Daytime Swordfishing ???

[Nomad]

Yesterday, I decided to give this daytime swording a shot so I headed out looking for my first daylight fish. About half an hour after dropping the line starts to peel off of the reel just like it does when you've snagged the bottom. My buddy swears that the sinker wasn't touching the bottom. The only problem is that the fight was over after less than two minutes. The double line parted where it was tied to a wind on leader. I was only using 80# braid so it didn't surprise me too much when it broke off. I guess my question is do these fish usually stay near the bottom after being hooked and how long is it till you can start gaining any line? (I know that not all fish fight the same or are the same size)

Thanks in advance!

[iriesoul]

For $150 I will show you the way!

[Disco Lady]

[kyle]

When you connect the braid to your wind-on instead of going through once to connect them go through 5 times. This will give the braid a larger area to grab on the wind-on.

If you only go through one time the braid will cut the dacron at the top of the wind-on, which is most likely why you broke off.

[RiskTaker]

Nomad:

Good job that you got a hook up, in the daytime. Unfortunately, your rig failed. If you do choose to fish in the daytime you really need to be sure to do a good job on your terminal line connections.

The loss of tackle is the obvious part, and losing 2000 feet of spectra braid, at a pop can get to be very expensive and quick, not to mention the other expensive paraphenalia that you may have tacked on to it. Unfortunately, there could also be a swordfish dragging around a 1/3 mile of line until the hook decides to come loose.

I have experienced a number failures at the connection of a spectra braid double line to some other attachment point. So if you choose braid you will have to learn how to tie it effectively, as it is different than mono.

Here are a few suggetions that may help for a different outcome next time.

- Like Kyle suggested you are more prudent to do multiple loops on your loop to loop connection. 5 loops is EXCELLENT, but I typically do just 3. Make sure you cinch them uniformly and carefully like they show on your wind-on leader illustration on the back cover.

- If you attach spectra line to any attachment ring other than to another line, this will most likely become your weakest linkage. I have had a trolling planer pop at this precise location, one reason why I prefer to use 300-500 mono for a poor man's downrigger when there is a choice. But if you choose to make a direct attachment make sure you bump the test up, explained next, and be sure to use an offshore swivel knot or a Cat's Paw to make that connection. Many other types of knots will fail on you faster than you can say, "Pop goes my terminal connection" .

- One thing that you can do to fortify your double line, especially if you are using 80# braid: you can tack on a reasonable length of 130# braid by doing an in-line splice (mine are typically 2 feet long, one foot of each side interlinked). From the 130# you can now create your double line, and a spliced loop is the way to go if you have a couple of minutes to splice your loop. It is 100% and would be preferred to any knot although sometimes you just heed to getter done quickly with a knot.

- In your scenario you could have had your loop to loop done with a 130# -200# interconnect (assuming your wind-on leader had the 200# braid loop). That will probably fix your weakest link connection but where it would likely break next you may not know.

- That being said, you may sometimes want to have a predictable failure point should you over stress your line. For example, you could have 130# braid as your main line and then neck down to 80# closer to your terminal gear. If you got fouled on the bottom, you could likely break off within the 80# linkage and save the bulk of your mainline. But still use a beefed up loop to loop connection.

Good luck getting your next fish, in the boat.

[Sopla2o]

RiskTaker... That was an excellent post. I have yet to try this technique ... Excellent post....

[Nomad]

Thanks Kyle and RT for the solid advice. I didn't feel 100%
about the rigging because #1 had to rush through it and #2 it was my first time with these specific techniques. The only reason I tried it was because we were trying to capitalize on the decent weather. Can't wait to try it again.

[ballyhu]

- One thing that you can do to fortify your double line, especially if you are using 80# braid: you can tack on a reasonable length of 130# braid by doing an in-line splice (mine are typically 2 feet long, one foot of each side interlinked). From the 130# you can now create your double line, and a spliced loop is the way to go if you have a couple of minutes to splice your loop. It is 100% and would be preferred to any knot although sometimes you just heed to getter done quickly with a knot.

This is good advice. It's what I do ...Never had a failure