinkai?? I tried it for traces, I found the 70-80lb mono was just as good, if not better.

Muzz

Hey Muzz

No mate not the Jinkai which is just an abrasion resistant leader material. i tried it for a while but found it was very shabby in the knot strength department. Nice and soft to tie but.

Not sure of the science, but flurocarbon leader is apparently designed to be as near as invisible in the water as possible. So, its supposed to not spook the fish as much. The structure of the line is such that it diffuses any light that hits it so that there is no sparkly shine that you get from other lines. I saw an article on it in a mag a few years ago. Most of the competition river fishos use it I think. You don't hear about people using it outside much though. (It does get to be fairly exy when the diameter increases - about a buck a metre at 50lb.)

About the beads - i use the 10mm pale green ones from Sure Catch (chinese). Got my last lot at BFC (?) in Townsville. Where do you find the whoppas you use?

cheers

Tony