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A mate and myself fished Mud on Staurday morning. Got out there at about 4:30. Not a lot happening bite wise and having a terrible time with a poorly tied knot that I persisted with that resulted in casting tangles and eventually my soft plastic flying off into the distance. Whilst I re-rigged, I dropped my spare rod over the side with a 5" Old Bay soft plastic attached to the end to drag along the bottom. I was not expecting much when my mate points out I am getting hits. I said I thought it was just the bottom and then it took off big time. My mate got his line in and we chased after it. I was very nervous as this reel, through a fault in the roller design and the reason I do not use it any more, had some quite frayed 4lb firleine on it. Thankfully the drag still works well and did its job. After a while we get a sighter and what a sight! A couple of attempts with the net and we have a 71cm, 4kg snapper on board. Great fun to get this fish on 4lb line, 8lb vanish leader and a 1-3kg rod. Some nervous moments before it was in the boat though. Continued to fish the rest of the morning and up to about 7 (we noticed the about same bit period that Aquarius has in his report) my mate got a couple of good suire (40 and 46) and a good sweetlip (38). I lost another decent squire or sweetlip as well. After that we looked around the island a bit. Saw the car park on the eastern side. Some interesting looking ground over there. Managed to pull in a heap of undersize grassies over near there. Except for the snapper, I think all fish were caught on berkleys in the 3 and 4" in either pumpkin seed or watermelon.
Congratulations Mate you have to be happy with a quality fish like that.
Gets the adrenaline going thats for sure.
You did well to land it on 4 lb string.
Cheers Brent
The knot I was having trouble with was an albright knot that I thought I would try for something different. Tied it the night before. Seemed a bit bulky but I thought it would be OK. First couple of casts it was apparent I had done something wrong as it was knocking through the guides. This resulted in a bit of a tangle every third or fourth cast. Was willing to persist until the light got a bit better to re-rig. Well it was a bit of a lesson in how knocking through the guides can weaken a knot when my leader broke off during a cast. My spare reel (the one I caught the fish on) had a double unit knot tied to the leader, which is my usual knot and which I am very comfortable using (definitely not saying it is better than albright, just that I tie it better). I was extremely lucky that a decent fish hooked up on the line with a good knot rather than the line I was fishing at the start of the day. Will definitely be replacing dodgy knots immediately in the future. The light line thing is interesting. Have definitely lost heaps more snapper/squire to frayed leader (from the mouth I assume) than from broken main lines or main line/leader knots. If they engulf the plastic and their teetth get on the line you will get done unless you are fishing quite heavy. The only way to avoid this with light line is if you are lucky enough to hook the fish in the corner of the mouth (like the fish above was thankfully). In this case around open country like wide of mud and with a decent drag, you can take your time with the fish and you should have a good chance. On a reef or close to rocks obviously your chances would be slim to none with 4lb line. Great fun if you can get away with it and definitley helps (in my opinion) with increased bites.
you can make the knots move more smoothly through the guides by using supa glue,
put a large dollop of glue on the knot, spit on you fingers (very important) then roll the knot through your fingers, tapering it at both ends. this creates a bullet like shape to the knot at both ends & helps it through the guides without catching...
Congratulations on such a great capture on light line. Would have certainly got the adrenaline flowing.
We also fished at Mud on Saturday with plastics mainly on the south western side. We managed to catch a feed of squire but nothing like the quality fish that you pulled in.
Mate thats an awsome fish good work.My favorite knot for braid to leader is the five turn surgeons knot.The trick with this knot is to make sure it is tight ie make sure you pull both braid against braid and mono against mono.It is very easy to tie,not bulky,and it hasnt failed me yet when it is tied properly.
cheers leigh
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