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Snapping off

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scotmcpherson

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Well yesterday I had my first set of cast related snap-offs. I have been practicing a lot last year and just started practicing again now that fishing season is in full swing.

 

I practice my distance casting while fishing as many of you know. Anyway, last year I practiced until I was comptetant with the easy cast and full OTG casts, and I got quite good at them, able to bounce my lure at te end of the line when I spooled it. That was a great achievement and thanks to Tommy farmer who helped coach me through a couple bad practices (not to forget other who helped).

 

Anyway this year I have been focusing more on the pendulum style of casts. I can't yet reach as far as I can with a good OTG cast, but I am working on my technique before putting too much emphasis on distance.

 

Yesterday I tied on a 3oz kastmaster, and after a few starting casts felt up to the task to try one good wallop out there just to see how far I can get it right now. Well I have no idea how far it went or where cause the lure flew off somewhere behind and above me. What a strange feeling it is to have the rod suddenly unloaded like that. I almost dropped my rod.

 

Anyway no one was on the beach and I was waiting to hear a window crash, but I never heard anything so I am pretty sure it landed safely in the weeds or grass somewhere.

 

So I tied on another one, but 2.5 oz and after another 5 casts that one flew off. I am pretty sure it wasn't only the first of te cast. I think the end of my line has been getting micro abraded by the sand for the last several days. Time to start using a shock leader even though I use mono mainline anyway.

 

I guess if I can break off a lure like it was carrying some good force. I never had a snap off like that before.

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Scott,


2 Things to look at



 First check and double check all your guides you can do this with a knife or razor blade rotating inside the guide it will catch on a crack or a cotton ball works to it will snag and sometimes leave a small amount of fiber in the crack



Second slow down If you come around to fast you will jerk your cast and can break off. I had this problem when I had started doing a full swing. It should be a smooth acceleration not 0 to full speed. 


Hope this helps 


Sam

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I had been using 20lb mono, and for my skills level and the weight I was casting its been just fine. Now going past 3 oz casting with greater force on the line I think I have just graduated to needing a shock leader. I really only posted this as a comment, not really looking for help in this case. As it turns out I replaced my mainline with 15lb mono (I still can't really afford a braid mainline) because I needed additional line anyway, and tied. 50 leader to it.

 

Because of the little bit of confidence boost, I really slammed 3 oz out farther than I ever have before. I almost spooled the 15 lb mono and the most astounding thing was when I cast and the lie was coming off it was noticeably longer, I had time to think "it's still going?" So I made the right choice, at least for today. I can't measure what I did today, but there are some buoys out there where I fish, and I can see a noticeable difference in the distance.

 

I even lengthened the distance my easy cast went (I just wanted to see). The shock leader as I said before I think have me just a touch more confidence I wasn't going to break off which has always been a worry but never happened with 20lb mono before yesterday.

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I was going to get 30 or 40 lb also, but I really only had budget for one spool of line since i also had to replace my lures as well and a whole spool is cheaper than 20 ft of leader (11ft rod). I put a little extra on so it wraps the spool 6 or 7 times with a full drop in case I need to trim some off.

 

I'll get some heavier lures this week, but so far I have found its much better for me to increase my weight slowly over time rather than starting with 5 oz and working slowly toward my distance. You see as I said my purposes are to fish and the distance casting is to enable more coverage so I'd rather be effectively fishing rather than messing up my casts (and my fishing line) because I started too heavy a weight.

 

I'll buy some 3.5 and 4 oz lures this week, and maybe I'll graduate to 5 oz before the end of this season.

 

Last year I started with 1.5 oz and worke my way up to just 3 oz casting to 190yards +- 25 yards tolerance for estimation errors. It's strictly an estimate of how much line my reel holds, and nothing more than that. I still haven't made it out to a field yet that's big enough to really measure. One day...one day

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Scot, two suggestions.

 

First use a shock leader, 40 lb should work just fine.

 

Second buy a tool called a "Tie-Fast", it help to tie a nail knot. A nail knot puts the tag end parallel to the line, not a right angle to it like Uni & Blood type of knots do.

If being stupid got us into this mess, how come being stupid can't get us out?
I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all.

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Scot mono stretches, when we cast with a light shock leader or no shock leader more of our energy goes into stretching the mono and less energy goes into propelling the lead. A heavier shock leader will stretch less and transfer more of the energy to the cast.



     Also a light shock leader will give you more of a rubber band affect when you release Your cast the line tries to recover from the stretch and Your spool will over rev, to compensate You will need more breaking to keep from backlashing witch will hurt your distance. A heavier shock leader will reduce the rubber band affect so you can cast with less breaking.   Most people can cast farther with a shock leader that has less stretch.              cocoaken


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Yeah, I have a 50lb leader on now and it seems to have made a huge difference, whether due to elasticity or to confidence. I believe it's probably a bit of both.

 

Dave,

Losing a $10 or $15 lure isn't as big a deal as loosing a half a spool of braid. One is a smaller hit absorbed over time, the other is "ouch that just cost me $75...oh crap, I don't have $75 to replace it." I can replace lures one at a time, I can't replace just 30ft of braid one section at a time though.

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It is easiest with two people, but once done, it lasts... The other person only needs to be able to follow direction. This is a oldy, but goody...


I have done a lot of seminars on knot tying over the years and I am always surprised at how little this knot is used. With practice it is a easy knot to tie (at least the short ones) and there is nothing stronger... Until Wind-on leaders showed up, I either used a short leader with a Sampo Ball Bearing Swivel, or the long Bimini... After 20 years of guiding and over 45 years of fishing, I have seen to many knots fail on fish (thankfully, most of them have not been mine) and just don't want to "loose" that fish of a life time!


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