A FEW WORDS OF WISDOM

[Paulanderson]

I hope members will accept this post in the spirit it is intended. When we go game fishing we often spend very large amounts of money - boats, motors, electronics, fuel, accommodation, travel costs, etc etc. Every so often we hook up that "fish of a lifetime" and while sometimes fate is against us and the fish gets away, often the reason is within our control. As an example of the former I spent 4 hours hooked up to a big Blue Marlin on 24 kg game tackle (Penn Inter etc), was nearly spooled three times, and when we finally had the fish close to the boat an Albatross flew into the line! As an example of the latter we had a member of our club who had a history of losing good fish - discussing this one day we found out that rather than using good quality snap swivels such as Sampo he was using heavy brass swivels and they were failing - so just for the sake of a few dollars he was losing fish. If you are after big fish you need good quality tackle with no shortcuts. Another common issue is not pre-setting drags (there are plenty of articles on the internet about this) - the commonly accepted drag setting is one third of the breaking strain of the line with the rod in a rod holder and that is where your pre-set should be. If you are almost spooled you may need to increase the drag to stop the fish in any event but do not overdo it - and when you get some line back on return to the preset. Cranking up the drag when the fish is close to the boat is taking risks - on mono if the fish is very close there is no or little elasticity in the line. Another tactic if a fish is running strongly away is to simply lower the rod and point towards the fish so there is less friction on the rollers and when it slows (and most fish regardless of size do) you can lift the rod and keep the pressure on. When a fish takes a lot of line the water also causes drag, particularly if there is a big loop between you and the fish. Finally in game fishing patience is a virtue!

[Nude up]

Words of wisdom indeed when chasing game fish everything has to be spot on you never know when that fish of a lifetime is coming your way.

[ChrisAbout]

Learned that the wrong way myself, however would one agree that knot quality is just as important as tackle quality?

[Paulanderson]

I totally agree - knots, crimps, hooks, swivels - they are all points of weakness.

[davek]

Good info there Paul, definitely words of wisdom, cheers davo