big loss at fort ross

The short version, fishing was slow going. I was out on the water at 7 a.m. with no wind , fog and a little chilly. Ended the day with a few reds and vermilion and two lings one legal (released). trying different lures to try to improve the bite I put on a chrome tady. first drop wham! I am on. when I start to bring the fish up it stops!! and decide that it wanted a lot of line and the ride begins. then I feel it rub my line against something  but change direction on the rod and we are still on. it took about fifteen minutes with 20 pound spectra to see color. It was the biggest lingzilla I have ever seen, at least 30 lbs . it took one look at me and took another run, this time my 20lb leader didn't hold and all I got was story.    I watched 100 dollars swim away. oh well  I am sure she was full of million eggs. Steve

DOHHHHH!  

That hurts man... really hurts!  At least you had some excitement for the day.

.

it took one look at me and took another run, this time my 20lb leader didn't hold and all I got was story.  I watched 100 dollars swim away. oh well I am sure she was full of million eggs. Steve

Steve...next time it looks at you....DON'T look back  

I'm sure you'll get another chance buddy!

Bummer, I hate it when that happens. But that is part of the excitement of fishing  Better luck next time.

jason

That's the best news I've heard all week. (Oh, sorry did I write that out loud.)

Steve, I like to think of every fish I miss as a bit of positive fishing karma.  A fish like that has got to worth a quite a bit of postive karma.

For everyone else, remember fish don't ever bite twice so don't bother looking for that fish at Fort Ross  

Brian

Tough one Steve!  

One thing I started doing this year with the big irons is to use a single siwash hook decorated with a small 3" B2 mini squid in glow in the dark color.  I have found the larger lures to be more appealing to the lings, but I don't necessarily like the slowdown in catching other rockfish.  I think the rockfish still key in on the mini squid dressing as I've managed to still keep my hookup rate pretty good with this addition.  I've even caught some greenlings on this rig, which I've never done before with the straight iron. It's probably similar to tipping the hook with real squid, but this way I don't have to mess with bait.

-Allen

why only 20lb leader?

chef!

40lb for sure on rockfish!

Of course no matter what you do, you'll lose a few.

But 20lb leader...  that is finesse fishing, no?

Chef,

"Its better to have fished and lost, then never to have fished at all!!"

PS, you trying to win some big money this year?  You already have a lock on the Big Butt.  

Stuart

why only 20lb leader?

 I also use 20 leader material even when I know 30 or 40# is better against abrasion Resistance... ONLY because it's a bitch to break free from a hopeless snag.  The last time I tried to break away using 30# leader material with my 20# spectra main line, I nearly flipped the kayak, and when it finally broke off, I lost nearly 80 feet of pricey spectra.

Stu sometimes uses heavier mono leaders for better abrasion Resistance but will join it to his spectra line with a small section of 15 or 20# mono to purposely break when need.

I use 50lb leaders and never have a problem, even with 35lb spectra mainline.  The strech is so low that it's easy to break and there's always a nick somewhere near the end to obligingly break.  Now breaking 30lb mono in 100', that's another story...

chef's 20lb leader was probably down to 8lb (or something) from the abrasion. The degredation is what got him I suspect.

one could use a weaker snap or swivel as a break point. This would not
degrade due to abrasion, at least not how mono does.

I have a pile of 25lb snaps that I have been using. Also 20lb swivels.

regarding intentionally breaking off:

I'm glad somebody here told me the trick of wrapping the line onto the gaff handle, cause one of my reels plain old will not button all the way down. One night I thought I'd be stuck out there till morning...   ,
then I remembered the gaff hint. whew.

I have also found that breaking mono off is more exciting, you have to wrap more mono on each time the wave lowers you, and hope the rise
breaks it. But if I don't panic, I eventually break it off.

I'm glad somebody here told me the trick of wrapping the line onto the gaff handle

I wrap my line on the butt of my rod and slowly "reel in" the snagged line by twisting- turning the rod until the line breaks. I've gotten some lures un-snagged by doing this as well.

one could use a weaker snap or swivel as a break point. This would not degrade due to abrasion, at least not how mono does.

 I thought about trying this too.  I guess I should run a few test to see if it works.

I just use 12lb test

Itll break easy...

I wrap my line on the butt of my rod and slowly "reel in" the snagged line by twisting- turning the rod until the line breaks.

 I like this idea too, but if I did this with spectra, my foam grip would be thrashed.