Spanish mackerel surface mayhem

[Andrew Susani]

Well the crap weather for the last few months has meant very few windows for us to get offshore, but this last week has been glamorous.

I took my good mate Jono out to try and get him bent up on a big GT on the surface but it was pretty lean pickings, with only a couple of fish raised and a few half hearted strikes.  Very calm conditions and neap tides might have made it a bit hard...

Our morning did start off pretty spectacularly though, first cast from Jono got smashed by a 20kg spanish which hit the popper and leapt about 10ft into the air.  I grabbed the 7D and got some video footage of what ensued in the next couple of casts... shame about the Coral Viper, especially considering I kept it as a spare rod and had hardly used it!!!    the look on Jono's face was pretty priceless though!!   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBtcEEZQ7U4

We used Jono's 100lb Crazy Tail twisted leaders all day, with a short double and cats paw connection to 80lb braid.  Fantastic to use, I don't think I will ever tie an FG again!  It will be interesting to test this leader setup for fatigue and heavy fight loads over the next few months.

[Mark Harris]

Nice Andrew. Love the action at 1.10 .

And very well done for releasing the Mack. Great to see one without a spike through its head.

[John Ryan]

fantastic footage! like the music dub too. i hate it when people dub music over a video so loud that you cant hear any of the sound from the video itself, like the waves or the drag peeling.
Sucks about the rod... what was it if you dont mind me asking?

[Sam Morrison]

We need a freeze frame on his face Andrew, that was classic!

Nice lake you were fishing on too! Conditions were great.

[Dan Konig]

Wow - shame about the rod indeed! That's one expensive makkie. Looks like a great session though

[Charles Cintron]

Nice footage Andrew. Love the flying strike, wicked! Too bad about the CV.....

[Peter Morris]

Nice footage.
Why did that rod break like that..?..any obvious reason..?

Ah ha...I see it had been damaged before as written on you tube

Pete

[Andrew Susani]

Hey guys,

Yeah I had the Coral Viper as my spare rod and I would normally lend it to the other angler on my boat.  A few months ago, a mate was casting with a bit too much gusto and an errant braid wrap half hitched the 3rd guide from the tip and ripped the rear foot out of the binding, without damaging the binding...    check it out:



We taped it up and kept fishing.  About 20 mins later he did it again    but this time the front guide foot snapped when I bent it back straight.  Not thinking much of it, apart from the bizarreness of it all, we removed the guide and kept fishing with it. 

He did hook a big fish on it and got busted off on a shallow reef point - no obvious signs of damage to the blank but it must have been under the binding.  Still, I would have expected it to break as soon as it went under load.  I got it rebound a few weeks later and hadn't used it since then.

Sam, here is the pic you were talking about... I was pretty quick to stick it up on Jono's facebook wall 

[Mark Harris]

That's a real bugger Andrew  .   

The guide being ripped off must have damaged the blank as you say.  I have ripped guides clean off a few times myself in a similar fashion and also completely flattened one almost flush against the blank with a similar wrap. It demonstrates all to well how much force there is in a cast and how easily a very expensive blank can be damaged.

 

[Gerhard Delport]

Nice video...

Really enjoyed that...

I had the same experience with Mack's here in Saudi while popping from the shore, they were not that big...

Pity about the rod.