Lost Fish

[taggermike]

Breaking 15' in to the braid is odd. Some sharks are notorious for spinning and wrapping the line up around their bodies. Threshers can beat their tails in the line and break it. But 15' is a long way from the hook. That it happened on to out fits makes bad braid or a bad spot unlikely. I guess I'm not helping here. But you might want to pull out some of your braid and inspect it. Mike

[Hunters Pa]

I'm curious how you know it was about 15 feet up from the hook. Not calling you out or doubting, but with the length between the breakage and the hook being gone how would you know? Was that the length of the leader?

[hage0429]

I'll expand on Hunter's comment by going Dr. House style and making some ridiculously specific assumptions in painting my theory

I'm going to say that your 15ft estimate is because you had a ~15ft leader tied on with a albright knot (or similar). With those knots it's critical that you tighten primarily by pulling on the leader and the tag of the braid only. If you pull hard on the main line of the braid before the knot is tight you end up with a weak spot in the braid right before the knot (at least that's what Grandpa told me, others can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

If that's actually the case you can either adjust how you tie your knots or switch to a swivel and shorter leader. Personally, I go with a swivel anytime I'm tying a knot on the water, it's more forgiving and I get a little queasy if I focus too hard on a knot in my lap while on the water.

[YTHunter]

Originally Posted by taggermike

Breaking 15' in to the braid is odd. Some sharks are notorious for spinning and wrapping the line up around their bodies. Threshers can beat their tails in the line and break it. But 15' is a long way from the hook. That it happened on to out fits makes bad braid or a bad spot unlikely. I guess I'm not helping here. But you might want to pull out some of your braid and inspect it. Mike

Thanks Mike, this is what I'm guessing happened. I use a double-uni to tie my flouro leader to my braid and have caught many good size fish with this knot and have rarely got broke off, when I have, it's typically after catching a fish earlier in the day and not re-tying; but in ALL cases, it's always broken off AFTER the double-uni and never at the braid. I inspected the line and in both cases about 6" to 8" of braid was roughed-up and frayed, hence I don't believe it was a failed knot, but likely something more like what you described.

[YakDout]

Originally Posted by YTHunter

Thanks Mike, this is what I'm guessing happened. I use a double-uni to tie my flouro leader to my braid and have caught many good size fish with this knot and have rarely got broke off, when I have, it's typically after catching a fish earlier in the day and not re-tying; but in ALL cases, it's always broken off AFTER the double-uni and never at the braid. I inspected the line and in both cases about 6" to 8" of braid was roughed-up and frayed, hence I don't believe it was a failed knot, but likely something more like what you described.

switch that knot up to an Albright.

[GregAndrew]

Like Mike said, lots of sharks will roll your line up around their bodies. And they will bite anything that gets near their mouths (why many dropper loop and 3-way sinkers come up missing on Leopard Sharks). Another reason could be fishing over some nasty structure that the fish immediately darts through/around.

[YTHunter]

Originally Posted by YakDout

switch that knot up to an Albright.

NEVER broke a double-uni. I think I'll stick with it. As mentioned, 6” to 8" of braid was roughed up. I'm guessing something doubled back on my line like others have mentioned. First fish was really squirrelly and felt like a big ass barracuda, second one pulled straight down with head shakes like a YT. Regardless, I'm guessing shark. The head shakes and squirreliness were probably the sharks tail thrashing back on my line.

[jorluivil]

Marlin