Carbontex

[PaddyT]

Back in March i spent 30 minutes fighting a small black marlin that ate a string of slimies whilst jigging for bait, amazingly stayed connected for that long but the reel a Stradic 3000Ci4 was outgunned and the drag took a beating . After the fight it was lumpy and not happy. So got some 1mm carbontex and pulled the drag apart . The drag assembly was full of fluff from the cooked off soft washers (there are 3 in the reel) which explained why it was a bit lumpy. Cut new discs out , filed them to shape and put a light coat of grease on after removing all the cooked junk in the drag housing . Ended up just using 2 carbontex washers to replace the 3 fibre ones and the drag is smooth as, so pretty happy with that result. About 40 minutes labour and about $3.00 in outlay. Rest of reel in perfect nick and know the drag is back where I want it.

[fragmeister]

Hi Paddy,

That's an interesting story.

Over the years I have had big fish take a squid that I have jigged up and I am reasonably confident that the night time ones were probably Jews and the daytime ones were probably more often kings. I have lost yakkas on a handline to kings ( and ended up with some seriously cut fingers) in the past also so it does not surprise me at all that the same thing could happen with a marlin.

I notice that your profile says that you are in Sydney. Out of curiosity where were you catching livies at the time?  Was it in close or out wide?

The reason I ask is that I have seen a few blacks caught at long reef and I once saw what I am convinced was a black at the artificial off the gap.

Cheers

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PaddyT]

Hi Jim, hooked that little black at the wide bait grounds off Coffs, ive had that happen a couple of times now, once off Port Stephens at the carpark and this occasion. It was a bit of fun for half an hour and amazing that the sabiki rig held together for that long, I was putting as much pressure on with the light gear as I could and we drove hard after the fish in an attempt to leader it- but not to be, had a bloody sore wrist at the end! Back to your question about marlin in close of Sydney- sure they are there more often than people realise, didnt do a lot of marlin fishing this season but got one and hooked another inside the close FAD off Nth Head back in Jan- was working the bait schools , had another morning back in 2014 where my son and I hooked 4 in a 2 hr period about 2 miles south of the artificial reef- working bait schools again, find the bait, find the marlin.