Fishing question

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workinforwood

workinforwood

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2007
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8,173
Location
Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA.
For you more seasoned pro's out there...I am a true amateur when it comes to fishing. I am just self taught at it really, and have mostly just been a hook and worm type a guy. I don't watch all the shows or know much about the products out there. Heck..I have caught and released thousands of fish in my life time..because that's all I do when I catch them is let them go, since I am not interested in eating them. I just taught myself with the internet aid to tie a Uni Knot..that's kinda cool...otherwise I don't really know any fishing lingo. I purchased a new fishing pole the other day, an 80 Lb Graphite 4 piece rod. Nothing wrong with my normal rod, but I needed something solid but more sectional so I can fit it in my suitcase to take to Hawaii with me. Being that I am in Michigan, I know those Hawaii people, well they sleep till noon or later over there. <this being by my time, not theirs>. When I get there at 9pm in 2 weeks from now..it's only going to be 3pm their time, and I'll be ready for bed and ready to hit the town at midnight! :laugh:

Anyhow..the plan I have is I can get up at like 5-6 am and go do some fishing for a couple hours. My hotel is on the beach, and I can't imagine what else to do at that time of day.

So...I got some 40 Lb Braided fishing line and some big huge fish hooks. Anything crawling around the beach early in the morning goes on the hook..that's my motto! Maybe not the homeless guy though. :wink:

I tried out this new heavier line..it is 40lb Power Pro braid but it is the same physical size as 10 LB fishing line. I put a small lure on it and tossed it into the neighbor's pond. First cast, not problem. Second cast didn't go as far and a small tangle developed in the line. I am able to just pull out the tangle, like it's really a twist back tangle. Eventually after a dozen casts, I had a monster tangle in the line just beyond the end of my pole. So why is that? Am I going to have problems with this fishing line in Hawaii? I bought it with the thoughts that if I toss out some bait and hook some big nasty beast that maybe I can pull it to shore, eat it's heart and make a pen from it's spine. yea...but really I was thinking the fish could be a good size and have big teeth, so a stronger line sounded like a good idea. Maybe I am over my head. I have fished in the ocean before and caught some dang big fish out there, but always on someone elses tackle and how it was set up is beyond me.
 
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I think it would help to understand what kind of reel you're using as well. I've used the PowerPro line for several years and it is excellent line. One word of caution though, DO NOT wrap that line around your fingers/hand and try to land a fish or pull on the line. It will cut you to the bone before you know it. When you say great big hooks, that is sort of a relative term to me. I would suggest size 2/0 or perhaps 3/0 Stainless Steel circle hooks. They will hold the bait better and they tend to hook the fish in the corner of the lower jaw which makes it a whole lot easier to unhook and release the fish. Since many states require a fishing license even in the ocean, you also want to check on the fishing laws before you go fishing. When I was in Hawaii in May, there we not too many critters on the beach that would serve as bait. You'll need to find some rock outcrops to find stuff. Good luck and let us know how you do.

p.s. When I was there everyone got up nice and early to enjoy a nice breakfast and walk the beach or get going on their days activities.

Jim Smith
 
(I fish for musky) ... First I would use 60-80 lb power pro, if you hook a toothy critter it might help. (40 lb line is considered light tackle!) A good pair of long pliers is a must & if you want a photo a boga grip is a good idea.
 
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My fishing reel is a decent low mid range price...it has a spool and you pull back a metal bar over the top to cast and then when you real, the metal bar pops back over to guide the fishing line around the spool.

I believe my fishing hooks are 2/0 and 3/0 stainless steel circle hooks as recommended by Cabella's, and I call the huge monsters because I generally fish blue gills with tiny hooks...if the hook is too big on those little guys, they just take the bait off it.
 
Have clean hands

Saltwater fish do not like the odor of gas, sunscreen, hair oil, etc. Scrub your hands three times with beach sand and sea water before touching bait.
 
Jeff,I think the tangles have something to do with the alignment of the stars.:biggrin: I always had the same problem. I am no fishing person so,I'm not going to be of much help. But,have a great time in Hawaii !:wink:
 
From your description, it sounds like you have a spinning reel. Line tangles are easy to prevent. First, it sounds as if line twist was created when putting the line on your reel. With a spinning reel, the spool should be laying flat on the floor so the line comes off in loops rather than in a straight line. After several cranks of the handle, stop and open the bail (that metal bar), pull some line off the reel to see if there is any twist in it. If not, continue to fill the reel to within 1/8" of being completely full.

If there is twist in the line, simply flip the spool over and continue to fill with line. A spinning reel (and spincast, too) creates line twist when filling the spool. By laying the spool on its side, you will create the opposite twist, which will result in no twist in the line. If you try to fill it as you would a baitcaster, you WILL get line twist.

Line twist and loops can be avoided during operation by manually flipping the bail after you make a cast rather than by cranking the handle to force the bail to close.
 
Circle hooks are great, but they are different than J hooks (regular hooks). You do not want to jerk to set the hook when a fish bites as you will pull the hook out of the fish's mouth. Circle hooks work best with a slow, steady pull, or by simply reeling to create the slow, steady pressure. When the hook gets to the corner of its mouth, the hook point will dig in and act as a fulcrum in a lever as the hook eye rotates toward you and the hook point buries in the mouth. Jerk too hard, and the point will not engage as the hook starts to exit the fish's mouth.

Circle hooks are used to help reduce the possibility of gut hooking a fish.
 
I can imagine it Stan...so now it is already reeled on to the spool. So how can I fix it now? If I put a weight on the end of the line....go somewhere, like a tall bridge and drop the line down...then raise it a bit off the ground or water...will it spin and untwist itself to normalcy? Or is it all just too late and I should take the reel and have someone like gander mountain spin new line onto it with a machine?
 
I just checked the regs for Hawaii and there is no license required for Marine recreational fishing. I your line continues to tangle, you might want to consider tying the end of the line to a secure object (tree, car bumber etc.) then open the bail on the reel and walk backwards about 75 yards. Close the bail on your reel and slowly pull the line tight hold it more a moment and then release the tension. Then disconnect the line from where you have it tied and hold the line between your fingers as you reel it back onto the reel. You should see any twists come out of the line as you reel it in.

Jim Smith
 
Looking at pictures, I use an open face spinning reel. Same type of reel I've always used and like...not like my daughters closed face spinning reel where you push a button and it all gets tangled up inside..I hate that.
 
Turn a dowel with a slight taper, insert one end into a drill and the other end into the empty spool. Attach the line, turn on the drill and put the line back on the spool. Then re-spool as previously described, checking for line twist as you go by opening the bail and pulling out a short length of line to see if it twists around itself.
 
The easiest way to correct for twisted line is to go to a park, hire a kid to pull your line out all the way and release it. Then reel it in again.
Tom
 
Wow...now that worked really good. Tied it..stretched it all out ..unfortunately it looks like my reel only holds about 125 feet of line if or so at this guage, reeled it back in between my fingers. Did a perfect clinch knot on a Booyah red pond lure and 3rd cast in pulled out a largemouth bass maybe 1.5 pounds or so. Interesting action on this pole and my reel sounds funny pulling in that line. I think I need to back off that tension...I pulled that bass in to shore like it was a minnow. I threw 5-6 more casts and never once did I get a backlash twist or tangle in the line. I was really getting worried..but now I feel really really good! :biggrin:

I just better not catch anything that fights me out beyond my line!

Will the ocean fish take any of my lures? I have some big lures..fake deep diver Muskey lures. I also have some decent sized metal lures with vibrating spinners and ceramic micro chip buzzers in them.

On the back of the fish hook package, it says to hook the fish then tie the line to a swivel ball, then the swivel ball to the fishing pole and the weight goes after the swivel.

What is the purpose of the swivel..I have some, but don't know what for?

Why the weight up ahead of the fish and the swivel? I always have run straight into a bait hook and then the weight dangles off the end...my theory being that the weight goes down into the dirt, and the worm floats a bit above this way.
 
Jeff, I'm not sure what kind of fish are in shallow waters around Hawaii, but 125 ft of line doesn't sound like near enough, 125 yards maybe, I used to surf fish along the east coast from Rhode Island up to Maine for Striped Bass and caught a few over 40 pounds, in the surf, and California we used to catch some small kelp bass and flat fish like small halibut and flounder, but 80 pound test on a spinning reel seems awful heavy, I used a Big Mitchel Garcia and loaded it with 25 pound Mono either Berkley Trilene XL or Stren You can haul in some pretty good size fish with 25 pound line, thats what the rod is for, if you're going out on a boat they should have tackle on board for clients. I would imagine that there should be some Ocean Perch and flounder and such in the shallow waters, but you might get lucky and get into some Wahoo I think they go down that far south, but you'd probably have to go out on some break water walls or jettys.
Try and ask Chris(kali) or Aaron maybe they could tell you what kind of surf fishing there is. Sand sharks are also a lot of fun to catch, not a lot of good meat, but there is some good tail and fins.
 
Thanks Ken. It's an 80 lb rod, 40 lb test line but it is stranded, and the physical size of it is the equivalent of 10 lb test. The problem is the spool is just not that big on my rod. I have more line, so perhaps I could re-spool it one more time so that there is a piece dangling out the end and we can splice on more line while in progress fishing should the need arise. Maybe I might know someone around here with a bigger reel I can use. I'll have to make a few phone calls and see. I am worried about 120 or so feet of line...and then, I'll probably just catch a 2 lb fish not even worthy of sushi.

I'm going to hook up with Aaron...his is just down the road from my hotel.
 
40 lb light?

socdad said:
I have fish for musky, first I would use 60-80 lb power pro, if you hook a toothy critter it might help. (40 lb line is considered light tackle!) A good pair of long pliers is a must & if you want a photo a boga grip is a good idea.
Click to expand...

Assuming use of a steel leader..40lb line sounds plenty heavy to me.
 
Small reel

workinforwood said:
Thanks Ken. It's an 80 lb rod, 40 lb test line but it is stranded, and the physical size of it is the equivalent of 10 lb test. The problem is the spool is just not that big on my rod. I have more line, so perhaps I could re-spool it one more time so that there is a piece dangling out the end and we can splice on more line while in progress fishing should the need arise. Maybe I might know someone around here with a bigger reel I can use. I'll have to make a few phone calls and see. I am worried about 120 or so feet of line...and then, I'll probably just catch a 2 lb fish not even worthy of sushi.

I'm going to hook up with Aaron...his is just down the road from my hotel.
Click to expand...
I would think a deep sea spinning real would hold a lot more line than 125 feet. I have 10 pound mono on my open face and have about 150 yards on there...If you are surf fishing rather than off docks or jettys or something you can need that much line just to get out to where the water is waist deep.
 
My spinning real is more for light duty ponds and small lakes. 100 ft of line is plenty for anything I ever did. I found a nice little salt water real online for $80 and it holds 300 foot of power pro at 30 lb test so I grabbed it up and it should be here a few days before I need it. I'll grab a couple steel leaders after work today too just to be safe.

I saw a website where people can go shark fishing on a boat trip at night, boat leaves at midnight or something like that. $125 a person...I might be down with that, but not sure I could talk the wife into it. Plus, there is only 3 of us and boat won't leave with less than 4 people. It's catch and release sharks too, which I am also down with that.
 
Smitty37 said:
Assuming use of a steel leader..40lb line sounds plenty heavy to me.
Click to expand...

I've caught muskie on 8 lb monofilament line...we have a lot of muskie around here. I wouldn't want to do it often (fishing for bass at the time), but it can be done.

If you have plenty of line, a good rod and reel, and your drag is set right, you can catch a much bigger fish than the line is rated for...I don't think a four piece rod is going to be strong enough to catch big ocean fish, personally....I prefer one piece rods.

Your best bet might be to hire a local guide, and they can take you to where the fish are. You might not need a whole boatload of people - maybe you can join up with a group of two that wants to go also!

Andrew
 
My most remembered fishing experience came in Hawaii. My wife and I were on our 10th anniversary. She wanted me to go fishing. I did not want to go fishing. -- You got it I went fishing. The only day available was that's right our anniversary. You can already smell the plot. Ok At 1:30PM the skipper calls out lines up in 5 minutes and we will be going back top port. Good time to shower and shave and be ready for our anniversary dinner. at 6:00PM.

In that 5minutes a Black Marlin hit the line. 3 1/2 hours later We landed the fish. My arms were like melted rubber. So it's 5PM now and its about 1 1/2 ride back to port. Well, It was the most expensive anniversary present I ever spent. My wife and I have two completely different stories now with 38 years in But oh was She mad! the every next day I drove her to the docks to see the Black marlin. 642lbs.

What I can remember the most was my arm were tried, I was in hot! water for not being on time for dinner and She has a beautiful set of pearls!

WE were not using 40lb test either!
 
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LOL, I thought your topic was about finishing! In the first sentence you said you were an amateur, at that point I re-read the topic.... Guess that just shows where my mind was tonight....
 
My new open face reel showed up today. It's really sweet, titanium parts and sealed bearings..very smooth. Even has 2 different drags on it..one for fishing and one for live bait, whatever that's all about I have no clue. Here's the questions though. The reel came with 2 spools. I have no idea why. The installed spool is beautiful matching metal spool to the reel. The second spool is black plastic, kinda ugly, and it is the same gear ratio as the metal spool, but the plastic spool also has ridges in it instead of a smooth surface where the line wraps. I remember the store employee told me on my original reel, I have to leave some regular fishing line on my reel, at least one layer, and splice in the fiber wire, or else the fiber wire will just spin on the reel. So I am going to just take a wild guess and say the black plastic spool is for direct application of the fiber wire stuff, and the metal spool is for regular fishing line. Assumptions are never good, so am I correct?
 
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