Analyzing Fishing Techniques

[eotbmg]

Hey Drew
Bad luck mate. Are you 100% sure that was a snapper???
As you know your good ol Unka and i have done ok on the knobs occasionally, we dont fish for them with anything under 30lb main line braid, generally jig man or something similar, as we find the smallest diameter braid we can put on the reel, results in more line capacity. Realistically there is not enough difference in line diameter between your 16 pound platypus and my 30 or 40 pound jig man to fish light. This therefore allows you to fish your reel at a higher drag setting with CONFIDENCE. No shifting drag nobs etc, set it right and leave it. Also we fish 40 pound leader, this will put off smaller fish but will allow you to land bigger fish like the one you hooked. The cobes we recently got were all on our snapper gear, 30 main line 40 leader and landed cobes to 35 kilos. Fish heavier and you will have better chances at the ones that do get away!!!!
Ben

[Poodroo]

Hey Drew
Bad luck mate. Are you 100% sure that was a snapper???
As you know your good ol Unka and i have done ok on the knobs occasionally, we dont fish for them with anything under 30lb main line braid, generally jig man or something similar, as we find the smallest diameter braid we can put on the reel, results in more line capacity. Realistically there is not enough difference in line diameter between your 16 pound platypus and my 30 or 40 pound jig man to fish light. This therefore allows you to fish your reel at a higher drag setting with CONFIDENCE. No shifting drag nobs etc, set it right and leave it. Also we fish 40 pound leader, this will put off smaller fish but will allow you to land bigger fish like the one you hooked. The cobes we recently got were all on our snapper gear, 30 main line 40 leader and landed cobes to 35 kilos. Fish heavier and you will have better chances at the ones that do get away!!!!
Ben

To answer your question Ben I can't be 100% sure it was a snapper but it did fight like one only alot bigger than what I am used to in the bay. I would consider using a heavier pound leader except that in the bay in shallower depths unlike in the 60+ metres of depth my uncle fishes they seem to be more shy unless you target them with light leader. I am well set up I feel for anything up to 80-90cms but still believe this was larger. It made for interesting footage anyhow.

Poodroo

[ffejsmada]

Personally, there's no way I would fish 12lb leader with 16lb braid main line.
Especially fishing for snapper.

There's your weak link!

Ok you might get some smaller fish no problem, but that big one...............gone.

With 16lb braid, I'd be fishing 20lb leader minimum.

You don't know what you're gonna tangle with, big Cobes, big snaps, big anything...............you don't want to create a weak link by using 12lb leader.

I fish 12lb leader with 4lb braid here in the river! There's no way I'd do it when there's a chance of landing a 6kg Snapper.

Cheers, Jeff

[Noiseworks]

Hey Poodroo, let your daughter know that my family and I say congratulations on the video job she did. For a young girl working a camera in a bit of swell she did well.

Noiseworks

[Why-ting]

Big snapps have teeth for crunching shells and bone ect. I have lost plenty of big snapps on 4-16lb line with 6-20lb leader after lengthy fights just from abrasion just above the jighead. Their ruggered mouths make short work on light leaders.

Some people may disagree but during a fight where a fish is steeling line like that, i would not be loosening the drag at all. I would either be wanting to up and chase or be putting some more hurt on it. But as stated above if the fish takes the jig head deep in the mouth not much is going to help you. More hurt and he wears though the line quicker. Less drag and you run the risk he gets you into structure. Catch 22 situation.

It looks and sounds to me that the teeth of this snap were more abbrasive risistant than your leader.

Cheers Whytey

[straddie]

Heya Poodroo

If this is a once off I wouldn't bother about it, could have been it inhaled the lure and one of its teeth nicely positioned itself over the line and it bit down a few times and simply pinched the line.

For Slymans scenario to be true the fish would have stopped taking line, then taken off again and broken almost immediately, if you remember? I can't tell from the video.

Some constructive critism seeing as you asked for it.
Maybe its just the camera angle but you look like you high stick alot, a good habit to get out of when you can. Drags really need to be set and left alone. "Started to panic ... and loosened the drag? or maybe went the otherway? Just my opinion but I don't think a 2 to 5kg rod is a good set up for 80 to 90cm snaps.

[straddie]

A big yes to what Why-ting is saying about chasing as well and putting more hurt on the fish.

[dogsbody]

Hey Poo I'd say that the diameter of your leader is to thin for the jighead and it's to much pressure for it. Try to get a thicker diameter in the same lb rating to help spread the load over a larger surface area. It may make a difference, otherwise you'll have to go to a heavier leader.


Dave.

[Poodroo]

Hey Poodroo, let your daughter know that my family and I say congratulations on the video job she did. For a young girl working a camera in a bit of swell she did well.

Noiseworks

Thanks Noiseworks. I will pass that onto her. She was a bit seasick as well which makes it even more remarkable I think. She got over it once the wind died down and the seas settled.

Poodroo

[webby]

Must be something wrong, with all these ????? big fish you lost of late ?????

[Poodroo]

Must be something wrong, with all these ????? big fish you lost of late ?????

I am getting frustrated let me tell you Webby but I am thinking that the leader is not up to the task. I may do as suggested and go to 20 lb leader to see what happens but I have also figured out a modified loop knot which allows the leader to go through the eye of the jighead twice which should give me twice the strength at the point of where it is breaking all the time. Will test it out next week and hopefully have something to post up.

Regards,

Poodroo

[Horse]

Bad luck on getting done over by the brute. You can't win them all and its often the one that got away that makes you keeener and look at improving your overall approach.

I have little doubt that the problem lies with the 12lb leader. It has little leeway and a small amount of wear or abrasion will result in a lost fish. That is the big question on the shallow reefs - light leader and more strikes or beefed up gear and less overall results. Its your choice but I still often use 10lb.

I do not like using loop knots on jig heads. I have watched jerkbaits in the pool and I think the action is more lifelike with the knot tied tight. With a HB the loop knot comes into its own and is worth the low knot strength compared to knots loike the Centauri or Uni. Undoubtedly your knot did not fail but may have contributed to the line wearing through by allowing a lot of movement around the hook eye area.

When using light rods and braid I keep my rod tip lower. We are often asking a lot of these rods and keeping the line of attack lower puts a lot less stress on the blank.

You are always going to lose a few fish to rub offs and abraision. In this case without chasing the fish down I think you were always going to be lucky to land it on 12lb leader. Better luck next time.

[the gecko]

I also think choice of knot is the problem. That photo of the cut leader says it all IMHO. A perfection loop is fine for HBs where you want to give it more play and run freely, but Ive never heard a loop recommended for jigheads. Just out of curiosity, where did you get the idea of tying a loop for SPs? I use locked half blood knot for all jigheads.

Id say the fish got some slack and turned its head, then turned again it another direction, creating a whiplike effect on the leader. At 200m away, you hadnt yet noticed the slight slack in the line. The whole strain is then taken on the loop knot, rather than the leader to main knot. Metal cuts thru 12 lb leader easily under acceleration.

Yes stick is a little high, but not the cause of the problem. A bit more hurt on the fish might have been a help. I used a scale to test drag settings for a few months, now I know them by feel. If you knew your drag was 1/3 of the line weight, youd be confident enough to give the fish a little curry.

12lb is too light. You gambled and lost with 12lb, Id agree with 20lb as a good choice.

Still, dont overanalyze it mate, get out there again and get revenge. Thats the best cure.

cheers
Andrew

[CreelReaper]

Hey Poodroo,
Bad luck mate, I feel for you. Just a few thoughts and my 2 cents worth. There has been some great advice given above. We at work used to test lines for IGFA and ANSA certification occasionally and we also used to check lines vs knot type. It was interesting to note the performance of a line with different knots. We also noticed that the tolerences of knot strength depended on how elastic the line was. Low stretch generally gave just at or below rated capacity. Very rarely did we get close to 90% on any braid. It was also clearly evident that on some lines extra wraps could drastically reduce performance. Also, for mine, it is simple mechanics that if the spool diameter is reduced by 1/3 then the drag performance could also effected by up to that. We also used to do a bit of playing around with our own reels and found that in some reels the drag was affected by up to around 50%. That would mean that at full spool a setting of 3 - 4lb on 12lb would change to 6 to 8lb drag at half spool. I would definately be lowering the rod to reduce trension and adjusting the drag to suit, but maybe also looking at different leader lines with a little more stretch. I could go into the engineering principles of line radius and bending capacities but it would take too long. I hope this helps.

Cheers

Shane

[BtotheM]

Yer in a Modern Fishing Magazine i read, when snapper on plastics really took off (bout 2-3 years old).

It said NEVER use a loop, snapper have too powerful jaws and can bust them (like in ur case). So i never use one when fishing for snapper on sp's