bernds social media bashing

[Paul Arden]

Yep I think this will be a good game: to pick up different sizes weights off the ground. I’m pretty sure with my hand to fish technique I can lift a 10KG weight. Big test of knots this one!

To lift the same weight with the rod I’ll need a FG butt. I know the HT12 can do this. It’s hard work but possible and it’s been tested.

Many times I’ve measured the pull at the fly for anglers at different rod angles using a range of rod weights, namely 45 degrees and 90 degrees. I always ask them to apply slightly more force than they normally would and try not to explode the rod! It’s always better if it’s someone else’s rod but we’ve never broken one yet! I’ve measured 9 and 10WTs of most interest.

At 45 degrees typical is a pull of about 7-8lbs. At 90 degrees it’s usually 1.5-2lbs. That’s a pretty exciting bend in the rod to get there!! You can forget landing a Snakehead here in the snags when your max stopping force is 8lbs. It’s very rare to bring these fish out of snags, and often the mere contact with a snag slices the leader. Typically my leader is 40-50lb mono. Wire is 40lbs. 1 in 10 bite clean through 30lb wire (no idea how). The flyline pops at 35lbs (SA bonefish 8). The weak point is the Lefty knot in the 40lb knottable wire.

Years ago I came to the conclusion that the purpose of increasing rod angle leverage is to reduce pressure on the tippet. That’s why we teach high rod angles when trout fishing. It’s actually quite difficult to smoothly hand line 1-1.5lbs of force. But when you want to apply 5-10KG of force the flexible flyrod is a disadvantage. FG can do it but neither of us likes casting FG!! The hybrid butt makes it better and for Bluewater and boat gunwales this makes a lot of sense. A 30 minute fight the way I fight Snakehead would probably put your back out

Cheers, Paul

[Morsie]

Pretty standard type of fishing we do a lot of here Paul, casting to fish that live tight in amongst the snags. We used to practise fighting fish like that on tuna. We call it "give no line" tactics. Take a wrap and hang on, 20lb tippets. Your rod work, hand movements, and body movement need to be spot on, but those snakeheads look like a gudgeon, lots of wriggle and not much pull. I look forward to be showing otherwise some day. Tuna are the best fish I know to learn just how much pressure you can put on a fish through a fly rod. In the tests I've done, through a hard bent rod you can basically pull the rod line weight rating. The hiccup comes when the fish surges and we aren't ready.

[Paul Arden]

A fish surging is not a problem because I can let go of the line! The fight here is basically try to hold them. You can literally hold fish to 3KG and they will kite straight under the boat. If they can get the other side of the boat then you have no option but to play off the rod butt. Pressure is reduced until you can get the rod around the other side of the boat. Larger fish in the 5KG and up you cannot hold. The way I fight those is to get to maximum stopping force and If I feel something is going to give I release. The fish runs a little, maybe 15’, feels no resistance and stops running. Then I try to hold them again. If the fish does what I want I put little or no pressure on the fish. If the fish doesn’t do what I want I try to hold them.

Gourami is a much more technical fight. Here the maximum force you can apply to the tippet is only 9lbs and then the hooks start to straighten. You can’t hold a 4-5KG Goirami with 9lbs so you have to follow them through the snags – hence braid tippets. Lots of fun! Any Gourami of that size landed in the stumps is a small miracle to me. But if you upscale to 40lbs for Snakehead you have should be able to land most of the bigger ones in the 5-8KG range, which is the ones we want of course! The spin anglers use 80-100lb braid but we don’t have that option with a flyline that pops at 35lbs.

I did some testing of leaders but I wanted to save my floating lines and so used a sinking line. I couldn’t work out why the flyline kept breaking since it was an 8WT that I thought had a 35lb core. I couldn’t apply the same amount of force as I usually applied without the flyline popping. It turns out SA sinking 8WT lines have a 22lb core, which is what the spring balance was showing me. It’s not enough.

Snakehead are strong/powerful but they are not fast. For me it’s a bit like how I would imagine fighting a bulldog. Gourami are faster and smart. Sebarau hit the fly like a train but no problems fishing 20lb tippet for those; they have a lot of speed but they don’t have strength.

You’ll have to get over. We’ll have a blast!

Cheers, Paul

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Morsie,

As to the hiccup...

Do big tuna telegraph when they are about to run? I've only caught Little Tunny and Blackfins, the little guys, and really paid no attention at the time.

Tarpon telegraph very distinctly. Their kick starts in their shoulders and moves through their body back to their tails. So there is a distinct shudder right before they sprint. They can be fought almost as if you were using a hand-line, with only a slight bend at the butt for some cushion. Not quite as drastic as Paul's technique, but almost straight, and 75% of the drag is from the hands not the reel.

Once you figure this out, you can fight bigger fish with lesser rods... its all about the leader and knowing how much tension you are putting on it.

Paul... just curious... do the SH give you a clue?

Our local SH have just begun to escort babies. I may just have to get on them to see what I can learn. Many are caught on conventional tackle with long casts. They are almost impossible to sight fish, especially on fly since their eyes are on top and they are so damn smart!

[Paul Arden]

The Snakehead kick also comes from the body, Gary, but there is not much time to prepare for it. It’s very interesting: when a (not hooked) Snakehead is rising close to the boat, and sees the boat before it surfaces, you hear his body kick subsurface - can be several metres down. It’s like a “doof” on a subwoofer. You don’t have to see the fish to know you’ve spooked one!

Because I’m not on the reel (and there is absolutely no time or space to get on the reel by the way), when the fish is at the surface I apply very little force and if the fish turns down from this point there is virtually no force coming from my end – what I never want to see is someone playing with the rod being held up at this point because if the fish dives under the boat that’s going to compress the rod tip. Trying to hold a fish at the surface is usually a recipe for disaster (unless it’s a trout and you’ve got its head up and pulling it across a weedbed of course!).

It’s also important to realise I don’t pull all the time. If I pull all the time the fish tries to fight all the time. I’m trying to break the fish, not pull it into the net. When it does what I want then I only need steer him.

With Snakehead if I can stop them dead in their tracks three times then it’s usually game over. Stopping the first run is the one that counts and then also the one after it’s seen the boat. Then it’s actually quite a non-brutal affair. Funny thing about them is they can’t turn big angles away from the net and always swim in. Gourami can flip 180 on the surface which can make life interesting but Snakehead can’t do this.

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As you can see it’s a bit of a mess down there. 20’ down in most situations and you’ve lost. At all costs that fish must not be allowed to get there and Snakeheads’ instincts are to dive. As far as I’m concerned the weak point in our tackle is the rod. I mostly use an 8 because I prefer the shot. I put clients on the 10. I do use the lower third of the rod when playing, but not when halting runs.

Finding Snakehead in open water with babies is different of course. It’s possible to find them over 100’ of water. Just not very often!

I’d be very interested to hear about how those Snakehead you have there behave. I’m on a few US Snakehead groups but everything they do is totally different to here. Whether that’s species, territory or just a different approach I don’t know. Here what makes things work is the pea-soup algae. It allows us to see them. Surface visibility is 3-6’ depending on the time of year.

Really interested to know what you find. I don’t think you need wire there and braid will suffice.

Cheers, Paul

[Morsie]

You get the feel when that surge is coming, if they aren't big fish, say 8-12 lbs you'll go with them (body) for as long as you dare, to stop and turn them. A couple of those pulled up surges really fixes them. Some species always just go like the clappers right from the start, usually the smaller species which are similar to your false albacore, they are the ones to practise "give no line" tactics on. Longtail tuna (which grow to around 50lbs) either go like the clappers from the start and do a couple of long runs and then circle under the boat OR go nowhere and just slug it out vertically - horrible things when they do that. The smaller ones of these you can pull right up. There are other reef fish that you just have to stop. If you're in 12feet of water and its all sharp coral you can't give an inch of line, its real knuckle dragging stuff or its going to cost you fly lines, flies etc etc etc. I'll post a link to some youtube stuff. Paul was actually on the trip this was filmed but we didn't get to fish together unfortunately. There's another part to the Aquasoul Claremont as well that has some real white knuckle reef fly fishing as well. A lot of that is what we cut our teeth on. I remember fishing with a guy who was a dedicated proponent of fighting every fish off the reel. We lost his first 8 before he changed tactics and decided to "give no line". I guess you need enormous faith in your knots as well. The maximum tippet I'll fish in these circumstances is 30lb, and usually a tough fc.

[Paul Arden]

Nice videos! Yep it’s all the same stuff; low rod fighting angles. When the fish is under your feet and travelling behind you then the low rod angle is almost straight down.

Had a great time on that trip. The best day was when I got dropped off on the flat because I wanted to sight-fish the flats (on me Tod) and not strip flies over reefs. Had an awesome day with no one else in sight! Some small Permit, some respectable GTs and a Golden amongst others.

Have you experimented with braid tippets for the reefs Morsie? The only problem I can see is if you go diameter for diameter then it’s too strong. It’s been a game changer for Gourami. Diameter-wise 8lbs mono is ~25lb braid. I don’t know how it would be on coral but it’s tough as boots.

Give me a few years (five or so) and my plan is to buy a sailing boat and fish all the top end of Aussie and then head off. Just need to be guiding again and sell 500 rods! I reckon we will get to fish more together then!

Cheers, Paul

[Morsie]

Got 2 great old mates who are retired guides and have bought themselves a bargain basement but very comfortable chugger to fish that top end of Oz Paul. Waiting for my invite...bloody mail... Yes I remember you reporting on that day and we swamped you the following day and had a pretty special time. I remember being faced with a swarm of trevally holding in the current as the tide came through the sand bar, but beyond them were swarms of smallish permit as well, some of them were pretty good too. If you moved your fly you were gone, a trevor would grab it, but if you let it sit a permit would pick it up. I got 7 that day, some small ones out the front and then bigger ones inside. I was really stuck with making that movie on that trip - fortunately the camera man had enough of me, he's gone on to be fly fishing obsessed which is great. I had a couple of good mates on board as well and we just never got to fish together which was pretty disappointing. Would always prefer to be walking the flats on my own.

[Paul Arden]

Yep I had to avoid the last day! I can’t stand fishing in a group But I had an awesome day on that spit on my own. Really very memorable. I’m not sociable when fishing; I’ll share fishing with one (if I have to) but not ten! The peace, the quiet and the stillness of being out there was tremendous. Not sure why it was done that way. There was a bunch of different locations and everyone could have taken them in turn. There were a bunch of river months for example; Tim and I went up one, we looked around and we had another boat as company!! Anyway it was nice to see how the other half live And awesome to fish with Gav too! Tim’s been back a few times as well. A 44’ Cat is what I need for the next instalment in my life!

Cheers, Paul

[Bernd Ziesche]

How much of your toilet-time do you spend on social media :-)?

Too much. As if I wouldn't be enough under pressure in such moments!?