Q&A LURE FISHING

Q I’m confused! Should I buy my braid and leader by breaking strain or diameter or PE number?

HG says: Welcome to the club. I wish I could give you a definitive answer but fishing lines and their respective breaking strains and diameters and PE numbers are a minefield.

Aside from PE numbers, which I believe conform to specific diameters, if you look at some spools of braid you will sometimes find what looks to be the most incredibly thin mainline compared to breaking strain that you have ever seen.

So what do we do when looking for a braid for lure fishing and a fluorocarbon leader to tie on the end? Do we buy purely on diameter when here in the UK we traditionally tend to buy on breaking strain? I remember when I first fished over in Namibia and the local anglers never talked about the breaking strains of their mainlines. It was all diameter and it really got me thinking.

I guess that for the bulk of my UK saltwater lure fishing from the shore

I am using eight-strand braids that tend to be quoted around 20lb on the spool. Whether these braids do actually break at exactly 20lb on a straight pull is something I don’t know, but even if they do it’s not taking into account the fact that we need to use knots that weaken any line a fair bit. I only ever use the FG knot to attach my braid to a leader, but as good as this knot is it’s still not quite as strong as the braid without any knots.

These are the three eight-strand braids I fish with the most – Sufix 131 with the 20lb/0.165mm/PE1 label on the box, Sufix X8 with the 23lb/10.5kg/0.165mm label, and Savage Gear Silencer with the 0.15mm/20lb label. I trust all these braids and the Sufix 131 is my favourite.

I think the best thing you can do is to ask around, try a few different braids, and really work on finding one that you trust completely whatever the label says. Apply the same thinking to a fluorocarbon leader around that 0.33mm to say 0.40mm diameter and you won’t go far wrong for most of your bass fishing.

Q Sometimes when I’m pollack fishing on the rocks the action suddenly goes quiet. Any tips on what I can do to get into the fish again? BILLY MARSHALL, TRURO, CORNWALL

HG says: A number of anglers who don’t fish for pollack very much just assume that these fish will grab anything at any time. When you are out on the rocks and targeting the bigger pollack I think you need to apply a lot of thought and methodology.

There are times when pollack will jump on any lure you put out there – the same with bass at times as well. But more often than not I am out on the rocks on a flooding tide and the pollack will hit lures with relish, and then things suddenly go quiet. The first thing I will do is change the colour of the lure. Let’s say I go from a khaki colour Savage Gear Sandeel V2 to a lemon back or similar, and this often works. If not, I try a lure with a different profile and, after that, my next approach would be to adjust my retrieve. If I was catching pollack by whacking the lure out and cranking it in then I will change to say the Sandeel V2 Weedless and deliberately fish it along the bottom at a much slower pace.

If all this fails, move location. I do think that when pollack have taken a hammering and have seen a lot of lures they will often go quiet. It might also be the change from flood to ebb tide. Know your coastline and have the ability to move marks if possible.