The magic loop

[hammertime]

                        The magic loop.

At the slipway the other day I was asked what I was doing to  my line by a guy who was anchored close to us.

You always seem to have a damn fish on your bait lines yet  you never hold the line or strike.
You do something to the line once you’ve thrown the bait in  and turn away.

What’s the storey?

Not a bad observation I thought and perhaps a simple trick  that I had got so accustomed to doing but maybe a couple of guys don’t know  about this one.

I am NOT a pro handline fisherman, I prefer the rod but for  snoek (and that’s the sum total of what we have here right now) it’s effective,  bloody fun and with the serious seal problem we have right now, the most cost  effective and sure way of getting a fish out without throwing away spinner after  spinner to seals. In 3 trips we’ve donated 22 spinners to seals at R25 a pop.  Excluding leaders and the braid that snaps on the straight stick. Yup, light  tackle snoeking right now is just a hole in the wallet.

Yo-yo’s or haspers as the Capies call em have a groove cut  into the side to stop line from spilling out once it’s been thrown into the  water.
I then tie the line onto something else on the boat, as well  fasten the yo-yo. The yo-yo I normally fasten to the rod clips we have on the  holder, the ones used to prevent rods from flying overboard.
Be surprised how many times you undo the line knot to let  out more line and the unfastened yo-yo goes overboard with the extra line.

Yo-yo with cut


Now here is my trick. I use it on kob, geelbeck and  yellowtail. I use it on chokka too. Never had a line snap, but you have to be  quick. This method allows you to work a spinner, cut bait or help a lightie  break a fish neck or untangle etc, whilst ensuring you don’t miss the bite.
It also stops over eager greenhorns from striking away 5kg  of valuable pilchards at swell bites and stops the early strike when the fish  are feeding skelem.

Make a loop


Pull the line going into the ocean back through the loop


Pull up tight


Now wait for that zip noise the line makes as it runs  through the loop knot and the click the knot makes as it vanishes and the line  pulls straight.
The fish can hang for a second or two before coming undone  and that’s enough time to get him.

I fish like this because it almost always guarantees you  hook them. I also believe that the watched kettle never boils. So it means you can  do other forms of fishing at the same time. Baits in, then you can drop shot or  spin or our favourite jig for snoek and tail. Only on paydays at the moment  because of the damn seals.

It also frees you up to work a lead line. Bokstang etc.
Try it, you’ll out fish the guy sitting there holding a  line, striking too early etc.



   

[nico]

Brilliant - cred's for you! Now I need to find a KZN application for this...

[Sailfish]

 I also use that loop when fishing for snoek with 2 or 3 handlines at a time. I once had my finger pulled tight in it while a was buzy making the loop after i threw the line tight, and a snoek took the bait on the drop . Eina!!! But i got the fish.

[hammertime]

Yeah Sailfish, I reckon most guys who've either done a kalk bay chukkie trip or fished with the old snoek manne will know this. I was amazed that there were okes who didn't know about it.

That being said there are so many new boats on the water and so many new faces in the bay in the last 2-3 years.
The number of new anglers is truly amazing. Chatting to the safery officers the other day they were telling me about the sheer volume of new boat numbers they are allocating. It's mind blowing. I've only been fishing this bay and CT area for 11 odd years but I have never seen a parking lot full of recreational trailers like we do now.

I know that Cape Boat are now doing a fishing orientation and bay orientation for their new anglers. Reckon that's a great idea, almost like an induction at a new job.

As to fingers caught, I've had that but it was on a healthy yellowtail. But cowboys don't cry and all that...

[REEFMAN]

Great post, thanks for sharing!

[Makaira]

Doesnt that loop leave a kink or week spot in your line after a few fish ? I just tie the husper down somewhere, generally in a hatch, or around the handle to my basket, and the let the line run around my leg. I am then free to do whatever else Im doing on the boat (i cannot move too far from my fishing spot though), and when a fish pulls, I will feel the line pull tight around my leg, and have enough time to set the hook properly. I could never fish with a kinked line, so that would worry me about your set up.

[hammertime]

Fished 6 years commercially like that and never broke a single line. But yup it leaves a kink in the line.

[Sailfish]

Those kinks work lekker to see them skelm fish biting. I will not tie a 1.2mm line round my leg ever. Seal or a big shark and even a big tuna will cut that line in your leg at now time at a take. It is not always just snoek feeding at a setain place. I have seen a line cut threw a trottel controle cable plastic couting once and that is way thicker than a oilskin pants. Rather be safe than be sorry.Strap the Haasspil to your leg with a tiretube but never go round your leg with the line.

[hammertime]

Ja Sailfish you actually se the kinks expand, like a spring when he's skelem. Ha you made me think about the time I leadered a kingfish for my oldman when we were surf fishing of Virginia beach. Probably about 78 or 79 and I warpped the line around my hand to pull the fish up the beach.
Fish had other ideas and I got severely cut around two of my fingers. Had stiches on the one.

But then again I have caught my man boob in a Penn 80W with a big yellowfin on the end.

[Sailfish]

Hammertime i have seen some pritty simpel things guys do on the boat and at launching a boat in the surf. Once saw an old man standing between the two moters trying to keep the boat steady in the surf for his son waiting to take the right gap to the open sea. Motors running and in gear. Man, just one side swel and he would have had serias problims. I worked on a pelagig boat for a thew months where we had bad weather one nite and the sea been ruff. The skipper came in the rong way after the net was closed round the school of chovy. We had the swel from the side and the driver got his hand inbetween the main topline drum while closing the net. He was pulled in to those coils and with 100ton of fish in the net it was a bad sight not for the faint harted. But who sed fishing is a came for sissies. Seen more bad things out there, but not ajoba for this forum. Been there done that.

[Makaira]

Guys i hear you on a big fish pulling the line, but I dont fish with lines thick enough that will not break. A 40-50kg line will still break before it cuts into your leg. And then when you cut off the worn part of your line, that kink will sit halfway down..........sorry not for me. Glad this system works for you, but I cannot handle kinks in my line. I grew up handline fishing with the best commercial fishermen you'll ever have met, and we all have our little tricks. Glad this one works for you, but I suppose its also down to old habits and beliefs, Im not all saying that what you do is good, bad, right or wrong, but its just not for me. And when i say I put the line around my leg, its not physically tied to my leg, it just runs around and past my leg, enough to feel a pull, even from a skelm Snoek. Cheers RB

[hammertime]

Makaira - Whatever floats your boat bro.

Sailfish I hear you. I am originally from Natal and we used to operate out of Tongaat, Umkomaas, Umdloti, Tugela(Eish) and Durban Skiboat, back when it was NSBA when the old man got old, plus a few others. Seen some nasty simple accidents. Funniest was a guy running his hand along the cable as the winch was hauling a boat up. Why he felt he had to guide the cable I have no idea. Then plop, there's his finger lying in the sand. It was so quick and just so odd to see this finger drop into the sand.

He was not so amused though.
I was unfortunate enough to be coming through the surf after the 1985 Cyclone in natal. Chocolate brown water and the boat ahead of us hit a surfer. Rode right over him.
We also hit a cow at sea off of Umgeni a few days earleir in the mud.

I have also seen 24kg Ande monifilament line skin a mans finger to the   bone, removing everything exept the bone and the fish was only a 40 odd   kg yellow.

Yup - The sea + boats = not something you take light heartedly.