A real fish tale

[Lamar Gilbert]

A real live fish tale:



I cut off three or four feet of line at least once a morning to keep the chances of frayed line breaking and add new as needed. These rocks are hell on line. I had cut back to about 20 feet of new. I rared back and set the hook this morning and the line broke where the new was tied on. . Now the line I use (fireline) floats. I eased the boat over to the line.....dipped it up....threaded it back in the rod...tied it back....landed a 2-7 lmb.....biggest of the morning!!!! wound up with 33...tied yesterday.



Ahhh.....this Maine bassin'

 

[Rob LaMoy]

I use fireline and don't usually have too many problems. Be sure to set your drag a little lighter. What pound test are you using? If you're flipping, use the 30 lb. Also tie a polymar knot.

 

[Lamar Gilbert]

30 Pound test.......what you trying to catch....turtles???



I have never used anything over 8 lb test. Been using nothing but fireline for five years....never had it to break. I really like the absence of memory it has. Best line I have ever used. The break this morning was the knot where I had tied new line to the backing a couple of weeks ago. That's always the weakest point. I usually don't let the new get as short as this morning.....just didn't take time to spoon new on.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Yeah, you should never be anywhere near that knot when fishing. It should be 2 good full cast lengths in. But for the know I use a double half hitch. Works well. The mono will still slip a little if you pull it really hard, but like I said, it's always covered on the spool and half way into the spool under the new line.



30 lb test....YEAH if you're fishing for 6-8 lb largemouth in heavy cover. You'd better be throwing heavy line or they'll bust you off every time the run and wrap that line around a log or limb.



Actually, I find that Fireline has MORE memory than most superlines and certainly more than a braid. But I can live with it as I only use it for jigs and fish at least a 1/2 oz jig that removes any coils. Plus I usually fish stained water, so the line color or memory is not as much an issue.



In clear water I go with Berkley Sensation or Pline.

 

[Lamar Gilbert]

Rob......I should have mentioned above that we don't have the weed problems up here that most of the country has. Very few logs and limbs too. Only monster rocks. Water in these lakes is gin clear. You can see detail in 10' with no problem. Even with the flooding we had last month, water is all clear. It didn't even get dingy.



As for line color, I use the light green fireline. I read somewhere that bass can't see line under a certain diametet. Wish I could find that article again. Best I can remember, they start seeing lines of around 15 lb test. Don't hold me to that....getting too old to remember all the details.



You would enjoy bassin' up here. It is really wild. Of the 33 I caught this morning, half of them would go over 2lbs. Makes for fun on my medium-light spinning rigs.