Big difference in fishing Cooktown to a place that gets hammered like Sydney, use big heavy hand lines with a lump of lead and a chunk of Squid here and you "might" get a Pike or Red Rock Cod.
Big difference in fishing Cooktown to a place that gets hammered like Sydney, use big heavy hand lines with a lump of lead and a chunk of Squid here and you "might" get a Pike or Red Rock Cod.
I'm the one who float baits on the lighter gear while the others are swapping to the overheads. I like it. Fishing up the Torres Straits, sight fishing for trout we would use 100lb handline and bike tube on the fingers, with one bloke on the lookout for the school of big GT's which would always show up. Hopefully you got your gear out of the water quick enough or it was a painful experience every time and you very rarely didn't get bricked. Deep water, tuna/game fishing is usually more scientific. Except when an out of season blue comes rampaging through the 24 k.g. gear then goes deeeep - my one and only day's game fishing in Vanuatu ended up that way. I thought I was a chance, skipper just laughed and told me exactly how the next hour of my life was going to go - he was of course correct.
nil carborundum illegitimi
Good question Chris,
For me, it depends on target species, target area.
River / beach fishing for Whiting it is light as possible, 6lb mono usually. Rods are the same, 10ft 3 wrap. Alvey reels.
Beach fishing for Tailor is a 6 wrap 14ft rod, 20lb mono and Alvey.
Reef....... this another kettle of fish... pun intended
Because I fish off shore in waters from 12mtrs to 100mtrs I take a variety of gear.
But I don't take too much. My rule of thumb is Mono to 50 mtrs and braid after that. Leader is another thing... usually 60lb, but will got to 100lb in the deep water.
Trolling, I use the same gear as bottom bashing.... 7ft rod , big ass Penn ........ ( shallow water bottom bashing )
Or... 6ft rod and overhead reel like a Diawa sealine, running mono.
It gets confusing sometimes, as when I am in 10 meters, I pull out the 6ft 3kg rod and 10lb fireline braid to " have some fun " on RTE's, Cod & Trout.
To answer the question, I go under-gunned...... give that fish a sporting chance. Fishing light always produces the best bites, but not the best results, gettin smoked is a bad feeling. Like " Phill " don't use your bait jigging rod with a livie on to catch Cobia "... it always ends in tears.
Over the years I have eliminated most rods / reels and have stuck to the tried and true. 4 x Penn spinfishers / live liners on 7ft Ugly sticks with mono and braid ranging from 20lb to 65 lb.
Overheads are Diawa Sealine star drags and Shimano Tyrnos... all married up to home made rods. ( I don't trust store bought rods for the heavy stuff ) running mono and braid from 55lb to 80lb.
What ever works, but again, I go in under-gunned on most occasions and can up the ante if required. I don't mind losing a fish every now and again.
Having said that, if I target Red Emperor... I go hard. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LP
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Have to laugh about using a bait jigging rod for cobia. About 5 year ago we caught slimmies on floaters, bottom bashers, plastics, just couldn't get away from them. Move 5 km ssme thing. Said to mate lets get some bait for next trip then, so we switched to my home made bait jigs. Small no 1 double strength hooks, 35 lb line, s bit of bling with a tiny lumo bead.
We caught tuskies, snapper, trags, grassies etc. We thought maybe it was just the right/wrong time. Went back to the other rigs and got more slimmies so it was back to bait jigs.
Started catching reefies again, even pulled in a cobia. Never seen it again, still astounded thst day with the outcome. Fishing is such an enigma.
I'm in agreeance with you that it really boils down to what you are fishing for - though I really just had in mind fishing shallow reefs with floating baits.
But taking your point - agree .
If I'm fishing for typical bread & butter fish (bream , whiting) bass , freshwater trout - it's typically going to be 4 / 6lb braid & play around with leader. Flathead 10lb , Jacks 20lb Jew / barra ( depending on location ) 20 or 30lb . this allows you to have some fun & test yourself . . & give you a great chance of landing the fish.
The other thing is that when you do a lot of catch & release fishing - you don't want a prolonged fight where the survival rate of the fish is affected back in my ANSA club days I fished a lot of 1 & 2 kg silly string these days I don't have the time or patience to be spending an hour landing a 3 or 4 kg king .
The photo of the king I put up earlier took me about 45 mins to land there was about 10 mins of fun in that time & the fish was pretty well spent when it hit the deck .
So I guess these days I fish for what I'm likely to encounter .. so if I'm going popping for GTs I'm going to be fishing Pe5 or 6 - Kings 30 & 50lb gear that will do the job & give me a chance if a better than average fish comes along.
For my snapper fishing - 20 & 30lb but I do always have a 12lb set up ready to go if the pan sized fish are being landed.
Chris
Give a man a fish & he will eat for a day !
Teach him how to fish
& he will sit in a boat - & drink beer all day!
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