I was thinking of putting this in one of the existing threads but then again this could be a very large topic in itself. I guess we shall see.

I was in one of the large supermarkets variety stores that sell everything from clothing to electrical. I headed to the sport section and in particular the fishing section. A percentage off sale on fishing.

This is a little bit of a size track but no matter where I am I always seem to know where the fishing section is. Weather I have been in the store before many times or have never been in that store. Strange. Could all be the same store.

Back to the story at hand. I found the fishing section from a uninterrupted brisk walk from the store entrance to a floating hover around the products....products....for a brief moment before I came to me senors. I only had one item to pick up. I only needed one item. This time I was determined to get the one item and get out. I needed (wanted) fishing line and I needed (wanted) 6lb line. That was determined before I enter this magical mystical world.

I found a young fellow and his girlfriend looking at the exact same items that I was looking at. He asked me a question concerning the type of line that he should be using for fishing. Well I asked this person what type of reel did he have? Where he was going to fish from. He told me that he had a small reel similar to what I had and that he was going to fish the bay(Botany) and river. Similar to what I was going to do but I was planning from a boat and I got the impression that he was going to fish from the waters edge.

I told him to go for a 6lb line with the smallest diameter available in this store. That is what I was looking for and that is what I bought. Simple for me. He was not happy with my answer and ended calling a friend and he told him to get a 20lb line.

He had a choice to make and he made it.

I got to thinking that was weird. Why ask if you are not going to listen.

I should end the story here but I have a little bit more to add.

I mainly do my fishing off the rocks and I have a side cast reel. I accept that I will get broken off as part of fishing off the rocks. I use a 12lb and 15lb for the rocks and here is the odd thing I use a 4lb trace. For the times that I have gone on the boat with Majed I have used 6lb and 8lb maximum for my lines. Again using the 4lb trace.

I am fishing light or am I fishing heavy?

I would think that 4lb is good if your not getting busted off...

If there are snags etc in the water then it would be wise to up the line for some more resistance.

Christos there is no way i can know if u are fishing heavy or to light, u will nead to tell us your target fish by the sound of the rig i would think niggers or bream

Very simply answer Christos !

They do not know any better, peeps like that dont fish on a regular basis nor do they catch a great deal of fish so their attitude is the heavier the line is then they'll stand a better chance of landing a fish if one is stupid enough to take their bait.

Just my view but I think that mentally is what stops them from hooking decent fish cause when fish take the bait they feel the weight of the heavier line dragging through the water & will let go off the bait & has nothing to do with fish seeing a heavy line.

Cause we all use leader & if it was a visual thingy then the fish wouldn't take bait because they can see the heavier leader.

Yes I rember when Majed 1st joined here & started fishing me & think steve did as well we tried hammering into his thick head to piss off those outfits with 15 lb line on them

Finally he listened & stole his kids rods with 4 kg line if I recall & next trip had a ball fishing with prob one of his best ever hauls fish wise.

I believe 3 kg is more than enough line strength for your average fisherman fishing estuaries as far as fishing rockhopping style goes well even back in the days when I did all I used was 3 kg & lighter.

Only if I was out targeting larger fish did I go heavier line class all you need is a reel which has a nice smooth drag & you'll get your fish.

Prob with most peeps is , if the fish starts taking drag the 1st thing they do is lock the drag system up & on light line you cant do that you have to let the fish run for a couple of reasons.

Fish will tire & wont give you hell @ the boat or rocks
If you lock up then with some species of fish with soft mouths the hook will just rip right out

JG you also forgot that if you lock up your line will go POP!

To answer the original question, go as light as possible without getting busted off every time. If you regularly land fish using the 4lb leader then I don't see any problem. I start with 4lb leader for my bream, but move up to 6lb if the place is snaggy and may even bump it up to 10lb if I'm fishing oyster racks where it's sooo easy to get busted off by even a smallish bream.

I have made a horrible mistake and made the mistake more than once, I said that it was a 4lb line. What I should have said it is a 4kg line with a diameter of .26. It does have an IGFA rating on the brand and I have been using this for a very long time. The first one that I purchased I ran out as you do when fishing offen and when I went out to purchase another one I could not find it anywhere other than in a shop in the city (Sydney). I purchased this with out asking for the price as that was what I was after. I paid over $30.00 for 300 meters.



This 4kg line I use for my trace from the rocks and I have used this when fishing with Majed off his boat. From where I fish from I do not get snagged unless I get caught from a dirty fighter.



My main target from the rocks is Trevally. What do you say. I said Trevally. Some times large Trevally and some times smaller Trevally. I wait for the waves to bring the fish in over the rocks and tada. The larger Trevally do not get a dead lift from the water if the waves are not on. I wait. And sometimes I loose the fish.

I will say this. There was one time that I was fishing and this Trevally was going nuts doing all sorts of circles. What type of fish was this, I got to thinking. I saw it was a Travelly and it was being chased by a shark. No Way, I thought to myself. This was not a dead lift but more like a Olympic Hammer throw. No the shark did not follow.

Here I am again getting side tracked. Very hard to catch Bream from these rocks. Only did it once and it was not a small bream. And one other time that I saw a bream from these rocks was from my friend about 5 years ago. To target Luderick I go down to a 2lb trace. Yes this is correct. I checked it before typing this out.

When I went with Majed on his first boat he was using a sinker the size of a 20cent piece, and it was tied to the line so that the sinker would not go anywhere. I was using a number 1 or 0 ball sinker. I know that I caught more fish than him.

Second Majed story on his first boat.
Another time that we were on his boat fishing he fell asleep and I changed his rigs to fish very light ball sinker and I started catching fish but not wanting to wake him up. The third fellow there was also catching but really only wanted to read his book so I had four rods to look after. It was very busy for a little while. When Majed woke up we told him we had a run of fish.

I think that I should stop here or he might not speak to me again.

That should have been apparant catch !

Some of you who've followed my replies here & @ other boards will have noticed that I tend to take the piss out of those who babble on about using heavy lines.

Thats not fishing in my books not to mention spending most of my years game fishing where the fish tend to be bigger & Runus alot Fustus than esuary fish I believe it's more important to have line capacity on a reel than line strength.

Another thing & it gets back to my earlier comments of people tightening up their drags when a fish wants to run, if a fish has alot of line out on you instead of tighting the drag you should be backing the drag off to compensate for water pressure on the line.



Christos unless you are fishing comp dont waste your money on IGFA tested line all IGFA on the label means is it will break @ or below the specified rating whereas non IGFA lines will generally break over wot they are rated @.



A bit to light 4lb trace is light enough & for those who are scratching their heads most nigger fishermen fishing off the rock use a heavier mainline then drop down to a lighter leader this leader can be anything up to say 8ft long depending on depth you want to set your float @.

Heavier mainline gives you a bit of insurance against line rubbing against rocks & the lighter leader wont spook the fush.

[quote]When I went with Majed on his first boat he was using a sinker the size of a 20cent piece, and it was tied to the line so that the sinker would not go anywhere. I was using a number 1 or 0 ball sinker. I know that I caught more fish than him.
/quote]

I go even smaller & people who've never fished with me B4 think I'm about to play a joke on them
If there's no current you shouldn't even be using lead just allow the bait to float out with burley.

I agree with you on this one. Go the smaller ball when fishing the river. I have not tried with out lead as yet. I know one day the time will be right for me to do that.

I use a small bug (lead) when fishing off the rocks. This trends not to get stuck in the rocks and so seems to be a little bit better than other lead. When the wind is blowing in the right direction I go a very small ball (don't seem to have very small bugs) and just let the wind take out my bait.

I'm surprised you're using lead @ all off the rocks esp if you're fishing for trevelly

Trevelly generally swim mid water & are very easy to pick out on a sounder when they're about they will still feed off the bottom though but if you're fishing in calm condiontions try no lead & keep feed line out to allow bait to stay in the zone alot longer.

Again this will depend on the wait of the bait you are using 1/2 a pilly will sink quicker than say a prawn

You bugger Christos, that was years ago and now you tell me....

I think fishing light has been the best thing ever, and like Jumpus said, i had my best session a few months ago with very light gear....For the tyoe of fishing i do, light gear suits me fine.

Most people would be amazed how hard it is to break even light line, grab a light outfit & tie it to a brick.
A test everyone should try at least once.

Oooo I can imagine people trying this over their foot.

Yes once would be fine to try.

Now why didn't think of that Fed do Golden Bricks work any better ??

Got a call from that guy who talks to Dead Fish yesterday ewes know the guy I'm talking about ??

The Fish Whisperer Dave !

Anyways he'd recovered from the sea sickness of last trip & wanted to re-stock his 8 freezers & 2 cool rooms with fish again

Anyways snuck out after the thunderstorm yesterday arvo only tool a couple of 3kg sticks out & my 2kg spin stick had Fed out 1/2 a pilly screamer of a run but missed hookup only because fish let go of bait.

Changed to a new bait & out it went again a couple ogf minutes later the baitrunner was screaming so I turned the handle to hook the fish & I did do just that, now this fish didn't even know it was hooked it took around 1/2 the spool of line & headed towards the deep water out in the channel.

Originally thought it was a jew & did well on the 3 kg outfit to get the fish back to the boat esp when I couldn't consentrate cause I was Kacking myself laughing @ Dave who was getting a stiffy he thought this fish would fill 2 of his freezers

Even funnier was the sight of him just standing there holding the net, I asked when not Kacking myself Dave wots the net for ?? I'm gonna release the fish ewe guys should've seen the look on his face ewes would've been Kacking it as well.

Anyways back to the fish even B4 getting a bit of a epsy of it I told Dave it would not fit into the net & I've got a pretty big landing net well when I said that Daves stiffy got bigger didn't it ?? & he was thinking maybe 3 freezers.

Anyways guys it was a bloody Kung Fu Fush around the 10 kg mark & as I said earlier it didn't know it was hooked I have found this to be the case with alot of fish when fishing light tackle they seem to be more relaxedthan if you'd hooked them on much heavier line.

Anyways when this Kung saw the boat it was shut the gates it bolted off again & there was no way in hell I was going to stop him knew I was a gonna when it started heading for the reef.

BUT !

The line never broke/snapped Iit rubbed on rock & thats how I lost the fish like I've said on many occasions it's amazing how much pressure you can actually put on a fish using light line

i just pulled out 1 of my rods with a 4 kilo line and tied it to a brick and tried to break the line and i couldnt,

amazing :WowSpinBlue: