A RUN OF OUTS

There are times in all fishermen’s lives when we question whether the methods we are using are working effectively.

Usually a fisherman settles into a particular pattern or style of fishing. When your favoured style of fishing fails, you end up scratching your head as to how to fix up your problems and land some fish again.

Since I started lure fishing for murray cod over fifteen years ago, I have been lucky enough to access knowledgeable people who helped me create a very robust and fruitful technique. My recent run of outs has little to do with my methods not tricking fish into eating my lures, in fact I have been more successful in recent months than I have been for many years, but I was having problems landing fish.

Frustrated with the cod’s ability to attack a lure and spit it out in a millisecond, I started thinking about ways to improve the number of hookups for my clients. My first step was to look at the hooks. I have always been a fan of extra sharp hooks and carry a sharpener to touch up hooks throughout the day, but I was still getting a lot more bites than hookups.

After speaking with Anthony Curtis from AC Lures, I decided to upgrade all my trebles to ‘Owner’ hooks. These hooks are nothing short of lethal. The cutting point slices through the fish’s jaw with ease and maintains a strong hold, but on the downside, human flesh is no match and extreme care needs to be taken (my hook extraction skills are improving rapidly).

The penetrating power of Owner trebles is so good that a fish only needs to sniff the lure and its stuck in it somewhere. I have found that fins, head and flanks are now as likely a hookup site as the jaw.

With my hookup rate improved significantly, I thought my run of outs was cured, but a new (and welcome) problem developed. This new dilemma was created by a run of fish that were just too big to handle.

It all started with a trip to the Murray in mid-August whereby a beast of a fish gave Ian Wooden and myself a battering for almost an hour before it tired of our company and popped the braid.

Hookups on lost cod numbers two, three and four, were briefer encounters involving more standard sizzling runs, wide headshakes, and inevitable bust off.

Lost cod five grabbed a lure in mid river but was massive enough to lazily swim twenty metres to a log for a breather and then another twenty to a log pile where eventually the fish casually popped the leader on a log (I am unsure if this fish knew it was hooked).

Lost fish number six was a ripper though. Fishing with Neil Lasker we were trolling a fast running section of the Murrumbidgee when we hooked a fish that in two metres of clear water we only saw once in an hour’s battle. Neil’s forearms cramped from the pressure he was putting on, but this beast was about 130-140cm and not happy. At least we got to see this fish (just out of net range) before it blew us away.

Lost fish 7 was a reasonably standard hookup, screaming run and snag. We unhooked the fish off the first snag and the fish bolted into clear water before doing a U-turn and tunnelling under the boat through a forest of snags. Unpicking the braid for the next 30 minutes we had the fish beaten except that we couldn’t pull it through the last log and eventually the braid wore through - bugger.

By this time I was getting quite a reputation for the fish I was losing for my clients, rather than the successes. I was getting no sympathy from my mates with my explanation that these fish weren’t manageable 20, 30 or 40 pounders, but big, crusty old cod well above 50 pound that know how to play the game.

In analysing why I lost each of these fish, it wasn’t because the hooks fell out. The Owners fixed that problem, and I was questioning my technique for fighting the fish. Was my drag too light? Was it too heavy? Maybe I do need green cord and aeroplane spinners as suggested by one old timer.

In each hookup I quickly move the boat into open water and try to pull the fish away from trouble, but these beasts were just too powerful and no amount of drag pressure seemed to slow them down (Neil’s cramping arms were testament to this). Was 50 or 80 pound braid and locked drags the answer?

In the throws of mulling over my big fish fighting tactics, I was still guiding and catching plenty of fish and with ideal conditions I felt that another big cod was not far away.

I didn’t have to wait long as a few days after lost cod 7, one of my clients snapped on to a horse. One look at the rod on hookup and I knew it was a ripper fish. This cod made a fundamental mistake in that it attacked the lure at speed and continued away from the snags toward mid river. I immediately positioned the boat in front of the fish and got Geoff Casburn to screw up the drag as we didn’t want this fish to get its head.

The fish battled hard, but my luck had turned and after a tense ten minutes I slipped the Environet under a massive fish. At 126cm and estimated 70-80lb my faith was restored. My run of outs was surely over.

An adult murray cod is a great opponent that’s hard to tempt, and even harder to land. Sometimes you just get lucky. 

© Jamin Forbes January 2008