PB Black drummer from Avoca , 08/05/2022

[The Rev]

Great fish and well done. I am yet to catch one of those bad boys!

the rev

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, MrsISO said:

Good morning Little_Flatty,

I too think ISO fishing is very effective, because on most of my trips to the central coast, me and my friends seem to be  the only group that have been catching fishes. 

It's a technique that is used mostly among Korean and Japanese and Chinese fishermans, and I do find there is a limited English version tutorial video about this kind of fishing available on the internet. I learned how to do this by fishing with experienced ISO fisherman, and I am not an expert yet. Even the fisherman I fish with, are still learning new techniques everyday. 

The fun in ISO fishing is, you are allowed to fight big fish with a noodle size rod and very thin line. Because our rods are all specially made to fish this style, we bring fish up by keeping our rod high so it will form a beautiful curve and "bounce" the fish up with its elasticity. 

The lever brake on our reels are essential when you fight big fishes, it allows us to release and fully stop our drag when fishes taking a dive or a charging run. It's very efficient especially on kingfish and big snappers, I imagine the fish must be on a running and stopping pattern which is very tiresome for them, so they gave up quicker than usual. I landed my first legal kingfish with an 8lb leader line by using this kind of technique. 

Although I have tried with my limited English, I do believe I have only explained a fraction of this fishing style. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask, I will try my best to answer them.

Cheers,
MrsISO

Thanks @MrsISO. Keen to see more reports!

I see it as inevitable I will give it a go one day, as there are a few specialist stores in my area, which I patronise but not for ISO gear! I must admit I get a bit intimidated by how expensive the rods are!

[MrsISO]

20 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Thanks @MrsISO. Keen to see more reports!

I see it as inevitable I will give it a go one day, as there are a few specialist stores in my area, which I patronise but not for ISO gear! I must admit I get a bit intimidated by how expensive the rods are!

Good morning @Little_Flatty

Yes I must admit the rods are expensive. I started with a Shimano Advance Size 1.7 which costs me AUD300 and it's just an entry level ISO rods. I fished with that rod for a few months, it's okay to use and landed me some good fish, but also lost a few big ones due to its lack of elasticity. I won't recommend that to you if you want to enter ISO fishing, because even though it doesn't cost a lot, it's useless after a while, and won't get you big ones. 

Recently I found out there are a few Taiwanese rods available which won't cost you an arm and a leg but are also very good. One of my favorite taiwanese rods is the Amazing 530 from Protako, it performs almost as well as my Gamakatsu Master Mode H-53, with only 1/3 of the price, but around AUD500 still. 

For in-shore fishing I have another set of rods, which is a lot lighter. If you only fish in-shore you can use a ISO rod size 1-1.5, you will lose some really big ones that hook on occasionally but most of the time you are fine. Smaller sized rods will let you feel the fish more, so more reaction when you bring in smaller fishes, a lot of fun to play with. Bigger sized rods are more for locations that's outer shore, because bigger fishes are there and you need stronger rods to bring them in faster.

I do suggest you talk to your local tackle shop, but bear in mind they will try to sell you what they have in-stock so shop wisely. Every ISO rods has its own character, so don't expect to find the perfect one for you at first go. My treasured ones can be trash to you, when it comes to ISO rods. However you do need to fish this style quite some time to know what's good for you. 

For reels it's easier, just get one Shimano Larissa 3000 LBD reel and it will last you for a very long time. It costs around AUD360+ these days, but it's made in Japan and it's good. I recently upgraded mine to a Shimano Technium C3000DXXGS, it's definitely better but I don't think it's necessary. 

With all that said, I think the key to make this fishing style effective, is when to and where at and what you use as a burley. This is hard to explain because the situation changes every time I fish. ISO fishing doesn't require a lot of walking around when you fish, basically you choose one spot and you fish there for the entire session because your burley stays there. I am still learning about how to choose the spot, hope I can explain this in the near future. 

Tight lines!

MrsISO

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, MrsISO said:

Good morning @Little_Flatty

Yes I must admit the rods are expensive. I started with a Shimano Advance Size 1.7 which costs me AUD300 and it's just an entry level ISO rods. I fished with that rod for a few months, it's okay to use and landed me some good fish, but also lost a few big ones due to its lack of elasticity. I won't recommend that to you if you want to enter ISO fishing, because even though it doesn't cost a lot, it's useless after a while, and won't get you big ones. 

Recently I found out there are a few Taiwanese rods available which won't cost you an arm and a leg but are also very good. One of my favorite taiwanese rods is the Amazing 530 from Protako, it performs almost as well as my Gamakatsu Master Mode H-53, with only 1/3 of the price, but around AUD500 still. 

For in-shore fishing I have another set of rods, which is a lot lighter. If you only fish in-shore you can use a ISO rod size 1-1.5, you will lose some really big ones that hook on occasionally but most of the time you are fine. Smaller sized rods will let you feel the fish more, so more reaction when you bring in smaller fishes, a lot of fun to play with. Bigger sized rods are more for locations that's outer shore, because bigger fishes are there and you need stronger rods to bring them in faster.

I do suggest you talk to your local tackle shop, but bear in mind they will try to sell you what they have in-stock so shop wisely. Every ISO rods has its own character, so don't expect to find the perfect one for you at first go. My treasured ones can be trash to you, when it comes to ISO rods. However you do need to fish this style quite some time to know what's good for you. 

For reels it's easier, just get one Shimano Larissa 3000 LBD reel and it will last you for a very long time. It costs around AUD360+ these days, but it's made in Japan and it's good. I recently upgraded mine to a Shimano Technium C3000DXXGS, it's definitely better but I don't think it's necessary. 

With all that said, I think the key to make this fishing style effective, is when to and where at and what you use as a burley. This is hard to explain because the situation changes every time I fish. ISO fishing doesn't require a lot of walking around when you fish, basically you choose one spot and you fish there for the entire session because your burley stays there. I am still learning about how to choose the spot, hope I can explain this in the near future. 

Tight lines!

MrsISO

Thanks @MrsISO, it's worth a thought. I think ultimately the effectiveness of ISO comes down to how it enables one to fish a lot lighter line and weights than one might otherwise do. And berleying of course! In a lot of ways, even without the gear, we can all fish a lot more 'ISO' with some adaptions to our usual habits.

I have a couple of ISO floats and understand how to match a float to a shot, so that's a start.

[blaxland]

Stonker well done

 

[jenno64]

That is a beautiful fish! Congrats on getting it on the iso gear and on cabbage too! My biggest is 51cm and I struggled to winch it up on my 7 wrap rod! That thing must have pulled like a groper!

[MrsISO]

22 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Thanks @MrsISO, it's worth a thought. I think ultimately the effectiveness of ISO comes down to how it enables one to fish a lot lighter line and weights than one might otherwise do. And berleying of course! In a lot of ways, even without the gear, we can all fish a lot more 'ISO' with some adaptions to our usual habits.

I have a couple of ISO floats and understand how to match a float to a shot, so that's a start.

Hi @Little_Flatty

I thought of something you can start with.

 

For Sydney enclosed water areas, you can try your korean float next time. I am not sure what kind of float you got, but my recommendation is to buy one in Size 0.5, and match them with a 5B clip sinker. It's easier to control and suit most of days in Sydney enclosed water area.

 

It's easier for beginners to use a half-float setting. For this kind of setting, you need start with a float stopper knot, then a float stopper bead, then add your float, next would be a float cushion stopper, then a really small swivel, followed with about 2 meter leader, and clip your sinker on the leader line about 30-70cm away from your hook. With a flat sea you can clip your sinker further from the float, with noticeable waves you need to clip your sinker closer to your hook but no less than 30cm. If you can not remember all of these, just talk to your local tackle shop and ask them what you will need for a half-float ISO fishing setting and I believe they can explain better. You don't really need an ISO rod for this setting, but you need the longest and thinnest rod you have to try this. 

 

For a half-float setting, you do need to know the fishing location well. I mainly fished around Manly, the water depth of my fishing location is around 5 meters at high tide and 3 meters at low tide. When I arrive it is usually around low tide so I will start my setting around 2-2.5 meters. This means the length between your float stopper knot and the hook should be around 2-2.5 meters. With the tide rising I will adjust the length of my setting during fishing, just by simply moving your float stopper knot further from your hook. 

 

The benefit of half-float setting is once you know the depth which the fishes are in, you can cast your line right to the spot and it will sink fast to the depth you need. So you can avoid small by-catches, and fish more effectively. After the cast, I often close my reel, and quickly throw 2-3 spoons of burley on my float to attract the small fishes around, then I will open my reel again and allow it to sink to the required depth and pass all the small ones. You can watch this process by looking at the float stopper knot you made(it's often a bright color of yellow, orange or pink so you can see them clearly) , when the knot reaches your float, you can close your reel and wait for the target fish to bite. 

 

Above is a simple mechanic of half-float ISO fishing. To actually fish successfully on each trip, you do need to have ample experiences on tide, wind, sea level, water depth and bottom structure of the location you choose. 

 

Tight lines!

 

MrsISO

[MrsISO]

3 minutes ago, jenno64 said:

That is a beautiful fish! Congrats on getting it on the iso gear and on cabbage too! My biggest is 51cm and I struggled to winch it up on my 7 wrap rod! That thing must have pulled like a groper!

Haha, actually I pulled up a groper at 43cm later that day with the same setting but the bait was cooked prawn. I think the drummer faught a lot harder than that groper. 

[leonardgid]

anything 60cm is an amazing catch , a drummer even more so because they are extremely hard to land  at any size , congratulations