outdoors

Looks interesting. I did a search online and think I found it or something similar which is described as a foldable anchor for kayaks. How much does your one weigh? Have you ever gotten it stuck? Thanks

Hi I've only recently started fishing from a kayak and was curious whether many people use sea anchors for their fishing? It seems like something that could be useful but also something that a person might buy then forget about. The main application I had in mind was when fishing for bream around fixed structures. Thanks

Thanks Macca, After trying out a few different knots for tying leaders on, I've pretty much settled on double uni knots and the occasional FG knot like you had mentioned. They seem to be working really well and haven't had anything fail. The suggestion on going towards lighter leader sounds like a good one. I had to buy some more the other day and went up to 40lb because that was on sale. There was quite a bit of difference in tying this compared to the 30lb stuff (it was considerably harder) so next time I think I'd just get skip the sale price and get exactly what I want.

What do you think about soft plastics with an attractant such as s-factor at night?

Got one undersized flathead that had to go back to the sea, that was on a 55g Halco twisty. It's getting dark pretty early so I'm thinking I might have to get some dark purple or black lures to supplement the small number of metal lures I currently have. From what I understand, they're supposed to stand out better (?). Was just checking through previous posts in the forum to see what people's recommendations are. Probably the best news was that my rod repair seemed to be pretty good and held up fine.

Thanks for all the advice. Went out today and fished for twice along as previously but this time didn't lose a single lure.

Thanks guys, sounds like a good suggestion to use the shorter leader and I'll give that a go. I managed to return the line and the man in the shop thought it looked a bit thin. So, maybe there was some kind of mistake where the wrong type of line was in the pack! I bought some J-Braid 8x and comparing it to what I had before, it does seem much thicker. Now, I've just got to work out what to do with my slightly crushed rod. I'll try a home repair (thread and epoxy) before I give up and replace it.

Hi Rick Just thought I'd let you know that I did a test on the braid by tying it to some weight plates. Even though it is supposed to be 20lb line it broke every time when trying to lift an 11lb plate off the floor. I didn't go to a lower weight than that. This was using unused line straight from the pack so it isn't rod related or due to poor treatment on my part. Pretty disappointing when you can't trust a product and I'll have to take it back to the shop. Thanks

Thanks Rick, Neil and Hooked-Up I only just bought the line and couldn't see any kind of manufacturing dates on the packaging. I also checked the guides which don't seem to have any defects. Yes, I don't thinking I was cutting the tag ends very short so I'll have to improve in that area. Browsing online it seems like some people use nail clippers which might be better than what I was using. When tying the knots I've been wetting them but will need to the double check the tightness and that they have formed correctly. The last lure I lost, I am pretty sure I did use a shorter leader and from memory it was sitting just off the reel. However, I tied the leader knot under torchlight in the dark and it was the first time tying it, so I guess that could have been the reason there. Will head out there again after practicing my knots and with a shorter leader for sure. Unfortunately, and I didn't mention this in my original post but the other thing I did was to accidentally crush my rod in the front door when I got home! What a rookie mistake! Not sure if I can get a replacement top half piece (as it is a two piece rod). The rod is intact but the tubing has been split for about an inch and a half or so. If not, I guess I'll probably have to bite the bullet, get a new one and put it down to a learning experience. Thanks, for all of your help.

Was hoping for some friendly advice... Today was the first time I've fished in about 20 years and it was fun, but expensive given I lost 3 lures in about 1 hour of fishing! It went something like this....fished for 30 mins and everything seemed alright with a 70g Halco. Then it seemed like my rod got hungup mid-cast and the lure sailed off into the distance without my line following. I was quite surprised by this and it looked like the line had failed at the braid (possibly at the braid to fluoro leader). I tied a FG knot on the beach with a 60g Halco but lost that straight-away on the next cast. It seemed like something similar had happened. This was frustrating so I decided to change knots in case that was the issue. The knot I used was an Albright Special which I found on an animated knot website. Next cast I lost a 55g lure. At this point I figured I was doing something wrong and decided to head back to do some further investigating online. The gear I'm using is a 12ft Daiwa crossfire surf rod, Shimano Baitrunner 6000 OC, 20lb braid, 30lb fluorocarbon for the leader. The leader was about 1.5-2 rod lengths. There is probably about 250 yards of line on the reel. When it comes to casting, I'm definitely not the smoothest so I wasn't sure if perhaps I'm doing something that is causing the line to break? There didn't seem to be much difference in the way I was casting at the start and the later part when I was losing all of the lures. Any advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks