Marking Line depth

[Mazatlanreelnrockn]

What are some of the ways you use to mark the depth of your line. I am using high Vis 80lb and 50lb mono. I would like to mark at 100'-150'-200 feet ect.

[quack quack]

Use wax line to put loops at desired deapths.You can color code them so you can tell what mark is what depth.Red,white and blue are easy to remember.

[Relentless33]

That or if you dont want to use the reels for strictly swording you can put a rubberband on then break it off so it leaves the little piece left, if you put one at every 50 feet you can know exactly where you are. :lol:

[quack quack]

The prob with rubber bands left on at 50ft is they will fall off and if you miss one going out you are lost. The loop also go through the guides much easier and if you do not have the wind on guides the rubber will get stuck sometimes.

[Relentless33]

Well to be honest, we dont mark it at all. Instead of having them setup 'just for swording' with wax loops every 50 feet and everything else we count how many arm lenghts we need and be done. :lol:

[RiskTaker]

Hola, Que pasa, Mazatlan Mon ?

Since you are asking about line marking for swordfishing, I will go ahead and tell you the method I use. This is a little labor intensive; however, the end result is top shelf, if you don't mind the work.

You've heard about the wax line method. That is a very effective and fast method if you only want a few marks, like 3 as in your case.

You remain with the option to have them as simple line marks or perhaps captive loops. For me, I now only use a single waxline captive loop for the preferred location of a lead weight. For all other marks I use 30 lb. Jerry Brown Spectra line.

All of my conventional reels are spooled entirely with Jerry Brown Hollow core Hi-Viz line (This is braid). You mentioned that you have High viz Mono.

I mark my lines, starting from the loop (to-loop), at 50 ft. increments up to 450 ft. With JB 30# line these marks are very slender and can be wound onto any type of guide. Since you are only requesting to do 3 marks, you have a very simple solution. Since you are using nylon monofilament you would likely need to glue the mark with Jerry Brown glue to guarantee no slippage. I use a drop at each end to keep the line from untying, but I slip one stitch through the braid, so it cannot slip, no matter what. The line will break first.

For my marks, I put one mark, that is about an inch long, at every intermediate 50 ft. location. For every major increment of 200, 300, 400 ft., I put 2 , 3, and 4 marks in sequence about 9 inches apart. With this method you can pay out line with your eyes closed (or by braille), and always know exactly where you are whether you are letting line out or bringing it in by feeling the line with your fingers.

The redundant marks take more work, because each mark will take you a few minutes to make with the fine line. The end result has such a small profile that it does not crowd your spool.

If the main-line ever breaks or gets nicked, I will splice in a measured amount of line so I do not have to redo all of my existing line marks over again. If you lose them all on a cut-off. C'est la vie. Do it all over again.

But in your case it is simple. Maybe you could do two marks at 200 ft.

Be sure you tell us once you catch your first swordfish in your neighborhood. Ciao RT

[rollin]

huh. sounds a bit complicated. a stitch of 20# mono half hitched to the main line works good too. wax line, windons and anything that can get caught going through the guides at a crucial time is too much.
:shock:

[Relentless33]

Thats why having nothing on it works nicer.... How wide is your arm stretched out ?? Now divide whatever depth you want by that number, thats how many time you need to count the paces of your arm

[Flatsfish B]

I used to mark my lines but using mono
if I lost line the marks were all off. now I use the 13 dollar shakespear Line Counter which is very accurate. the problem also was if 2 guys bring there own rods not marked you had to count anyway, I think when I switch to braid ill mark but until then ill stick with the Line Counter .

I purchased the counter at bass pro fyi.

[Relentless33]

Thats a good idea Flatfish :shock: :lol:

[TZ]

TRY PUTTING HANGERS ON THE LINE.MEASURE THE DISTANCE OU WANT. TIE A CLOVE HITCH ON THE LINE THEN HALF HITCHS ON EACH END. LEAVING TWO INCHES IN THE MIDDLE. IT WILL NOT SLIDE ON THE LINE

[The BEAST]

I mark my lines with permanet marker. It lasts forever on braid and does good on mono also. It also keeps the line clear of extra crap to tangle or birdnest or compromise the line in any way. Simple, cheap, and less time consuming when measuring and marking.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST

[Captain Joe McGivern]

I do Custom Dacron Marks, that will never foul up, or pu you main line at any risk. Call me for details. 50$ per rod and it lasts as long as you keep your line, it will last at least 2 yrs on braid line.

[Flatsfish B]

Originally Posted by The BEAST

I mark my lines with permanet marker. It lasts forever on braid and does good on mono also. It also keeps the line clear of extra crap to tangle or birdnest or compromise the line in any way. Simple, cheap, and less time consuming when measuring and marking.

Capt. Jim
The BEAST

I did that at first, but at night I found it was hrder to see then just feel for a mark. But it was cheap and easy!

[The BEAST]

Flatfish B,

I can light my boat up like my living room while letting out line. I use Power Pro yellow and do it with marks like this
_________-----__________ = 100'
_________-----_____-----__________ = 200'
_________-----_____-----_____-----__________ = 300' and on and on. I use a simple _______ mark to indicate every 50' between the other main marks. It is hard to describe on a keyboard. The black lines kind of disappear in the darkness letting the spaces show up very pronounced. You can easily see the black marks approaching on the reel spool and it is so obvious as it leaves the rod tip.

Works for me!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST

[RiskTaker]

The Beast:

Is it hollow core line that you are using? Are you using an indelible black laundry marker to make your marks , or what type? I am curious to know if the marks fade away or not.

I mark my lines by the same convention; however, it is negative/reversed image compared to the way I understand you get it done. These marks are half hitches of white 30# solid spectra over the Yellow braid. Works good even in the dark eyes closed even, braille method, and it serves as a backup stop for a rubber band wrap. Only thing negative to say, for those extra two trade-offs, is that it is more work to make those marks with tied wraps instead of a marker.

It sounds good to me, although I have not evolved down that path yet. Probably because some of my original rigs had mono tops shots. I noticed that the Black ink did not stay fast over time. (But I was using a
Sharpie instead of a laundry marker). So I stayed the path of wax line loops then to simpler skinny marks.

But now that I am using all Hiz-Viz hollow core, with some form of supplemental wind-on, I do not see why this could not work for me as well, or anybody else for that matter.

Good post Capt. Jim.

P.S. - If I get cutoff anywhere along the path at any time, I will simply measure out an amount of line from my last available line mark, in order to keep the marks on the spool accurate. Love that hollow core. I would guess you do the same?

Flatsfish B - one of the reasons I like the line marks instead of simply measuring line paid out, is that you can also keep track of where your fish is at on the retrieve. But granted there are many a night that I am counting out line as well using other peoples gear, using the hand-over hand method, but my count is by 2 feet increments because it is a convenient. By touching the line on the payout you may also be able to detect any defects (nicks and abrasions) along the way. Just a sharing my thoughts/experiences as I go down this swordfishing journey.

[hannaman]

Putting permanent markers of any kind attached to your line will work if you don't fish that much. I'm always cutting back my line at the swivel at least every other trip and that will screw up all your permanent marks by 10 feet or so.

I stick with using the Line Counter and attaching the # 32 band each time I deploy. This is on the first set, after that all my marks are there according to the electralume colors. My green electralume rod I know is marked where its at and the same with my blue and so on...

[The BEAST]

Risk Taker,

I use a simple king size Sanford permnent marker similar to the kind they use for grafiti.

I don't run a mono top shot. I run straight Power Pro to my swivel. I personally have found that the top shot is unnecessary when using only 14-15# of drag pressure and the mono takes away the feel of what the fish is actually doing. Mono requires much more attention and knot retying etc. If my line gets cut or frayed I will strip it back to the next 50' mark and then re-mark the main 100-200-300-400' marks by filling in one of the dashes, etc before the next trip. I haven't had to do this but once. When the marks tend to get a bit washed out I will strip the line off in my yard and simply pass the marker over the existing marks to reblacken them. Takes about 5-10 minutes per rod. Ususally it only needs to be done about every 12-15 trips at the most.

Part of the reason I switched from the conventional tied waxed nylon or dacron for markers was that I can use the same rods for high speed trolling, wahoo etc. with less danger of a 'hoo striking the marker as it zips through the water on a hooked up fish. I know of someone who recently lost an abundance of his line on all rods while catching wahoo over at Cay Sal because of this exact problem. That gets very expensive when replacing 600+yds of Power Pro.

I can deploy my 4 drift rods quickly which allows more soak time and less work. Marking the line also gives you a constant telltale of where the fish is. In my opinion, measuring with each drop would be too time consuming and tedious and require more guessing as to the location of a hooked up fish.

Like I have said many times before, this works for me. It may not be to everyones liking but fishing techniques are basically personal preference to begin with. I am not advocating that everyone should switch to my method but rather expressing another method of doing it. To each his own. I am only answering questions asked of me.

Fishing doesn't need to be hard, it needs to be fun!

hannaman,

Are you saying a 10' difference in depth (240' instead of 250') will deter a feeding Sword from striking your bait?

Capt. Jim
The BEAST

[Relentless33]

The Beast: So you have power pro loaded all the wa through on all of your sword rods and you mark the depth with marker without any problems ??

This braid is sounding nicer and nicer

[The BEAST]

Relentless 33,

Yes sir! I have 200 yds of 80# mono backing with 600 yds of yellow Power Pro on top straight to the swivel. I mark every 50' up to 400' with a black marker. And guess what!?! I am still using the old tried and true Penn 114. Some day soon, I hope to upgrade to 50TW's, but why mess with success!

Once again, it doesn't need to be hard, it needs to be fun!

Capt. Jim
The BEAST

[Relentless33]

Thanks for the tips

Relentless

[Captain Ollie]

I have never seen nor had a need personally to mark my lines. I guess I'm lucky that the distance between my outstretched left arm and my right arm across my chest is exactly three feet. I just do my count multiply by three and put each line exactly where I want it. I checked it in the yard and was accurate to within 2 feet of whatever distance I measured out. You can only put the line out so fast anyway, otherwise you risk spinning the bait up the line. The other reason I don't want marks is I that I like to compensate for the line angle that varies with drift speed. I assure you that your baits are nowhere near your target depth when they're at 30 degree angles. Your dreaming if you think 2#'s of lead is holding your tip rod even close to 300 feet. I usually use 4 to 5 pounds on my deeper baits. Once again I felt the need to check this, so I decided to use my dive computer. I just went right ahead and zip tied my $300 computer right next to my sinker. This was a little nerve wracking considering how crappy you feel when you lose a $40 electrolume. For those of you that dive you know the computer records the maximum depth reached. The results were quite surprising. Even with that amount of lead you gotta put out way more than 300 feet to get to that depth. So if your the type of person that feels compelled to mark your lines it may be advisable to put marks alot further up the line than the depth you want to fish that rod at just so you can compenste for this angle. Just my .02 cents worth.

[Relentless33]

We do it the same way, depth divided by whatever the length of my dads arm is and my arm for now on also and repeat however many pulls off the reel you need....
What were the results of the computer on the line ??? Im really interested to know lol

[The BEAST]

How many drift lines do you guys put out to cover all these variables? What is the purpose of the LED lights, if not to alert and attract the cruising fish to the bait? Checking drift angle measurements? I thought the depth marks simply serve as a reference, no?

It appears that these Swordfish are much more sophisticated than I thought and will not bite a bait intended for a 250' depth if it is actually at 240' or 260'. I don't measure my lines with a ruler when marking them. I measure, by arm lengths, as you do but only do it once. My intentions, when Sword fishing, are to get the baits staggered at different approximate depths.

Geez, Sword fishing is much more difficult than I thought. I guess I am way out of the loop. I am going into brain overload.


Capt. Jim
The BEAST

[Relentless33]

5 lines, sometimes 4 and if we want to throw out a livie we have a rod standing by :lol: lol

[hannaman]

Using a paratech sea anchor stops your wind drift and therefore your lines will go straight up and down. Have you ever noticed on a calm night how your lines are basically straight up and down? You can achieve the same with a large sea anchor. It's all fun

[Liquid Swords]

I bought a line counter at bass pro shops. It cost a little over ten bucks and it works great. I don't have the patience to mark my rods with waxed line. I've tried the permanent marker before, but its hard for a drunken crew to see. :drunken: It's amazing how a line counter can entertain a bunch of drunks.

[Relentless33]

I like the idea of the line counter, drunk or not :lol:

[Flatsfish B]

Originally Posted by The BEAST

hannaman,

Are you saying a 10' difference in depth (240' instead of 250') will deter a feeding Sword from striking your bait?

Capt. Jim
The BEAST

I to do the same thing after each trip. 10' NO, but if i fish 2 times a week for 2 weeks, on my 5th trip my line is now 50'+ off my marks, and now that makes a difference IMO

[Relentless33]

Captain Ollie: What were the results for your test with the dive computer, Im eager to find out 8-[