Home | Blogs and Opinion | Mike's Diary Archive 2005 | Mainline care and breakwater huss tactics

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Mainline care and breakwater huss tactics

Mike Thrussell 12 May, 2005 04:30:00

LOOKS ARE EVERYTHING
How often should you change your main reel line? The simple and obvious answer to that is when it needs changing!

If I'm fishing over clean sand with no snags, then running the line through my finger and thumb as I'm reeling in after the last cast tells me all I need to know. If I feel any rough edges or nicks on it, then off it comes.

After two or three trips, especially if I've caught decent fish that I've had to play for any length of time, then the line is checked over much more closely. I do this by reversing the line by retrieving it on to an old reel very slowly but again feeling the line through the thumb and index finger. This finger test is by far the best. Your fingers are so sensitive that they will pick up any roughness on the line.

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Caring for your mainline
After around half a dozen trips or a month in time the whole line comes off and is replaced. Occasionally if the line to be replaced is fairly fresh I'll leave the bottom 50 to 100-yards on and reload with fresh line on top. Rarely will more than the top 200-yards be used for fishing or casting, even when lining back with the tide, so having a knot 200-yards down the line or more does not worry me one jot for normal fishing.

I tend to buy line by diameter and not breaking strain. If you want a general beach line, then 0.35mm will be amply strong enough for everything including the odd lunker bass and cod. If I need extra casting distance on a shallow mark, then I'll drop to 0.30mm or even 0.27mm diameter to minimise line drag to the lead during the cast. It gains some extra yards and has less tide drag giving a useful advantage. Even at 0.27mm some of the modern lines are still close to 15lbs breaking strain.

It's different for rock fishing. The marks I fish are horrendous and I get through masses of 25lb and 30lb line. Normally line only lasts at most a couple of trips. I buy cheap or medium price brands that have proved predictable and reliable. Stingray and Sylcast are examples.

There's a chance of big fish on these rock marks that can run, so I replace all the line when needed. No way I'll have backing on with a knot to save a few bob as even with big reels like ABU 9000's once you've cast the amount of 30lb line left on the spool is not that great. Again on that last cast I slowly retrieve the line through my fingers to check for abrasion and cuts. The same applies to my boat reels that might just hook a lump of a fish one day and I'll need all the line I've got.

TIPS AND TRICKS
If you want to freeze down fresh poor cod, whiting or rockling for conger bait its best to wrap them in plastic cling film first, then in kitchen tin foil. The tin foil has no effect either way on the bait in the freezer, but when you place the baits in to the cool box for travelling to the fishing mark the tin foil keeps the flesh colder and insulated and in better condition, especially if the weather is warm. I now also use this on crab, razorfish and sandeel.

Black lug are best wrapped in newspaper first, with the tinfoil wrapped over the paper. The newspaper soaks up any juice the lug loose during the freezing process and gives drier more intact bait when thawed.

BREAKWATER HUSS TACTICS

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Returning a breakwater caught huss
Huss can often be caught from stone breakwaters around harbour entrances at night and pretty much throughout the year. They may be there but sometimes few anglers are aware of it, as huss will hug the edge of the breakwater hunting amongst the boulders without venturing further out on to clean ground where most anglers naturally cast. Drop bait close in and you've a better chance.

Huss will move in towards a breakwater during the early flood tide and take their time working along the base. With the protection of the inside of the breakwater the tide size will be unimportant. Huss often choose to hunt the breakwaters during storms as inner harbour areas give some shelter and food fish concentrate there.

They are a scavenger taking scraps thrown from boats, but are also a capable predator and can hunt down poor cod, small whiting, sea scorpions and gobies. The best baits are large mackerel or herring strips, whole small pout or poor cod cut as a flapper bait, squid and whole sandeel. Make sure the hook point is well clear of the bait.

Use a flowing trace rig with a 24-inch hook trace of 50lb mono to combat the rough teeth. Hooks need to be sharp Mustad Viking 6/0's or Varivas Big Mouths as huss have tough jaws and often hang on to a bait then let go as they reach the surface without the hook penetrating. A reel loaded with 25lb line and a tough beachcaster is ideal.

Huss put up a fair scrap in deep water and will try to get their head in to the rocks. They twist and turn their muscular body when in open water and can make short sharp runs dragging a few yards of line off the reel.

Handling huss is difficult. They have rough sandpapery skin and use their body to twist round on you. A strong man will have difficulty holding a 10lb huss when it starts to twist. Best way is to hold them with one hand behind the head and the other on the tail. This minimises the twisting motion.