Southern Oman Monster 65kg GT with Fukui-san and OA

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Neville, Fukui-san I think was using the Decoy JS1 hooks. He used them both on the poppers and stickbaits, he was casting a long distance and trying to raise fish for the boat and was not always worried about the hook ups but once the fish were hooked the hook worked well. He was also using a 10kg drag so no worries with the hooks opening.

Cheers,
Nick

[Rob Langridge]

G'Day Nick

This report IMO would have to be the best report you have posted so far. "Its an absolute Cracker" Thanks for the read.
I have a Question for you. Its in my belief that some of the Japanese braids are rated a little different from other parts of the world. Like PE3 is rated to 50lb and PE6 is rated to 100lb is this the case with Fukui-san using PE6 on this trip.

[Neville Haglund]

Thanks for the clarification Nick.I thought they might have been Varivas Seriola PaPa style.Should have some fun tracking some down.

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Rob, Many thanks appreciate the comments, was a good trip and happy we could put down a good report. There is quite a bit of confusion with braided line and rating especially between Japanese Braided lines and USA Dyneema lines. Now I'm not 100% sure how it works and I'm sure that some of the guys can help with this but the way I understand is it that Japanese lines are thinner and have more strands when woven and are stronger for the same diameter as opposed to US Dyneema lines with less strands. There is no standard across the board for ratings and for Japanese lines each brand has different rating depending on the breaking strength and the US lines are usually on diameter. So you'll find normally US lines are way under rated. So you'll get for instance Sunline Jigger PE6 which has a 93lbs breaking strain. Then a line like Tufline will be rated to 80lbs and will most probably break at 100lbs (guessing) but has no PE rating. I'm not sure what brand Fukui-san was using but on a PE6 rating I'm sure it would have been between 80-90lbs rating. I'll try find out.

Hi Neville, The reason I thought they were Decoys as opposed to Verivas was the gape on the hook was wider and straighter. Also easier to find! But I think Fukui-san can easily get any product he wanted!

Hope everyone had a great new YEar and will have an awesome 2013 filled with screaming reels and bending rods!

Cheers,
Nick

[Rob Langridge]

G'Day Nick

Thanks for the reply and i would be very interested to see what brand of Japanese Braided line Fukui-san was using. And may i ask a really big favour from you the next time Fukui-san is fishing with you.

Now i have got myself some of the carpenter bluefish 100's and i am going to get myself some of the 120's too. I see fukui-san may favour the bluefish 120's in the report and the favour i am asking is  ''could you video the way Fukui-san works the bluefish 120's''. I know its a big favour to ask but i think you are the man for the job. I know there is a big chance another member will read this and reply with  ''you just cast the bluefish out and with a slow wind of the reel retrieve the lure back to the boat''  and that sounds all to easy to me. There is one very good way to acquire knowledge and that is to watch the best in the business.

  Cheers Rob 

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Rob, I think the braid that Fukui-san was using was Verivas SMP, we have had a lot of problems with SMP and about the only line that has broken constantly under the initial strike, but with the light drag there was no issues. Fukui-san used mainly the Bluefish 120 and Sea Frog 120. On his gear it work extremely well.

I'll see if I can film it next time as we have a few trips planned. It was strange that you asked about filming as I have just started to edit again in the last few days and going to be posting a few vids from trips in the coming weeks and from future trips.

But for working the Bluefish the main thing to try and do is to give the lure a slow steady pull and then let the line go a bit slack towards the end of the pull before you wind back down to tension the line for the next pull/sweep. There needs to be enough slack line for the lure to work its action. Working a Bluefish or a Gamma is not a fast process and takes a bit of getting used to not trying to pull the paint off the lure. But will try get some footage.

Cheers,
Nick

[Rob Langridge]

Nick i have ESP

  Cheers Rob