So I got one here for you gentlemen that may be a head scratcher or may be obvious.
I was fishing IOP for shark Sunday Afternoon. I had paddled baits out all afternoon and around six finally got a good bite. I gave him a few seconds to eat the bait then quickly took all the slack line up. As soon as the line came taut it immediately went limp. I reel the rest in and to my amazement the 80lb. Power pro had broken. This couldn’t have been a result of my sinkers chafing the line or the fish’s tail hitting the line because I had 100ft of 100lb. Mono on the setup.
Anybody have a guess as to what happened? The line wasn’t significantly chaffed that morning when I had gone over my gear.
My best guess is that the line had rubbed itself of one of the sandbars it was over so much that it was significantly weakened.
Last fall had a similar situation when we dropped a large bait just over 100yards off the beach. I am just assuming you experienced same issue we did which was the line hitting either sandbar or debries on the bottom causing the line to chaff and break. Its annoying as when it happened to me I lost just over 200 yards of 100lb mono so I feel your pain.
Braided line has a lot of advantages. However, one disadvantage is if you don’t cinch your knot down extremely tight, the knot will simply slip through and come loose.
While it’s possible the line was worn from being on the bottom, I don’t think it’s the likely cause, because it’s extremely difficult to break much lighter braid. The fact it went limp as soon as you tightened up seems to support the thought that the knot slipped.
Next time you tie your knot with braid, make sure you pull it VERY tight, leave a long tag end, and put a drop of superglue on the knot.
I’ll bite fishguy98, Probably 90% of my salt water fishing is done from the beach and I’m there 3-4 days a week. Also a life long Largemouth Bass fisherman, I have used many deferent brands/weights of braided line. With some techniques the high strength, small dia. low sretch is perfect. But my personal experience is braid will cut very quickly. I experimented with some braid, in the surf, last season… for me it failed. On one surf trip I lost 4 rigs just from casting. I started inspecting the main line when reeling back in, it would be frayed badly in many spots after only a few soaks on a tight line. So I can imagine kayaking bait out, the main line will drag across the bottom and be damaged…? I only use mono line in the surf and re-spool 3-5 times a year. My favorites for surf fishing are Ande, Berkley Big Game and Stren High Impact all in hi-vis green of some sorts, in 15-17lb. this time of year. With absolutly NO trouble with line or knot failure. Of course I am not Shark fishing…on purpose, but I do catch my share of them and big rays.
Good Luck!
sounds like a bite off to me. as your line sits stuff gets on it. the fish takes off the little pieces of stuff start moving thru the water. blues and spanish hit it, cutting it or almost cutting it. you go tight then slack, when you pull a knot you feel lots of weight before it goes. I had big problems in FL with cortland green spot dacron because of this.
~Russ
dparker is a much better resource than I am when it comes to surf fishing, but I think the problem was with your knot.
I have 30lb braid on my rods that I’ve used 2 Summers already, and I anticipate using the same line this Summer.
I’ve noticed the coloring on the PowerPro gets scrubbed off by the abrasion of the sand, but I just cut off a foot or two and retie when it gets too light looking. I’ve never had an issue with sand, but rocks and braid don’t mix, rocks will cut braid quickly.
What kind of knot did you use to join the braid and the 100 lb mono? I’m thinking you simply didn’t get it cinched tight, braid is notorious for slipping if it isn’t tightened.
I’ve fished with a few guys who thought their braid was breaking. After testing we found two things, 1) we marked the line and proved the knot slipped, or 2) they were tying direct to the hook, and the line was getting in the little notch in the eye, either cutting the line or slipping through the notch. If that’s the problem it’s solved by using a snell knot.