What line for Sharking?

[bassncodformeplease]

 

Just wondered what people think, with the reports of lost Big fish recently

i was wondering whether maybe using mono may have helped

with the extra stretch it might have helped in some cases ( i think)

I'm planning on maybe trying around st cath area on sunday ( if weather kind)

I Found an OLD daiwa sealine reel in my loft today and was thinking

of loading with 60/70lb mono instead of braid i use for most boat fishing

these days.

Any thoughts on the subject????

 

Mike

[Newboy]

Don't know about sharking, but when I was fishing for 100+ conger over the French side (didn't get one that big mind you), the skipper swears on using mono and one guy who was using mono had no lost fish, even tho one of his fish was near the magic number.

[niggle]

I had 50lb braid but mono would be better if using a stiff rod for that stretch reason and would be kinder/less brutal to the angler holding on!!

[great white]

Hi

 

In the case of the one that got away from Dan I do not believe that it would have made any differance, the fish got away after swimming under the boat and probably being able to contact the braid with its tail.

 

Had it done that to mono of 30lb, it would have still had the same result.

 

Lesson learnt was not to use a short leader.

 

 

Dan had just had to retie a leader knot from a spool of 60lb mono, after carefully tying the knot the leader was found to only be about 6ft long. End of a day that will do.

unfortunatly the fish was longer than the leader.

 

What I do know is that the old shark boats prefered mono as does Danny Voskin who is a bit of a guru at this aspect of the sport.

 

When we have another go, one of my old reels spooled with 60lb mono may get a dusting off.

 

another thing is to check the drags are in good nick, if the old reel does not have a smooth drag forget it.

Dan fought that fish for nearly 2 hrs on 30lb braid, no doubt assisted by the excellent drag on his TLD 15

 

Charlie

 

 

 

 

 

[dicky]

i shark fish on white waters out of milford haven and all his reels are loaded with mono of 50lb i think.

one consideration when using mono is spool capacity as a tld 15 loaded with 50lb mono doesn't eqaute to loads of yards and you run the risk of being spooled by a big porgy or thresher.

i know lots of guys used dacron in the old days but i think mono is the most used now.

[duncan]

sudden rash of shark'itus....

 

I've commented on the other thread ('cos I got there first) but will restate here

 

I have no reason to believe that braid v mono is a huge issue with sharks, other than the well made point by niggle that braid and a stand up rod will be more dynamic and tiring to the angler feels good for the first few minutes though!

 

after that it's the other practicalities people have raised

 

in a slightly skewed twist to normal - lighter isn't necessarily more sporting - but it's hard to know what you are going to hook into as has recently been illustrated (bit of a gap between a 250 and a 450 fish)

[Adam F]

I can kind of see the point of mono, but Ive been fishing braid for so long - mono now seems like fishing with an elastic band.

 

Ive got 1000 yards of 50lb braid on both my tld25's -I use these for conger, shark and big rays where fish size / wreckage / tide dictate.

 

My rods are 7'6" 50lb Conolons - and the extra length does come in handy.

[Rob]

the extra length does come in handy.

 

 

No commennt required!!!!!!!!

[TomBettle]

I can kind of see the point of mono, but Ive been fishing braid for so long - mono now seems like fishing with an elastic band.

 

Ive got 1000 yards of 50lb braid on both my tld25's -I use these for conger, shark and big rays where fish size / wreckage / tide dictate.

 

My rods are 7'6" 50lb Conolons - and the extra length does come in handy.

Not bragging, but I've had a few fairly big fish

 

Mono is standard practise on nearly all big fish boats. But the gear is also pretty heavy duty.

 

Shimano Tiagra or Penn International in 30W size will be the minimum you'd see for shark in the 200 to 600lb bracket.

Even then 800yards of 30lb mono or beefed up to only about 500 yards of 50lb mono isn't what many consider substantial enough.

 

The next step up is 50W reels which are then beginning to get truly cumbersome when fighting big fish "stand up". The reel feels heavy and poorly balanced and begins to rock around on top of the rod which itself really knackers the angler.

 

My own preference is to go to one of the very modern, far smaller reels originally designed for medium game or deep jigging.

For me, A Penn International TRQ300LD would be perfect for big UK sharks.

 

This I would load with as much 50lb braid as I could fit on it (I suspect about 1200 yards) followed by a LONG mono top shot of 50lb. Anything from 50 to 100 yards will give plenty of stretch and a feeling of security once it comes on the reel.

 

Other reels would be the TLD 25 or Penn Formula 15 etc etc all loaded similarly.

 

Make sure your braid is very well packed onto the spool as you don't want it digging in during the fight.

 

Couple the above with a quality UK 50lb class or an IGFA 20/30 and you will stop any fish in the UK and still enjoy the fight.

 

For smaller shark (typically sub 200lb), the type caught from Pembrokeshire (as with Dicky, I fish with Andrew on White Waters) then standard gear will follow a similar pattern, but stepped down to a UK20/30 and a reel capable of holding 300 yards of 30lb mono, but now loaded with 30lb braid as in the heavy gear above.

 

The experienced Blue Shark (and small Porgie) angler may step down to 12lb class without too many issues, but remember as the pulling power reduces you will need to change the hook style from heavy gauge to a finer wire.

 

The above heavy and medium weight set-up will also lend itself to Medium / Heavy game fishing abroad.

Probably not quite suited to BIG Blue Marlin, but the lighter gear will be great on Tuna to 100lb, Sailfish, Wahoo etc and the heavier set up perfect for smaller juvenile Blue Marlin (Rats) and Striped Marlin up to about 300lb or so.

 

Tom