I went salmon fishing Sunday morning, running on a hour and a half of sleep.

Anyways, the river was barren of life, not a single salmon, which is fine. It happens if you don't get to them when they make their runs.

None the less, a little product endorsement for the day. I tried a new line that was recommended to me by a few friends. I picked up a 12lb spool, mainly cause even for salmon, you don't lose them in the river with lower line, and I really needed more a new line for perch and trout my salmon line was still good.

So I loaded up Seaguar's Red Label line, and it looks like good line visually on inspection when I was spooling it on the reel on Saturday night.

None the less, reason I posted is, I managed to snag a tree, yes you hear that right, I got a tree. There is a spot I like, far away from the rest of the fishermen and its got tree cover and a depth of water in the pool of about 8 feet, so the salmon like to stick there. Since I had not seen a fish till that point, I put some salmon eggs I had made the night before and I got to work. Thing is due to the trees you got to cast on the side and get the line into the "hole" of about a foot and a half between the top of the water and the branches. So it gets stuck every dozen or so casts, ended up getting it stuck pretty badly the 2nd time.

Tried pulling, no dice, tried yanking, no dice, started to treat it like it was 30 pound line, pain in the **** to get to snap, ended up yanking hard enough I broke my float, which ended up flying about 15 yards upstream and my line went down stream.

Did not recover the hook, did managed to save my float, but it has a big gouge where the line (balsa wood), the elastic float keepers were no where to be found nor was the hook as it was still on the branch.

Toughest son of a b***h line I ever used for a 12-lb "tested" line. Them Japanese sure did under rate the stuff.

Dimitri

Ah, the challenges of fishing. Had some salmon on the barbie tonight. Hope you have better luck next time!

Yeah or do like me and just buy some salmon, get some scallops and eat. Sure beats cleaning fish! No..... nuthin like catching a salmon or stealhead, that makes your blood run. Better luck next time Dimi and I hope you get one!

Suz

I'm not too worried if I get one or not, that is what the grocery store is for. I'm in the river cause I'm about 30 minutes from civilization and have nothing but time. Its peaceful.

Dimitri

Dimitri wrote:

Its peaceful

Yep, I could use some of that right now! Maybe next week or next month!

As someone in the fishing tackle trade, I'll give you all some tips on line purchase:

#1 Line makers lie, so take a micrometer to check the REAL diameter (I've seen lines 50% thicker than stated on the box).
No matter what claims are made, a 12lb line will be between 0.30 & 0.35mm diameter unless it is braid.

#2 If you need a line that is abrasion resistant, then it isn't going to be supple, no matter what claims are made.

#3 Cheap line isn't cheap when you lose a good fish, so keep clear of it in the lighter breaking strains. Heavier lines don't matter quite so much but the stretch in cheap stuff can exceed 25%.

#4 Berkley XL & Big Game are both good value & well made lines that exceed their stated breaking strains & are the diameter stated on the box.

#5 Microdyneema braid is AMAZING stuff to fish with so long as you realise the potential drawbacks of a line with less than 5% stretch - I use a 10' fluorocarbon leader with it because the latter is both virtually invisible in water & has a LOT of stretch.

#6 Don't use fluorocarbon as your main line unless you want to feel like you are playing your fish on a length of knicker elastic.

This line is 100% fluorocarbon, per my micrometer, cause I did not cut off the top since it was cut somewhere after the knot, it measures the same as the line left over on the roll. Its listed as 12 thou, and I measured it as plus 3 tenths. So I'm sure its within tolerance.

By the way that should be a sticky somewhere on a fishing forum, your spot on.

I do like Fluorocarbon as my main line though, been using it since I was 10 that way. trick is finding a good fluorocarbon that wont turn into a birds nest, so far the Seaguar looks fine in that regard, had very little issue with that. I do sometimes use some braided line, but thats 65lb braided line and is less of a line and more of a metal chain to pull fish out.

Dimitri

So I figured I'll put some pictures on this thread instead. I'll keep the other one for fly tying tips.

So this is float fishing using a spinning rod.



And using the 5 minute fly, after a long fight, lost the salmon but noticed something neat, the line ended up cutting into my float about 3/16th of a inch. Lost the fly too but what can you do?



Dimitri