DerekD

If you use lures that weigh less than 3 gramme and wind it up without tension (not in direct contact with the lure) then it will birdsnest more often. If you use 5 gramme lures and stay more or less in contact with the lure then you will rarely have this problem. If you see a loop on your spool that is trying to lift up and away from the spool then take care of it as soon as possible because when you cast that loose section of loop will be where it has the best chance of birdnesting. The splitting thing is not something I have come across in the Fireline but if the fusing of the line was not done properly (bad batch) then that is how I would expect it to behave. As for leaders I use 6 and 8 lb nitlon Fluoro most often but I also keep some 4lb and 10lb handy. I use a uni to uni knot (8 turns in fireline and 4 - 5 in Fluro). Just check the knot by pulling tight between your hands before fishing. The Fireline frays and sometimes I have to redo it one or two or at the worst three times (rarely) before it holds to my satisfaction.

Raii, I am going to assume that you have not had a lot of experience with Fireline so if you know a lot of the information below then don't worry about it. With a smooth drag you will be able to land most reasonable fish on 4lb Fireline. To date on the 4lb Fireline I have landed Ozzie Salmon (56cm), Flathead (75 cm and I think an 80cm one but I didn't have anything to measure it with), snapper 51cm, kingfish (70cm and I think I could do a 75cm and possibly an 80cm kingfish with some time and a bit of room). As the others pointed out you get a better casting distance on 4lb than 6lb and you can use lighter lures. The line overtests and I would be impressed if you could snap the 4lb stuff by gently loading it between your fingers till it breaks (probably cut yourself first). Would suggest that you go into the store and feel the difference between the 4lb and the 6lb. I love the 4lb but once I start going into heavier braids I would look at woven braids rather than fused braids. I find Fireline gets a little stiffer in the heavier ranges. I do keep some 6 pound braid on a spare spool when squiding in areas I am likely to get snagged up as I can pull my jigs free of the weed. If you do get the Fireline then value wise just get the 125 yard spool and use mono (I use 8lb) as backing so that the Fireline is just short of the lip and comes off the spool easily. You can then just change out or end to end the Fireline every season. The only time I have seen my backing in three years of fishing with it is when I hooked up a really unobservant kayaker. After tightening up the drag and then a chase we managed to get him to the boat and get my line and lure back but I was unsure of best way to clean my catch. One other note. Fireline gets a little fluffy after extended use and if you don't wind it on the spool with a little tension you will get a birdsnest coming off once in a while. Unlike nylon it takes a little effort to get it to bind up so I keep a pin in my takle box so I can open up and untangle the birdsnest. Hope this helps. Regards, Derek

Called up fisheries a few years ago about this problem and they advised that I should still throw it back because legally it is undersized and you can't really prove that you did not inflict the injuries yourself. On a practical aspect "waste not want not".

I'd had the topic running around in my head for a while then read your story the other week and thought damn you outdid me by one cm and I had an open water advantage over you. It inspired me to put the question out there to see what other people had managed. Planning on going to port Douglas at the end of the year and intend on taking the bream finesse up there to see what I can do. Expecting to get spooled so am also bringing up a 10lb/15lb and a 50lb outfit. Hoping to get some good stories and even better photos out of that trip.

Best catch ever (well at least till now). I have been stoked to land and release a solid 75cm flathead on 4lb leader. I was grinning from ear to ear after cracking the one metre mark with a 104cm jewfish. I have been thrilled to still land a 75cm kingfish after it went around a mooring. I have had to fight an 80cm kingfish with most of my rod in the water after it headed straight underneath a barnacle encrusted boat. Each of those fishes has stood out in my mind but I don’t consider them to be my best ever catch. That happened December of last year when heading out on Middle harbor with two very good friends, Chris and Tom. The plan was to chase squid first and then Kingfish. I like to use a Shimano Bream Finesse with a Symetre 1500 and crystal 4lb fireline (which I believe over-tests) and 6lb leader and I had put a snap-lock and squid jig on the end of the line. While motoring along we watched a school of fish bust up and start feeding. We weren’t sure what they were but we planned to find out. I quickly changed out to a 5 gramme Halco Twisty and took a cast at the school. Started winding in and then felt the rod load up and at that point the fish on the other end of the line decided it didn’t want to play. My line started screaming out and I slowly tightened the drag hoping to slow the fish down. I top shot with 125 yards of fireline of which I had lost about 30 over time and the cast I made was about 40 yards which left me another 55 to play with before hitting backing. Watching the backing get closer and closer I mentioned to the guys that we might have to chase this one. They wound in their lines, fired up the boat and I got some line back. At this point the fish went deep and I was left wondering if my knots and gear would hold up. It was an interesting feeling whenever the line seemed to settle briefly before the fish went off on another run. One of the guys had a good mobile camera phone and recorded a short clip of which I still love to listen to the scream of the drag. The fish had at least five really good runs in it with a fair bit of headshakes and it took a while to land it once it was close to the boat. The combination of good weather, great mates, an opportunity taken and achieving a personal best (70cm Kingfish) with the bonus that it was on my lightest gear made it a memorable day for me. I have since had a number of Kingfish on the bream gear and am still impressed at how it performs but if I could re-live just one of my fishing experiences then it would be the one described above. I would like to know from other people what they consider their best ever catch and what circumstances made it so. Was it the location, the company, the fish, the difficulty of the catch or a combination of the above?

I have caught bass and redfin in Manly dam and have talked to people who have been catching carp there. All the fish I have caught were of a small size and released back into the dam but they are there.

Talked to the friend who made the comment about the Kingfish not fighting as well as the Barra and he explained it a bit further. He said that as a group of fishermen they hooked onto a lot of Barra at Lake Awoonga but each person only managed to land one Barra. He said the initial strike, followed by the surge and the head shakes and having the lines cut by the gill rakes left the strike of a kingfish for dead. He agreed with the comments above in that once you had stopped the initial runs then you had a very good chance of landing it. Still looking forward to getting him on to a metre plus Kingfish and seeing if that changes his opinion. For that matter I want to get on to a metre plus kingfish

While fishing this weekend with two friends one of them made a comment that the Kingfish he was on didn't fight near as well some of the Barra that he'd hooked up to while fishing at lake Awoonga a few months back. It was only a 67cm Kingfish but it got me thinking. I have hooked a 104cm Jewfish on 20lb braid and although there were a few very strong runs at no time did I think I was in serious danger of losing the fish. I think I have had more fight from smaller kingfish. I figured that the barra (I haven't caught one yet) has a similar body shape to the Jewfish and apart from being more acrobatic would probably put up the same fight as a jewfish (length for length). My question to those who have been lucky to catch all three is what do you think puts up the best fight in a length for length comparison. For example, do you rate a 1m kingfish over a 1m barra over a 1m jewfish or would you put them in another order?

The kingfish certainly seem to be picking up. Was out on the water with two friends on Sunday and we managed a triple hook up. One was busted off pretty quickly (only found out later he was using 8 pound leader for the challenge). Mine decided to make a run under a nearby boat and since I had images of the line being cut from the barnacles under the boat I shoved most of the rod in the water to change the angle. Ended up landing a nice 75cm kingie. Other friend landed nice little 67cm kingfish. Realised that all the ones we have landed so far this season have been more than 65cm.

Went fishing from the shore in Middle harbour on Saturday because of the changing weather and picked up a couple of Port Jackson sharks and a few other fish but nothing worth keeping. Took the boat out on Sunday in Middle Harbour and picked up a little 65cm Kingfish on the 4lb Fireline and then got my friend onto his first ever kingfish. It was 70cm and put a huge smile on his face. I am pretty sure he hooked up on two more kingfish on his 7lb mono outfit but he was busted off. He is a mad keen fisherman but doesn't really look after his gear and I reckon it was a rough drag which was his undoing. Didn't do so well on the soft plastics so switched to fresh squid on most of the lines for the rest of the afternoon. Missed the Manly game but could hear the cheers echoing over the bay every time Manly scored.

But it was only a little lure...... Feeling guilty again.....

And there I was feeling guilty about catching my first (and I hope my last) ever pelican last Saturday. Was trolling a small rapala CDmag7 lure off middle head and then the line started screaming off. Small panic as I had to decide if I should hand the boat controls off to my fishing buddy or grab the rod. Threw boat in neutral, stopped engine. Grabbed rod and started tightening up the drag while wondering about the size of fish I had hooked. Followed the line into the distance and noticed a pelican settling on the surface of the water. Said to myself at that point "No. Please no. Please no". I had hooked a pelican. After a bit of work I managed to get it to the boat (seriously impressed at the rod and reel combo which still needs a proper christening - BTW what is the best way to prepare a pelican anyway??). Fortunately the lure was caught in the webbing of the bird's left foot but unfortunately every time we got close enough to grab it the bird moved away from the boat. After about 10 goes we got the gloves on and grabbed the leader which unfortunately snapped leaving about 10cm of line hanging from the lure. We had no hope of catching it from that point on. Fortunately such a short leader should not tangle around and choke off the leg. Also as several people pointed out to me is that the hooks should rust out pretty quickly. The irony of that was that just the night before I had changed out the old hooks as they were getting a little too rusty. Almost properly christened the rod later on that day on what I am 99% sure from past experience was a Kingie in middle harbour. Pulled the hook about 5 metres from the boat. Every 20 or 30 minutes from that point on I muttered some mildly un-nice words. Had a great day though.

Stephan, Are you doing land based fishing or do you have access to a boat? If you have access to a boat then it makes it a bit easier. Probably the best places are near most of the structures in the harbour such as the wedding cakes (at least the one that is left) and most of the marker buoys. Best bet is using freshly caught squid. We have done pretty well on yellowtail in the past. You can also go trolling near the heads. Land based is a little harder. I have hooked them on 4" soft plastics in the Cremorne point area in the warmer months. Clifton Gardens with squid is another location I have seen people catch them but it gets a little crowded down there. Regards, DerekD