queensland Schulz Ray

[Cowfish13]

Nothing much to report, but I thought I should say how my second last fishing trip before the holidays end went:(

We went to Schulz yesterday for an hour after fishing the mouth of the river for no success. After a few good hits on my new SX40, I hooked into what I thought was a snag and then it took off. Obviously stingray. After a long 25min fight on my 4lb gear, a 60cm disk Ray popped up. It looked like it was mouth hooked as well which was weird. Unfortunately the 4lb finally gave way when I weas trying to beach it which is extremly difficult at Schulz on light gear. I had been holding the spool through out fight to allow a bit extra drag pressure that I could release when he took off for another run. If I had hooked it on a sand bank I would probably have caught it and got my lure back:(

Any way, that was a first for me:P A mouth hooked Ray on a HB:blink:

Also, I had been using a new leader joining knot. I usually use the Albright or the Uni-Uni knots, but this time I was using the Bimini Twist-Bristol knot. This was extremily strong and when the braid broke, it didn't break at the knot, it actually broke about 1m away from where the bimini twist started. I'm using this knot one all my set-ups now;)

[pinkey]

hehe nice one, good work with the light gear, takes me back to the day, i had never caught anything big, got a medium sized ray and it took me about 30 mins on 20lb line hahaha, i was so excited...

[Feral]

Cowfish13 wrote:

This was extremily strong and when the braid broke, it didn't break at the knot, it actually broke about 1m away from where the bimini twist started. I'm using this knot one all my set-ups now;)

Be careful, thats a good way to loose a lot of braid! having the line break at the knot has its advantages, like keeping $50 worth of braid!

[Cowfish13]

This was when it was right at my feet, so not much chance of loosing alot of braid. But that is a good point that you raised. However, I think that the reason why it broke where it did was because when I was taking my hand away from the spool to allow it to take some line off when it was taking a run earlier in the fight, I accidentally "plucked" the braid (like you would a guitar string) and I think that this may have weakened it

[fishyman]

i have changed to a bimini twist tony jones knot. works great!

[pinkey]

What braid are you using cowfish?

[Cowfish13]

I got nitlon on one spool (4lb), some random stuff on the other (it's called Muscu-line I think, 15lb)

Then on other reels I've got Fireline Crystal (6lb) and Tuf line (15lb).

The Bimini-Twist ties really well in all braids and GSP's, but not too well in mono. However, in the 4lb stuff, because it is so thin, I've got to do 80-100 twists instead of 30-50.

[fishyman]

ok is it just me or has the forum gone dead lol

[Clawhammer]

"ok is it just me or has the forum gone dead lol "

Nah I'm here 'lurking'...had a long weekend of 'spinebashing'..just waiting to see if anyone did anything interesting!?

plus I'm downloading a whole HEAP of porn on the other drive, so...:laugh:

[pinkey]

80 - 100 twists, doesnt that get realy annoying?? do you sit there for half an hour doing it the night before? .

[Feral]

Brian showed me how to tie a Bimini at Monduran last year, probably took him less than 2 minutes, and that was while giving instruction! The thing I dont like about them is you cant "renew" them easily, (every couple of dozen casts, I like to retie my lures, so they are not sitting on an area that is worn from the lures action) and you need to tie in a ring or similar (I dont use rings on my lures) to allow lure changes. But they look very strong.

[Cowfish13]

pinkey wrote:

80 - 100 twists, doesnt that get realy annoying?? do you sit there for half an hour doing it the night before? .

You'd be surprised. It only takes about a minute or less to do the twists. Here's a link on how to do the Bimini Twist http://www.leadertec.com/tipsandtechniques/fishing_knots/knots_Bimini.html

And here is a link on how to do the leader knot (bristol)http://www.georgepoveromo.com/lineleaderconnection.htm

[fishyman]

for those that dont know there is also another way of closing off a bimini twist.

it involves using a pull through and wrapping over that with the tag end 4-5 times then pulling it under the bimini.

personally i am currently using cowfish13's link's method but am keen to try the pull through method aswell