What would you do?

[Tarpon4me]

OK, here's the senario. You're float or drift line fishing from a peir with a live bait of your choice. You're not using a very large reel, something that's easy to move around, like 250 yards of 20 pound line.

You look down at your rig and see a 6 foot shadow appear at a lightning pace and next thing you know, your reel begins to burn. It's a King Mackeral, and not just any king, but upwards of 80 pounds.

Knowing in the back of your mind there's not much of a chance considering the drag capabilities of the reel and the pound test and line compacity of the reel, what is your first reaction?

The reason I ask this question is i've been in similar situations with large sharks and other game fish that I was completely under tackled for, and payed the ultimate price..........Watching 15 dollars worth of line get drug off to sea, or watch my poor little reel smolder in front of my eyes, welding drag plates together and ripping gears in half. Hard to believe? It happens.

So, what would you do?
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[snook.hooker]

I usually use a leader strength that's equal to or less than the line - a florocarbon 30 lb. test is not as strong as 30 lb. test PowerPro - so I don't worry too much about losing a spool of line.

Good question!
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[tubeN2]

I have had the same situation with an 8', 200lb shark on 25lb test. I was able to overcome the drag by roatating thumbs on the spool and fanning the drag. The beast finally wore out after about 45 minutes. When I got it to color, it finally got a second wind and broke me off into the piling on the pier.[pirate]
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[daymere]

since i am fishing with live bait i would have a cooler with water and ice and would try to cool the reel with the water if i could get to it.but there is always that chance it will spool you or burn it up . i would still have to try and see with anything that big i just [#0000ff][size 1]couldn't[/size][/#0000ff]cut the line before i knew if i could get it under control ,i have burned several reels and ripped out the tops of a few and blown all the guides on my rod to get that big fish,but if your in big fish water thats the chance you take sometimes as i look at it but i would go for it and see,but it [#0000ff][size 1]doesn't [/size][/#0000ff]always turn out bad i have caught some very nice fish on very light tackle i fish freshwater mostly and some saltwater but i use a multiline reel after this has happened to me so if it gets to the other color line i know i am in trouble and if i can get control of the run i would cut it before the line spooled.
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[davetclown]

BEEN THERE - DONE THAT

Thanks for askin, I had my brother in law and his brother in the boat with me on that fine cast of a day. trolling at a clip of 12 miles an hour. I was the only one with a line in the water, the other boys just would not beleive that you could catch a fish at that speed on a fresh water lake. We had gotten about two miles when whamo' my rod doubles over. midium class rod and reel with a good 250 yards of 20 pounds test line.

I grabed my rod which was now ready to jump out of the boat setting the hook cut the engine and the battle was on. first round the fish takes a good 50 yards of line to wich I recanted by retreving 60 yards of line to which he replyed by taking 70 yards of line and my reply was to take back 30 yards of line and then the fight went dead.

I cranked in about 50 yards of dead line. figuring the fish broke off I fired up the engine and was going to get back up to my "crazy trolling speed" we got about 50 yards and mind you my line was still in the water, I figured I lost my lure. right about that time my rod doubles over again. again I grab my rod and killed the engine and was ready for round two. I probably only had about twenty yards of line out at the time just to give you some perspective to what happend next.

this fish took off running like a bat out of the big fiery red place and headed off to kingdom come. to put it in to english he took off running with my reel screaming bloody murder gears grinding and the housing glowing red from the friction, I grabbed the line with my two fingers to add aditional drag only to subcumb to second degree burns. that fish did not slow down till he reached the end of the line. and as the mono streched it began to sing, sing a song of the long gone fish that ended with a crack that rivaled the fiering of a 30-30 winchester.

with that being said I turned around and looked at the boys behind me and I said that was fun, seeing the expressions of horor shock and unbeleif not a word was utterd from their lips. I said whats the matter boys, catfish got your toung...

that was when the began to speak, "I dont beleive it, I saw it and I just dont beleive it! if you told me the story I would have thought you were just blowing chunks"

I to this day still bear the scars from the second degree burns.

well right about here is where one would figure the story would be over... nope, not here, not on bigfishtackle.com we tell only true big fish stories that never end when you expect them to.

I was using a 6 inch silver minow split-joint rapalla, I mention this now because this of corse too was lost with the 250 yards of 20 pound test and the smoking reel which had to be perminatly retired. This is where the reel shocker comes in to play. the following year in the spring time before the years groth had begun I was heading out on the same lake to do a little crappie fishing, heading out just before the drop off I see what looks to be a fishing lure laying on the bottom, I swing the boat around and go back and yep I could see a lure laying about 3-4 feet down, I tie a trebble on the end of my rod reached down and pulled up the lure, only to find it was a 6 inch silver split-joint rapalla with line tied to it, looked to be about a 20 pound test line, I pulled it in and wouldnt ya know, it looked like about 250 yards of 20 pound test line.

now what do you supose the odds of two people loosing the exact same lure on the same line on the same lake are. My conclusion is that it was the vary same that I had lost about 8 months earlier.

coinkydink? fate? carma? who can say, but what is the moral of the story? I will tell ya, when a fish grabs your line and runs for jubalee dont grab it with your fingers, or you will spend the rest of the day dunking your hand in the water to cool down the stinging...LOL
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[Tarpon4me]

You did it now, you went to the dark side with the "coencidence" stories. [cool]

I remember years ago fishing a King Mackeral Tournament off of Myrtle Beach State Park peir, this must have been 8 years back. I had a live Pogey on my line that I had just sent down to his water death.(so I hoped) I lowered him down on the float rig and made sure he was at the depth I wanted, you couldn't have asked for a prettier bait. Little did I know, however, the last jerk I gave to let line out on the reel, I had accidentally got the line rapped around the tip on the rod. And I didn't realize it until about an hour later when a small king grabbed the bait, and instead of hearing the clicker singing away, I heard the splash of my rod and reel as it got drug over the rail. There are no words for how I was that day, and I had no spare rod and reel either.

The catch to the story is that a few days later I went over to the peir just to chit chat with the guys on the end to see how the fishing was going. I had mentioned my reel going over the side a few days past and a old man in the area asked me to describe the reel. I explained to him that it was a black in color Penn 4/0 reel with white colored line on it attached to an old fiberglass rod with stainless eyes. The old man laughed and said that just yesterday he snagged my rod and reel while he was fishing off of the end of the peir. He said he hooked it through the tip, the smallest eye. Can you believe that? I've snagged rods that i've accidentally thrown over the side of the peir before with gaff hooks, but I figured that reel would have been long gone attached to a king. [cool]

That would have been a heck of a thing to catch while you were bottom fishing eh?
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[Dubie]

I'd Gladly burn out a reel, break a rod, and loose a spool of line just for the chance to accidently snag that monster that bites. I generaly fish with lighter tackle anyway, but find with a little finess you can usualy land big pike or catfish with it. Then again, a 30 lbs fish on gear you were trying to catch a 1 lb pearch with is probably alot different then a 200lbs fish on gear you were trying to catch a 30 lb fish on....But I'd try to catch jaws on a line I was trying to catch minnows on, if the opporatunity presented itself.
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[Tarpon4me]

There was one occasion that we had actually tied on line to another reel and kept on fighting.

It wasn't but like a 3/0 size penn we were fishing with that day. We had a live Pinfish on the bottom, just to see what would hit it. That thing sat there all day, we never even checked it, and Wham!!!!!!! That thing took off like a choo choo train. We never gained an inch on that dog, and finally we started seeing the silver on the old style reels chrome plated steel spool.

I had an old 4/0 penn senator and a rod laying off on the side and got the bright idea to link the lines. I had my buddy strip off about 150 yards of line off the reel so when we got the fish close, the line wouldn't hit the reels crossmembers from being too full.

We got everything set up and ready, and we went for it. I eased back, pulling the line backwards so my buddy could get ahold of it, they wrapped the line really fast with a stick, cut it, and bonded the two lines with I think it was a blood knott. All this happened in like 5 seconds, and we were really lucky the fish didn't run.

Though the process was succesful, we actually ended up loosing the fish, and never got to see what it was. It was a pity. To this day I ponder what that was. Maybe a big Cobia or a Tarpon that had left his acrobatics at the house.

Fish are funny like that. Most of the time, when I've caught king mackeral on a boat, they'll jump out of the water atleast once or twice. I've yet to see a king jump out of the water when caught from a peir. Why is that?
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