Made it down to the Narrow yesterday for a couple hours and had a great time. Surf casters out on Narragenset beach were pulling in some huge cows. I got a dozen schoolies fishing right at the mouth in my yak. I finally had the opportunity to have a big fish on and I blew it.
She hit my fly 20 ft from the yak and took off with the current and a big knot in my flyline, I don’t know how it fit through the guides in the first place. The fish went through most of my backing of my 9 wt. and when I tried to turn it around/ slow it down POP my 14lb test leader snapped. It has been a long time since I broke a fish off. I usually always know when to upscale my gear for big fish. I guess that I still have a lot to learn about big stripers.
So my question is do you guys upscale you gear to a 10-12 wts for the fall cows? I have been using a 9 wt. all year and yesterday I felt way undergeared.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
[This message has been edited by Micropteris (edited 20 October 2005).]
i don’t, but i never fish with less than 20lb. fluro as a leader. that being said, i’ve lost plenty of big fish! but that’s what keeps us coming back, eh micro?
that once happened to me, big tangle in the line that got stuck in the first guide as the line flew out of the stripping basket. lucky for me the fish ran parallel to the beach, i ran after, untying the knot with my teeth as i went. landed the fish, though.
That all depends on what else it can do. Just because it looks good doesn’t clarify if it will or won’t suck, I mean perform well under tough conditions.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
there was a huge blitz in scituate as well, the other day. i picked up 16 fish on a little clouser, but i didnt get a shot at some of the cows. how long do you guys think they will stick around?
I went out from Padanaram yesterday and the water was dominated by large Blue fish. Everywhere we turned we saw Blues. Caught some, but then stopped.
My reel was acting up, could not change spools, the drag was very noisey, like it needed grease and worse when one of the fish got into my backing the backing got twisted on the spool and I could not get anymore out. I was fishing from a 38’ sailboat, under sail. The capt. did a quick tack and we chased the fish so I could regain some line., enough to land the fish. Then to top it off he I could not get the fly out of his mouth. I was mad, but we did a trade. He gave me 4 of his peanut bunker and I gave him a clouser.
I think what was most disappointing is that it probably was my last day in the salt this year.
I usually do, so I do not know why it rusted this time. I wonder if I put it away wet? I took it mostly apart last night and will do the rest tonight. I bought new reel lube backing to replace the stuff that is tangled. As the year is mostly over, I will be able to take my time and make sure the reel is 100% when I’m done. Then I’ll do the other spools as well.
Being mechanically inclined, I get mad when something mechanical that I worked on does not perform at 100% (my car excepted).
Sorry Jed but I was talking about the stripping basket.
For your reel there was a thread that I brought up a couple weeks ago because I had some reel problems and got some good inputs on cleaning and relubbing after use. The two things that I got out of it were brake cleaner and relubing after each use.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
