SAI tope/blue shark meet, carrigaholt 18/19-07-09

thanks, i was spoofing a bit about the weight because everybody else does

I didn't want to comment when I first read the weight but was thinking you may have bought one of those "special specimen scales" John

Nice blue easily 80 - 100lbs

thanks, i was spoofing a bit about the weight because everybody else does

I didn't want to comment when I first read the weight but was thinking you may have bought one of those "special specimen scales" John

Nice blue easily 80 - 100lbs

nice blue,JD, what rod and line have you on the avet.
what depth was the bait set when it took?
Pat

the shark took the furthest out and deepest ( 30m) bait, the avet LX takes a full spool
of trilene big game 40lb mono, about 370 yards i think, the rod was a diawa tdx 30/50
This setup is probably too heavy for the typical blue shark, but if something big comes
along......

well done lads,looks like everyone had a good time,lovely blue shark

Interesting to see that you were fishing Mono all the way through John. Did you wait until the shark moved away with the bait before the hit.? I would be inclined to use Braid for it's floating abilities. Mono can bow as it sinks in the middle. I would think this would make the strike quite difficult.

Just thinking out loud

Kev

Hi Kev,

the conventional wisdom is you have to use mono when fishing like this with balloons
and im convined of this too

The big reason is that braid cuts what it rubs against. As the boat swings about on the
swell the 4 lines cross each other then swing back without damage. If one person
thinks he knows better and tries to use braid, his line will catch the wind and tide
differently and cut nicks in the other lines and tangle everybody.
also, braid is invisible to the inevitable flock of gulls who will tangle up in it
all the time.
if you tie a balloon onto braid the constant rubbing due to the wave motion
damages it
Finally, the stretch in mono is an advantage when playing a heavy fish as
you are less likely to pull the hook out or break off at a knot

i found a very interesting article on blue shark migration on andrew alsop's
site
http://www.whitewatercharters.co.uk/shark-fishing.htm

I suppose I wasn't thinking about the Charter situation, where you will have quite a few lines out on a drift.

Some very interesting points there John. Thanks for the info.

Kev

great fishing lads,jw well done on the blue,fantastic looking fish,gives me the longing to get out,bar the crap weather,dezzer......

I would think this would make the strike quite difficult.

Hey MAC, it is fair to say that I'm new to shark fishing as this is only my second season. But one thing I learnt is that you do not need to strike. It is enough if you just tighten your drag while shark runs. Even if you want to strike - line will be reasonably tight as shark will be taking line during run.