Hi Peoples,
Getting started on softies can be a daunting task. I recently had 2 newbies wanna get started on sp's in my office and it was an interesting challenge to give them the info they would need to get started and not enough info so they would be confused by the experience.
So what did i tell them?? or more so, what did i think was the must know stuff to get a new fisho strated n sp's and give them a chance to catch something???
First off the education dept was around the rods and reels used nowadays for lure fishing. I felt b4 we got into the convo of lures and jigheads the best place to start is at the begining, of course, so that is with the differences in tackle and the benefit of the the new tech stuff. This was easy to understand and while they didnt quite comprehend everything was a good basis by which to continue...
The braid line was a good talking point as both were unaware of the new gsp stuff and only ever saw or used mono. It was an important point and recommended using braid at all costs.
So once the rod, reel and line education was over, the lures and jig heads were a natural extension of that. I basically labelled the lures (sp's) into two categories. Lures with in-built action and lures without any action. Basically any lure that has a tail that swims upon movement or a lure that has no action as it is retrieved without the manipulation from the angler.
Upon that convo i discussed jigheads. I indicated a round jighead for the in-built lures and an angular head or bullet head for no-action lures. This made good sense and after discussing the pysics of water and an angular jighead indicated how a lure with no in-built action can come to life.
Lastly i discussed leader. I didnt go into too much but basically said it helped tell the lie to the fish. Only the fish should see the mainline not the fish...
I didnt go into technique too much but suggested the lure should always make contact with the bottom after each hop. and that was about it. The very basic stuff to get a greenhorn rigged up and ready to cast a lure.
I felt if i gave anymore info it would be overload. The rest really can be learnt along the way. But no doubt the best way to teach them is to take them on the boat and let them see how its done first hand.... seeing really is believing!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Size of your Fishing Reels
Hi Peoples,
I had an interesting question put to me recently. It was about the size of reels people use for light line spinning e.g. for bream on light lures and whiting... The argument, as happens when opinions are put into the mix, some of us say that lighter is better and others like a heavier outfit...
The argument for a heavier outfit was interesting. When i say heavier i mean using a 2500 sized reel on a 2-4kg 7 footer... The reason they opted for a heavier reel was 'in case' a bigger than average fish got hooked they could land it. By this bigger than average meant hooking by-catch. Now my issue with this is two-fold.
Firstly, fishing equipment is such finely tuned and balanced that catering for a mulitude of species with the one outfit will negate the performance that can be achieved if it was species specific. Putting a 2500 sized reel will throw out the balance of the small flick stick, make it bottom heavy, lead to wrist fatigue and generally feel poor in the hand. Yes, you might be able to knock over bigger fish with a 2500 sized reel but come on. In that premise you would need to go a heavier line class and therefore restrict the finesse appeal to catch you smaller quarry. If you stuck with a lighter line class, where's the benefit??? The only one i see is line capacity, but just chase the fish! I have never had a fish spool me...ever!
Secondly, the drag settings on a 1000 sized reel will never be fully used anyway let alone a 2500... The 4lb and 6lb line classes are too light to be used to thier full capacity on a 2500 sized reel...usually. Most of us will over ever run max 1-2kgs of drag thru our bream rods, and trust me thats over estimating it too. Do a test for yourself and run 1kg of drag thru your 2-4kg spin stick. It will be at max load. So the drag will never be fully utilised anyaway on 2500. Most new 1500 and 2000 sized reels run 3 or 4kgs of drag nowadays and thats plenty.
I use a 2004 luvias and 2000 certate. These are the max size i will run on light line finesse gear. The luvias is substantially smaller than the certate and is my ultra finesse reel. It weighs a mere 180grams and has 3kgs of drag.. Its gun and i have knocked over my fair share of jew and sambos on it. It can handle the heat all day, let alone a bream!
So will a lighter reel do the job better??? As Greeny (a fellow fisho writer) says, a lure is a lie told by a fisherman to a fish. In this deciept the lie needs to look authentic, smell authentic and taste authentic. The movement of the lure needs to be realistic. In order for this to happen the jighead needs to be as light as possible, the leader needs to be light, the main line light, the rod light and sensitive and a reel to match this integrated system. In this instance i cannot forsee why you would dampen the feel of the set-up just to cater for by-catch. If something comes along and spools you...good luck i say. That would be enuf fuel for me to get out there and keep trying.
So i guess my advice, and take it with a grain of salt, is to go as light as possible with all your equipment. Fish light and fish it hard. You'll be surprised at how far you can push your light gear...and the fun factor goes thru the roof too.
I had an interesting question put to me recently. It was about the size of reels people use for light line spinning e.g. for bream on light lures and whiting... The argument, as happens when opinions are put into the mix, some of us say that lighter is better and others like a heavier outfit...
The argument for a heavier outfit was interesting. When i say heavier i mean using a 2500 sized reel on a 2-4kg 7 footer... The reason they opted for a heavier reel was 'in case' a bigger than average fish got hooked they could land it. By this bigger than average meant hooking by-catch. Now my issue with this is two-fold.
Firstly, fishing equipment is such finely tuned and balanced that catering for a mulitude of species with the one outfit will negate the performance that can be achieved if it was species specific. Putting a 2500 sized reel will throw out the balance of the small flick stick, make it bottom heavy, lead to wrist fatigue and generally feel poor in the hand. Yes, you might be able to knock over bigger fish with a 2500 sized reel but come on. In that premise you would need to go a heavier line class and therefore restrict the finesse appeal to catch you smaller quarry. If you stuck with a lighter line class, where's the benefit??? The only one i see is line capacity, but just chase the fish! I have never had a fish spool me...ever!
Secondly, the drag settings on a 1000 sized reel will never be fully used anyway let alone a 2500... The 4lb and 6lb line classes are too light to be used to thier full capacity on a 2500 sized reel...usually. Most of us will over ever run max 1-2kgs of drag thru our bream rods, and trust me thats over estimating it too. Do a test for yourself and run 1kg of drag thru your 2-4kg spin stick. It will be at max load. So the drag will never be fully utilised anyaway on 2500. Most new 1500 and 2000 sized reels run 3 or 4kgs of drag nowadays and thats plenty.
I use a 2004 luvias and 2000 certate. These are the max size i will run on light line finesse gear. The luvias is substantially smaller than the certate and is my ultra finesse reel. It weighs a mere 180grams and has 3kgs of drag.. Its gun and i have knocked over my fair share of jew and sambos on it. It can handle the heat all day, let alone a bream!
So will a lighter reel do the job better??? As Greeny (a fellow fisho writer) says, a lure is a lie told by a fisherman to a fish. In this deciept the lie needs to look authentic, smell authentic and taste authentic. The movement of the lure needs to be realistic. In order for this to happen the jighead needs to be as light as possible, the leader needs to be light, the main line light, the rod light and sensitive and a reel to match this integrated system. In this instance i cannot forsee why you would dampen the feel of the set-up just to cater for by-catch. If something comes along and spools you...good luck i say. That would be enuf fuel for me to get out there and keep trying.
So i guess my advice, and take it with a grain of salt, is to go as light as possible with all your equipment. Fish light and fish it hard. You'll be surprised at how far you can push your light gear...and the fun factor goes thru the roof too.
Monday, February 2, 2009
How good are we???
Hi Peoples,
Ever wondered how good a fisherman we are??? Ever sat there and watched a TV show and pondered if you had the goods to outfish any of the pros you see flickin lures on TV??? I'm a very competitve person so i usually do. Problem is that with video editing and other production values its hard to assess. Also the pros make it look easy at times so its hard to gauge for real. I do know however that some people i see making a living out of fishing are hacks...
I have fished a few tournaments. My best was a second place in a sydney comp and i recently came 5th in a Hawkesbury comp. While its far from blazing glory comps are a funny way to assess your skills. In a social scene fishing is quite different and i feel i could hold my own against most (usually only sp's). But why is a comp a different story?? Most pros get a week to pre-fish a spot, work out the patterns and devise a sound gameplan. Weekend warriors who enter most likely rock up on gameday and make decisions on the fly. The tourny boats hit the gun spots at 120kms/h and coupled with a pre-fish are mostly unbeatable. But thats whats required to win.
Also my ability or inability to catch fish with multiple techniques is a factor. I would consider myself proficient at catching bread and butter species on lures e.g. bream, flathead, jewfish and whiting but seem to struggle with kingfish on poppers. Therefore a complete angler will have better skills to use across all diciplines of fishing. Its hard though to keep up with all the new lures that hit the market. I have 1 day a weekend usually to go out and experiment. The time it takes to perfect a lure at a rate of 1 day a week is negligable. Fact is its far too slow. By the time you have perfected it two new lures have hit the scene.
But thats fishing. Unless your a pro or extremely rich or live on the water its hard to be a jack of all trades. So basically it's not a question of are we the best?? but a question of are we the best we can be??? In the end its fishing...and the more i realise that the more im discouraged by fishing comps. Its a social sport meant to be enjoyed by family and friends.
Ever wondered how good a fisherman we are??? Ever sat there and watched a TV show and pondered if you had the goods to outfish any of the pros you see flickin lures on TV??? I'm a very competitve person so i usually do. Problem is that with video editing and other production values its hard to assess. Also the pros make it look easy at times so its hard to gauge for real. I do know however that some people i see making a living out of fishing are hacks...
I have fished a few tournaments. My best was a second place in a sydney comp and i recently came 5th in a Hawkesbury comp. While its far from blazing glory comps are a funny way to assess your skills. In a social scene fishing is quite different and i feel i could hold my own against most (usually only sp's). But why is a comp a different story?? Most pros get a week to pre-fish a spot, work out the patterns and devise a sound gameplan. Weekend warriors who enter most likely rock up on gameday and make decisions on the fly. The tourny boats hit the gun spots at 120kms/h and coupled with a pre-fish are mostly unbeatable. But thats whats required to win.
Also my ability or inability to catch fish with multiple techniques is a factor. I would consider myself proficient at catching bread and butter species on lures e.g. bream, flathead, jewfish and whiting but seem to struggle with kingfish on poppers. Therefore a complete angler will have better skills to use across all diciplines of fishing. Its hard though to keep up with all the new lures that hit the market. I have 1 day a weekend usually to go out and experiment. The time it takes to perfect a lure at a rate of 1 day a week is negligable. Fact is its far too slow. By the time you have perfected it two new lures have hit the scene.
But thats fishing. Unless your a pro or extremely rich or live on the water its hard to be a jack of all trades. So basically it's not a question of are we the best?? but a question of are we the best we can be??? In the end its fishing...and the more i realise that the more im discouraged by fishing comps. Its a social sport meant to be enjoyed by family and friends.
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