Tackle the tackle before it all turns to tears.
January can often be the most frustrating time to catch fish, but why?
Different to what most people think snapper do not spawn just once, when conditions are right they will release an amount of spawn and then latter on release the rest. This is Mother Nature's way of protecting the species. If there is a storm or a dramatic drop in water temperature, the spawn will die as it remains on the surface for around fifty-four days before the new snapper make their way to the bottom.
Snapper that have spawned will be aggressive on the bite as they rebuild body condition but the rest can be frustratingly hard to get to bite. This is why one boat will catch a limit, yet another fishing a few miles away will struggle. My go-to is fresh bait, get the kids out with flasher rigs on the boat or off a wharf, spending quality time with the family is the best investment you can make. Having seen a heap of fish on the sounder, yet no bites, can be turned around by simply using ground bait. A constant trail of burly and ground bait will get them on the bite at some point of the tide, but start off with small baits. Snapper always pick and snack on small bits of ground bait, but will mostly leave big baits. Now is the time I use small recurve hooks and just slowly float a bait down, bigger fish will come up off the bottom to snack, then move off, getting hooked. It always pays to toss out a big bait well out the stern of the boat, such as a butterflied jack macks. Small fish will chew on the fleshy bits, attracting a bigger fish to take it off them.
If you can’t get out due to weather be honest with your self and ask when did you last really go over all your gear and check it was good to go.
Most of our fishing gear sits idle in the boat or garage for most of its life. We don’t even give it a second thought till we head out for a fish, and it’s only when we are out on the water, hooked up to the fish of a lifetime that’s just busted you off due to gear failure, that it really hits home.
Let’s be honest we still get grumpy and spit the dummy even when we know it’s our own fault for not looking after and checking the gear, but we will still lay the blame at the manufacturer’s feet rather than our own with comments like “I only used it a couple of times last year”!
The fact is, the marine environment is so harsh that even the smallest grain of salt, if left on a reel, will have an effect over time. Saltwater is even on the line as it is wound back onto the spool, left to dry, and it crystallises, becoming abrasive over time, which damages and weakens it. The best example, you have heard of the saying “smoking reels “that is when hooked up on a game fish, the line is being stripped off the spool at speed releases, which releases crystalised salt embedded in the line, giving the impression the reel is on fire.
To be perfectly honest, years ago I was probably lazier than most when it comes to cleaning down the gear after a day’s fishing, it’s only having learnt from the school of hard knocks over the past years being busted off due to sticky drags and old nylon that I now follow a simple routine after every fishing trip.
First having given all the rods a light spray to soften any baked-on bait and scales I start at the rod tip with a wet soapy rag wiping down the rod and each guide. Cleaning the guides is as important as the reel and takes less than a few minutes to do properly. Over time, salt builds up around the base of the guides, gets under the binding, causing unseen corrosion. Eventually, the guide will fail when under load or knocked.
Rod grips get covered in slimy mess that builds up and hardens when dry, the buildup of grime up over time makes the grips slippery when wet, heavy build ups can be lessened by a light scrub with sandpaper to remove it but its best to give the grips a good scrub off each time they are used. Even when away on holiday, when the rods are used daily, I make a habit of cleaning the gear each night at rum o’clock.
The single most overlooked thing people fail to do to the reels after washing their gear before putting it away is to back off the drags. Drag washers will compress and harden in time, so instead of the line when being pulled off the reel running out smoothly, it is all jerky and sticks in places, often resulting in bust-offs. One little trick I have learnt over the years is that before I set the drag, I give the handle of the reel a few turns while holding the spool to take out any hard spots and warm up and smooth out the drag.
Once dry, give both the guides and reels of each rod a light spray with Tackle Guard, trying to keep it off the nylon.
In reality, the only thing between you and the fish, which is the cheapest part of the day’s fishing, is the fishing line. Over time, the line gets small kinks. Nylon gets damaged without you realising it by being dragged over rocks and kelp and even sinkers sliding up the line, when fish run their boney tail [especially kingfish] will abrade the line as it slaps against it as it tries to get away.
Every time I go fishing, I strip off at least a meter of line , then run the next few meters of line between my fingers, checking for damage just to be on the safe side more importantly, it is imperative you do this every time the line gets stuck on the bottom, and you have to break it off. Pulling the line stretches it till it breaks, from the point of the break back up the line for at least a meter the line will be thinner and weakened by at least 50 percent. If you then tie on a hook at the point of the break without cutting back a meter of line, the chances are the next decent fish will break you off.
The only thing between you and the fish of a lifetime is your line. Over my lifetime, I have only been spooled twice, yet I have seen it happen many times and ninety per cent of the time, it’s due to lack of line on the spool.
Let’s face it, the last hundred meters of line is seldom used, so rather than doing a complete re-spool, I do what is called a “top shot”, that is to leave the last hundred meters on and tie and wind on another 250 meters of line. Hooked up on a big fish that is taking a lot of line, be aware that the weakest point is where the nylon has been joined. Watch for the knot to come up and once past the rod tip, be very careful to slowly play the fish till the join is back on the spool.
By keeping the spool full [especially when using fixed spool reels, egg beaters], not only will you have plenty to play with, but more importantly, a full spool allows you to cast thirty percent further with greater accuracy of getting the bait to land where you want it.
A bit of time spent cleaning and doing preventive maintenance stops you becoming one of the hard luck stories back at the ramp.
