Lessons Learned

[BAITfishing]

Take it for what it is worth, but if she straightened your hook, your drag was too tight and your line to strong. Give the fish more drag/line. 2 or 3 runs and a cow will tire her self out and come to the top. Then just hall her in. Tight drag will force short deep runs, into the rocks, a light drag will let her run far and out into the deeper water column.
Just my 2 cents worth…

[vanstaal]

I agree with baitfishing let her run they will stop and haul her in. the line u have on is good line ,like Nebe said a shock leader is good to have around the rocks.

[Slingah]

nice fish Beetle

tight drag & braid = straighten hooks and ripped lips
mono = loss of casting distance
gotta find the right combo.....different for different places
some places you can't let them run and have to stand your ground
I,ve been fishing the same spots for years and...sometimes you win...and sometimes the fish wins.....still looking for the perfect line
right now using 50# PP and 20# yozuri hybrid........

oh ya.....I learned the line and leader lesson the hard way.....being lazy costs BIG time

I agree with what I heard Crazy Alberto and others say....30# PP is not really like 30# test.....go with 40 or 50......

[BEETLE]

Hmmmm, braid + tight drag, - that is most likely the cause. The fish made hard fast runs and then - plink - off. I was more agressive in this particular spot to keep the fish from going downcurrent and fouling into some chunk baiters to my right side.
Plus i have some phobia about the fish going to the the deeper water and faster current, but when given time to think on it, i think it would the opposite.

As is typical for a spot like this, I had one fool cast a storm shad over my line, while fighting one of the fish, but he quickly freed it when i barked at him.


by now some of you (slingah) can probably figure where i was fishing, - been there the last two days after work, - back to normal mode - just schoolies.