Broken Bay Wide

[keith_kmr]

Decided to try and head wide of broken bay as the weather looked good with one fish in mind marlin…..

We headed of from Brooklyn at about 830 a little latter then first planed and grabbed a few livies passing barrenjoey on a jig (3 drops on the jig returned full so with 12 livies ) it was strait out to the shelf via the BB fad.

We put the spread out around the 150m mark and just headed east. After about an hour of trolling I spotted a bait ball on the sounder (around the 200m mark) and was showing a mate what to look for on the sounder when the short rigger exploded, followed by short corner and then the shot gun all in the space of like 5 seconds. I was dumbfounded as I didn’t see a thing.My mate who was watching the lures said he saw one fin come screaming in form the left and didn’t know what it was as it came in so fast and another way down the back, he said the fins were close to a foot tall and lit up a deep blue colour. (never really fished before so he was stocked even to see a fish , me i was let just say .

The end result to that was a big hit to the wallet with three lost lures. The line snapped just above the knot I think on all 3

My fault as the drag on the reels were way to tight. How do other raiders set their drag? I’ve always done it with the rod in a holder of the boat run the line through the eyes of the rod and pulled the drag out like it would if a fish struck. I am using an electronic scale so I know that the drag pressure is always accurate and I normally set it to a forth of the braking strain of the line. Much help on this would be great as I must be doing something wrong.

One other question, do marlin normally school as the speed that the lures disappeared it was like all three lures got hit within a few second of each other .

Any way it was great just to be on the water and be so close yet so far from landing a marlin.

cheers

[offtap1]

The Drags on your game reels should be set at at a third of breaking strain in the strike position, 5kg on 15, 8kg on 24 ,and 12kg on 37 and set as you have mentioned with rod being secure and using scale to pull out line utilising flex in rod. So setting Drags at 1/4 should not have caused line brekage. I dont know too much on Marlin Schooling and having three hit within seconds of each other , Maybe they were something else . or maybe you need to look at Knot tying tecnique. The Knot u mentioned was at Snap Swivel i would assume. Generally a double is provided at end of line and a Catspaw to swivel. Was line tied off straight to Snap?. Cheers dave

[keith_kmr]

The Drags on your game reels should be set at at a third of breaking strain in the strike position, 5kg on 15, 8kg on 24 ,and 12kg on 37 and set as you have mentioned with rod being secure and using scale to pull out line utilising flex in rod. So setting Drags at 1/4 should not have caused line brekage. I dont know too much on Marlin Schooling and having three hit within seconds of each other , Maybe they were something else . or maybe you need to look at Knot tying tecnique. The Knot u mentioned was at Snap Swivel i would assume. Generally a double is provided at end of line and a Catspaw to swivel. Was line tied off straight to Snap?. Cheers dave

hay dave

I didnt think that the 1/4 drag setting should of been the problem. I am going to play around with a few different knotts. Iam using a locked half blood knot onto a snap swival at the moment then thats clipped onto the trace. Whats a Catspaw havent heard that before ?

I got my mate to look through a fish ID book when we got home and he deffently said they were marlin. It could of been one. (one very very very quick fish )

[wildfish]

in the dvd best of itm fishing show nz he raises marlin then jumps off boat with a camera for a look around and theres marlin every where! all together.

[Jaybee]

Hey kbeef,

Yes it could have very well been three marlin hanging around a bait ball no question about it. My question to you is about your knots. We have never had a knot fail on a sampo clip or swivel.

As Dave said you set your drag at one third of the breaking stain at strike. Are you sure you were a quarter because thats pretty light as you need to be able to set the hooks good and propper? What wre you using , 15 or 24?

You ned to get to the bottom of this one kbeef because to loose three lures in one hit is a bit costly$$$$.

Cheers

Jeff

[offtap1]

hay dave

Iam using a locked half blood knot onto a snap swival at the moment then thats clipped onto the trace. Whats a Catspaw havent heard that before ?

Hi Buddy , i think you really need to look at greating a double at end of line by means of BIMINI TWIST or PLAIT which creates a loop at end of leader you then use a CATSPAW to finish off to Swivel. The double should be able to wind on through rollers even with 3m of doubled line. I will try and get some documents up regarding these essential Knots. Cheers Dave

[Martin]

Hi kbeef

My views are very much along those of Dave (offtap 1)

I have always fished 1/3 of the line classes breaking strain and tested this using a set of spring scales. It is a rare event to bust off on a fish and can generally be attributed to damaged line or the fish jumping and landing on the line.

I would check your scales, however I would say your terminal tackles is wrong

I use a plaited doubble of about 15ft or 4.5m approx with a sampo swivel fixed to the plait via a catspaw knot. My trace is generally just short of 15ft with a crimped sleve to form an eye to connect to the swivel. This is the set up on tackle of 15kg and up. I may fish the strike drag a little lighter on the close in rods to minimise the inital shock impact of a strike.

Marlin will gateherin a "school" when food is concentrated such as bait balls and they are feeding, particularly in striped marlin and juvinile blacks.

Hope it works out for you and you stay connected.

Cheers

Martin

[keith_kmr]

Hay raiders

Thanks for the help on this one. I went a bought a knots and rigs book today and started checking out some different knots and techniques for attaching leaders

The next couple night’s ill be spending going through and making up some new rigs and checking the drag settings again for the weekend and hopefully another chance at a big one.

Thanks again Keith

[Frantic]

ON 15KG i only run about 4kilo ,i reckon thats heaps if something of

decent size hits that lure at 60k .