Analyzing Fishing Techniques

[Poodroo]

I couldn't agree with you more Poodroo, after work last night and inspired to get one of those monsters I headed out to Redcliffe for a solo fish for Tailor (while there still around) and Snapper. Hit the water at 3.30am and fished through til 2pm for 7 fish (3 tailor, 2 pike, 1 squire and an ugly red thing) and had a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of half the spool in one run of an unstoppable before I muffled it up on the second and lost him!! although not forecast for a great day it glassed out at about 9 through 2pm!! great day and with turtles, jumping bait, sight casting to tailor and visibility to 4m I couldn't think of a better place to be.

And I had my fix of adrenaline from hearing all those zzz's, now to sort out my game plan to get him in the boat

Good stuff Marc. It gets the adrenaline pumping that's for sure. Love hearing the reel scream. Good to hear you are getting out yourself.

Poodroo

[finding_time]

Poodroo


Mate have just watched the vid and read everyones comments and i think i've come up with the reason you lost what i to would have called a snapper!


Your a crap fisherman!! Whoops bloody touretts What i ment to say was , thats fishing ! At least it was only a bay snapper, imagine it was a little black marlin that you had been chasing for 2 days in terrible conditions, you have had time to clear your spread get well set and after 2 minutes it jumps off! If you had pinned this fish with a tag you would have been $7000.00 richer. Now that's a feeling that hurts! And that's fishing!

You'll drop plenty more before your through! It's what makes you try again

Ian

[Poodroo]

Poodroo


Mate have just watched the vid and read everyones comments and i think i've come up with the reason you lost what i to would have called a snapper!


Your a crap fisherman!! Whoops bloody touretts What i ment to say was , thats fishing ! At least it was only a bay snapper, imagine it was a little black marlin that you had been chasing for 2 days in terrible conditions, you have had time to clear your spread get well set and after 2 minutes it jumps off! If you had pinned this fish with a tag you would have been $7000.00 richer. Now that's a feeling that hurts! And that's fishing!

You'll drop plenty more before your through! It's what makes you try again

Ian

Ian you also forgot to mention that I am a fasionable fisherman. I should have removed the balaclava to at least look better for the camera but I guess if I didn't look stupid the daughter wouldn't have been filming in the first place because she thought I looked hilarious. Yeah I am not too cut up about losing the fish because as you say it wasn't a black marlin and this is just what happens when fishing. When your tourett's isn't too bad you might like to come out 4wd'ing again.

Poodroo

[destorman]

Bit bored this morning and came across this thread ...

Anyway, BigE I had a chuckle at your post, but more importantly you brought a very important point to my attention.

He had his daughter as Deckie!

Teaching the next generation and spending quality time with his daughter.

Well done. Congratulations !!!

I pose this for you ... if you had landed that fish, you would have felt great. Right?

What about how you would have felt if you daughter had landed it ... 100 times better? Proud?

Either way, you were out there spending quality time and teaching the next generation. For that I am sure the fishing gods will balance the books and give you a big one some time soon.

[tunaticer]

Andrew,
Have you checked the abrasion resistance and wear resistance of the particular leader you are using?

Perhaps it might be ok or perhaps it may be deteriorating slightly.

I would be stressing that particular leader for both abrasion against the hook eye and stressing it to pop off on a hook as well.

Some materials handle abrasion well but may not stand being kinked under tension as well as hoped. Similarly some materials will do fine with a loop knot and fail when clinched tight also.

Seems to me that your technique is fine enough to have mastered that particular fish, leads me to want to investigate the leader's characteristics more.

I had a problem up north last time with a FC leader I was using in 40lb, dropped down to 20lb Jinkai and did not have that problem again. Stepped back up to 40lb FC and started losing the hooks once more like you did.

Jack.

[Poodroo]

Andrew,
Have you checked the abrasion resistance and wear resistance of the particular leader you are using?

Perhaps it might be ok or perhaps it may be deteriorating slightly.

I would be stressing that particular leader for both abrasion against the hook eye and stressing it to pop off on a hook as well.

Some materials handle abrasion well but may not stand being kinked under tension as well as hoped. Similarly some materials will do fine with a loop knot and fail when clinched tight also.

Seems to me that your technique is fine enough to have mastered that particular fish, leads me to want to investigate the leader's characteristics more.

I had a problem up north last time with a FC leader I was using in 40lb, dropped down to 20lb Jinkai and did not have that problem again. Stepped back up to 40lb FC and started losing the hooks once more like you did.

Jack.

Hello Jack. The leader I used on the day was FC Rock 12lb leader which came highly recommended. I have to admit that as far as flurocarbon leader is concerned I have found it to be one of the top leaders for abrasion resistence. Bottom line on the day was I latched onto a horse of a fish that totally outclassed me because I was fishing too light and also was using a loop knot that failed under the strain at the point where it goes through the eyelet of the jighead. I have since worked out a new improved knot and stepped up to a 15lb leader. All I need now is another monster from the deep to test it out for me. I reckon I am on a winner with the way I have set up now but all the BIG fish seemed to have vacated the bay at the moment. I have considered Jinkai leader as well but have not heard too much about its invisibility to fish. Strength is good but stealth is even better.

Poodroo

[Flex]

Nice video, very well done by your daughter. As alot have said your leader is definitely to light. IMO you should never fish with lighter leader than main line. Change spools if you want to fish lighter. Theres not much difference in diameter between 20lb leader and 12lb IMO. and whether you get less fish or not on slightly heavier leader is debatable.

I'd go as far as to say you probably had a 10% chance of landing that fish, some fish are just to big for the gear you use. 90% of fishermen would have lost it too i rekon.

But one thing I generally do is put alot of pressure on a big running fish, in the first few mins then maybe back the drag off when he's at the boat and tired, but never at the start or your simply giving to much line away for free.
crank down your drag a bit while theres line on the spool. I noticed your drag was clicking a bit when you were lifting your rod to wind in. I'd say it was to loose.

You'd be surprised how much drag a good smooth 4000 reel can produce. tie your line to some scales and see how much force you can pull before it brakes to give you an idea for the future

But all in all, the fish was just to big IMO.

[Poodroo]

Nice video, very well done by your daughter. As alot have said your leader is definitely to light. IMO you should never fish with lighter leader than main line. Change spools if you want to fish lighter. Theres not much difference in diameter between 20lb leader and 12lb IMO. and whether you get less fish or not on slightly heavier leader is debatable.

I'd go as far as to say you probably had a 10% chance of landing that fish, some fish are just to big for the gear you use. 90% of fishermen would have lost it too i rekon.

But one thing I generally do is put alot of pressure on a big running fish, in the first few mins then maybe back the drag off when he's at the boat and tired, but never at the start or your simply giving to much line away for free.
crank down your drag a bit while theres line on the spool. I noticed your drag was clicking a bit when you were lifting your rod to wind in. I'd say it was to loose.

You'd be surprised how much drag a good smooth 4000 reel can produce. tie your line to some scales and see how much force you can pull before it brakes to give you an idea for the future

But all in all, the fish was just to big IMO.

Thanks. It is kind of reassuring to know that most of us would probably have lost that fish.
Yes you can hear the drag spooling off even when the fish wasn't going for a blinding run but that was more a case of sheer body weight rather than drag being too lose. Initially the drag was too tight but you heard how fast it still peeled line off the spool. I knew I was going to get busted off because the drag was too tight so you can see me backing a little bit of drag off so that it could run without snapping the line. After loosening the drag I still had it tight enough to pull in a good fish but this one was simply too big for the outfit as you say.
I know what it is like to pull in a 74cm snapper on that outfit and I know that my PB to date was not even close to being as big as this fish that got away simply by how it fought.
I had my entire reel serviced prior to that trip too and yes the Penn Applause 4000 reels have a very smooth drag. I am very happy with the performance.

Cheers,

Poodroo

[finga]

Your just jealous John.
At least Poo has a technique and you fish like me you old bugger.

Hook on line. Bung a sinker somewhere on the line then bung a dead prawn on hook.
Chuck the lot over board and then pour the coffee and break out the Sao's and vegemite and sit back and talk crap.
The only way we can improve our techniques is to take some fruitcake to have with the coffee as well as the Sao's and to remember to launch the boat.