Argh 0 for 1 yesterday

I got some unexpected free time yesterday and took my 5yo out for a quick trip. Got on the river about 1030 and found everyone had left about 10 and with the water low and crystal clear there was 1 slot i knew of that would hold a fish or two. Got tangled 2x with a rediculous amount of braid someone had broken off, yanked and yanked and got the gear freed up. Made a few cats got my depth dialed in and got my bobber down. The fish stayed down for about 30 secs then came up and rolled, it was a beauty, and large at 14lbs or so, for a river that routinely kicks out 6ld brats. I was running down the rocks to hand the rod off to my son and the fish dove down and started to run then everything went slack and i watched my bobber turn on it's side and float away. The darn mainline had snapped and the fish was OFF, `17pound nanofil....The beautiful fish i lost then proceeded to jump for about 5 mins all up and down a large pool below us.

The rod was still rigged with everything I had used thursday and had gotten 4 fish with it. Only thing I can think of is the braid I tangled with had frayed my line. We fished around for awhile longer then headed home. Hiked around for a bit and let my 5yo lead on some of the trails, he is getting a really good sense of direction. Found some mushrooms, tried to identify them, just to make sure we ended the outing with him having fun.:thumb:

bummer, I agree with you, the mainline probably nicked during a previous fish or braid 'fight' and the strength it had left was less than your leader...:grumpy:

Ugh! Hate the mainline breaks. I've experienced that periodically and though not as diligent as I should be, try to remember to occasionally check it's condition/strength near the ends as it does tend to eventually weaken near the terminal rigging or where you commonly stop at your rod tip for casting. Especially on a float rig where the sliding action might also contribute to wear.

Of course even my 'inspections' sometimes don't do any good, but I have caught a couple breaks, literally before they happened where a couple short tugs and snap! "Yay, woulda really sucked if that was a fish!" moments have happened at least twice that I can remember and that is a glorious feeling

If that happened to me, (it occasionally happens) it would ruin my entire week. I would go home with the thought of destroying all my gear, selling my boat and taking up golf or maybe stamp collecting. That night I would be staring out the window into the dark and planning the next days attack!


Good post Native Fisher! You got me thinking about all the fish I lost!

Camo said:

... and taking up golf or maybe stamp collecting.

Click to expand...

Choose stamp collecting. Golf probably ranks as one of the most frustrating activities I know

How many times do we tell ourselves that a knot, or line will be fine for one more cast, only to find out we took it one cast too far... sounds like a nice fish though, and if you and your kid had a good time life is sweet!

I use the double palomer on the nanofil with great success. this post reminds me of a time a few weeks ago when I tied up a jig and 99 percent of the time I give them the pull and wiggle test, but forgot on this one cast after I had reeled it in I gave it the test and it popped with very little pressure, so I did a retie and the next cast landed a 12 lb buck that was not happy. It hurts when the gear fails after all the work we put into going after them.

Bummer....
I remember a time when my braid mainline snapped and watching my bobber go flying upstream.
Looked like when Jaws was towing the barrels across the water surface in the movie.
Having seen the fish jump earlier in the fight, that was the only legit 20 lb steelhead I've ever hooked. Just a hog.
The look on the guides face when the line snapped was pretty interesting.... as was his and my language.
SF