How to spool braid onto a baitcaster

How to spool braid onto a baitcaster

There are several ways to do this and if you are planning to use braid on a baitcaster for the first time then this is how to spool braid onto a baitcaster

What you need 
1. Baitcasting reel
2. Mono line
3. Braid
4. Braid scissors


Step 1 - mono backing
Wind on some mono backing about 10-15 layers should do the trick

Step 2 – connecting the braid and the mono
Tie you braid and mono together using as neat a knot as you can I use either an Albright or FG knot but this is up to you.

Step 3 – braid mainline 
Keeping tension on the line fill your spool as much as you need.

How to spool braid onto a baitcaster explained
For most of my fishing life I had used mono as my mainline. It was only when I picked up fishing in the UK around 2011/2012 that I discovered the benefits of using braid when learning to work Jerkbaits for pike. Since then I have not looked back. There are all sorts of benefits to using braid better bite detection, no line memory and thinner diameters for stronger breaking strength being the top benefits for me. That means most of my reels are spooled with braid but I had to learn how to spool braid onto a baitcaster first.

You see it’s not as simple as tie up and wind on. In my experience 99% of baitcasters come with a standard spool and do not have a braid band. A braid band is a small rubber or plastic ring placed on the spool that is put there to help ensure your braid does not slip on the spool during use. I learnt this the hard way. The very first time I used braid on a baitcaster I tied the line directly to the spool as if I would with mono. Later when I was on the bank trying to reel in after a few casts I noticed the braid slipping and it got worse the more I used it. The big learning curve for me was when I had a bite and struck but had no positive hookset because the line slipped on what felt like a lovely take. How disappointed I was with braid at that point. I knew something was not right so busied myself asking my buddies and searching you tube for guidance.

It was youtube that provided an instructional how to video that  really taught me how to spool braid onto a baitcaster. Basically I found out that there was two ways that this could be done.
1. By first spooling a mono backing line ( my prefered meathod)
2. By using some electric tape

The first and my preferred way of spooling braid is to first spool up a few layers of mono line. Nothing specific, I usually use the cheapest line I can find. This acts as a barrier of friction between the spool and my braid to stop slippage. Something that I discovered later was that by layering more mono I could use less braid. Good braid is expensive in my view so the more economical I am with it the more money I save myself. I can usually stretch one 150yard spool over two reels. This will also depend on the type of water I am fishing.  Canals and small bodies of water I will use less braid but on big deep waters I will have spooled more braid for the obvious reasons.

After layering mono I then tie the braid to the mono using an Albright or FG knot. This keeps the connection neat and tidy. Ensuring that I am winding the braid onto my reel from the top of the spool I keep tension consistent for a snug fit to further reduce the potential for line slip. I will always fill the spool to about 1-2mm below the lip keeping everything neat and tidy.

The second method of securing your braid to the spool where you tie your braid directly to the spool  then use a strip of electric tape to stop the slipping does work, however I don’t appreciate the sticky residue that tape can leave on your reel so avoid this.

I hope this has been helpful if you have seen this for the first time and I would welcome any feedback or tips you can share with me in the comments section below. If you prefer to watch a video of this in action here is the link to my you tube channel.

Perch in 60 seconds dropshot fishing

Big Brown Trout

Yes! another big brown trout 

On my most recent fishing trip I wanted to focus on targeting Zander with bigger lures. The water we fished on has recently delighted a few of the well known lure anglers with big Zander so I thought we would give it a go ourselves. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by my mate and great all round angler Stuart who was up from London for the weekend. The trip started like many others do the night before with a fair few beers, talk of tactics and fishing gear whilst checking and rechecking all tackle into the early hours of the morning. Lucky for us we did not have to get up early because I live only a short drive away from this water.

I really wish someone would come up with a system that would allow anglers out onto the water before sunrise. This really is my favourite time to be out on the water, It would also be great if it costed less than £55 a day for two anglers. The day started off relatively slowly with the first bites only coming off the second spot we drifted. Stuart landed his first perch of the day from 54ft of water by making casts and letting his Zoom Swimming Fluke Jnr sink to the bottom and then giving the reel 5 steady cranks to get the lure off the bottom and entice the predatory fish. Whilst Stuart was busy hauling in his best day's catch of perch I persisted with casting larger plastics in the hope I would stumble across a bigger Zander. I have to admit I was disappointed with myself because I did not take my normal rods with me. I had three new rods from Quantum that I was testing which were all not suited for the techniques I wanted to do.

The fishing rods I was testing are the

• Quantum Accurist - 3-12 gram - 2.03m 1 piece rod = I think this would be a great rod for canal work.
• Quantum Iron - 20gram casting - 2.25m 1 piece rod = As this has a parabolic action I think it would be great for some inshore fishing
• Quantum Smoke traveller - 5-55gram casting - 2.55m 5 piece rod - This rod will be a fantastic all round rod that you can pack in your suitcase for both salt and freshwater.

Having spent all morning casting bigger plastics I decided to change up and use something smaller a 10cm Salty Shat'r from Quantum and tried some vertical fishing in 60ft of water near the dam wall. It only took a couple of minutes of jigging and the Iron rod proved it has a lovely parabolic action as the rod doubled over with a heavy take. I took my time bringing this fish up because of the depth. I was also convinced that this fish was a Zander because of the way it was pulling. It was only when it was in the net that I realised it was actually a big brown trout.

I have never been disappointed with a fish but on this occasion because I had tried so hard all day for Zander and ignored all the small bites I was getting, I was a little frustrated. After taking a couple of pictures and weighing the fish she was released back to fight another day.

On the way back home we discussed what worked for Stuart who was very pleased with his days catch , he explained to me that he would have never fished in the areas that I put us in and at the depths of water we were fishing. I was pleased that I had been able to show Stuart something new that he can add to his knowledge. I learnt something over that weekend too, Stuart kindly showed me how to tie a double grinner knot properly. No more horrible looking braid to fluro knots!  I am looking forward to getting back out on this water to target Zander again over the next few weeks.

Pike Behaviour

Part 2

Pike Behaviour

Understanding Predator Fish Behaviour

04/11/2015

The Esox Lucius, Northern Pike or simply Pike has to be one of the most targeted predator fish with lures and probably one of the most well documented predator fish; which is why I have decided to choose Pike Behaviour as my first predator fish to focus on.

If you have followed my other posts from a couple of weeks ago on being a Lure Fishing Learner I wanted to go back a few steps to try and better understand the behaviour of predator fish in order to help me become a better lure angler. The idea of this is not that I am going to become an expert over night on fish behaviour, more to try and key in on some real basic key knowledge that I can refer back to when I am out fishing. I had identified a few key questions to ask my self and as a reminder, here they are.

1. Where will the predator fish be on any body of water be it a Canal, river, lake or reservoir?
2. What are the predator fish most likely going to be feeding on?
3. What times are the predator fish most likely going to be feeding?
4. Are the predator fish likely to be actively feeding or lethargically feeding?
5. What factors will affect a predator fish feeding patterns for example spawning?
6. How does weather affect a predator fish's behaviours?

So to start my research on pike behaviour my first stop was to use google search to see what would come up and there was some interesting reading to be had but there were some really common themes. Best highlighted by the wikipedia entries that includes everything from average sizes and current IGFA record to the all important pike behaviour.  Reading through all the different articles and studies, I thought to myself that it would be unreasonable to think I would be able to refer back to it when I needed it on the water. It has become clear that I need to be able to condense the information down into something that I can refer back to that has a summary of the answers to my key questions.

I have created a table that I can put into a format which can be printed or saved on my phone for a quick reference guide. Over time It will evolve as my knowledge grows. I do think this is something that can be created with a bit of time and should be useful as a reminder of the basic questions that need answering.

In summary what I have learnt from reading the articles on the internet is this:

Pike are an aggressive predatory fish, relying on ambush tactics and short bursts of speed to hunt their food which consists mainly of  fish. They will spend most of their time following their food source and live in solitude for the most but can be found in groups when they are smaller. They are particularly active during autumn when they tend to have longer periods of active feeding in preparation for the winter months when their metabolism slows  down.

It will be interesting to see if some of this knowledge helps me out over the weekend when I head out to Pitsford with a mate in search of a few of these, especially as we are in the heart of Autumn.

I look forward to updating the information on Pike Behaviour as I learn more. I hope there is something that will help you too.

Understanding Predator Fish Behaviour

Part 1

Understanding Predator Fish Behaviour 

On my recent post Lure Fishing Learner I set out that I was going back to the basics and re-learning how to catch fish with lures with the idea of becoming what I class a successful lure angler. I explained that to become consistently good you needed to combine a few things together and the first part that I am going to explore is getting a better understanding of predator fish behaviour.

What timescale have I put in place for this project I hear you ask. Well in all honesty I don't have any because I feel that no matter what style or technique of fishing you are trying to learn or improve there will always be something new to learn. Seriously don't take my advice just look at the top anglers in any discipline they will tell you the same.

The outcome of understanding predator fish behaviour is that I want to be able to ask and answer questions like the below 6 consistently when preparing for fishing be it a competition or simply heading out for a couple of hours after work ensuring my first to last cast have the best opportunity of landing in an area of predator fish.

• Where will the predator fish be on any body of water be it a Canal, river, lake or reservoir ?
• What are the predator fish most likely going to be feeding on?
• What times are the predator fish most likely going to be feeding?
• Are the predator fish likely to be actively feeding or lethargically feeding?
• What factors will effect a predator fish feeding patterns for example spawning?
• How does weather effect a predator fish behaviours?

These questions are probably pretty basic to most of you anglers out there but I want to re-iterate this is all part of the process for me as I am a Lure Fishing Learner especially when it comes to Perch, Pike and Zander as my main predator fish species of interest.

In my next blog post I will narrow in on researching the above 6 questions and others when specifically targeting Zander, Perch and Pike and as I mentioned earlier this will hopefully make my life easier when deciding where to make my first cast.

Zander Behaviour

Perch Behaviour

Pike Behaviour

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Lure Fishing Learner

Thats me a "Lure Fishing Learner"

So why have I called myself a Lure Fishing Learner? In a nutshell I am going back to lure fishing school to learn how to catch fish with lures.

How I intend on doing this is by going back to the basics, breaking down all the elements that when combined make a successful lure angler. Now what I think a successful lure angler looks like may very well be the complete opposite to what you think it looks like. So I will explain to you what I think it looks like, you may not agree with me but it is just my opinion and I do not mean to offend anyone reading this.

"a successful lure angler is the person that can go on to any body of water and quickly locate the target species of fish figure out what technique and lure type the target species will take and then consistently capture the target species while adjusting to the surrounding elements"

When you read that short description it makes it sound easy but from my own experiences over the past 24 months I can tell you it is not easy at all. There is a hell of a lot of knowledge that you need to have in order to be successful consistently, especially if you like to compete in fishing competitions like I do.

Knowing those elements that when combined make a successful lure angler is a challenging question for me to answer because I don't believe I have ever been consistently successful at it so the list could change but here is the three basic elements you need to know.

1. Understand fish behaviour and what drives a fish to bite a lure
2. Understand how weather and season effect fish behaviour
3. Understand how your fishing tackle and lures work properly

Again this does not sound like a lot to know but those three elements in turn break down into endless subcategories and I will get to writing those down but first I want to put out an invite to you if you are reading this.

I want to invite you to get in touch with me if you like the idea of being part of this process with me, I have thousands of questions to ask and countless hours/days ahead of me to learn about lure fishing and will definitely need the participation of other anglers or interested people, be it on the boat, bankside, over the phone, on email or on social media. If you have any ideas information or inspiration for me please get in touch using the below links.

I am seriously looking forward to having some fun documenting this journey with all of you.

Facebook page - A Fishermans Tale

Instagram - afishermanstale

Twitter - @afishermanstale

Website - www.afishermanstale.com

Kayak Lure Fishing Llangorse Wales

I have missed a trick somewhere here with the Kayak lure fishing. I really did not have any idea how big Kayak angling was in the UK until a recent trip to a Quantum Specialist UK supported event the “Llangorse Kayak Angling British Championship”.

On a very windy Saturday in March 57 Kayak anglers set out onto Llangorse Lake to chase down the predator species with lures and bait. I did not compete but was there to see what the competitive side of Kayak Angling is all about. It did not take long for me to see how series these guys take it and what kind of money they invest into their tackle and kayaks. Speaking to a few of the Hobie Kayak boys and Shimano staffer Matt Boast a decent angling specific kayak fitted with power pole, electronics and the accompanying never ending accessories options that come with the different kayaks you could easily spend up to £5000-£7000 on just your kayak set up. Looking around I could see a fair few kayaks that were pretty much fully kitted out so it looks as though the average kayak angler has at least some form of depth finder on their Kayak of choice. Having said that you could also go relatively cheap and get a basic model for around £500 with some of the basic accessories.

Cost aside what is starting to really appeal to me about Kayak Lure Fishing is the accessibility you can get to waters that do not normally allow boat angling. I have heard a lot of the kayak anglers talking about how more and more waters are opening their doors to allow Kayak Lure fishing. To all those decision makers well done you have my thumbs up, long may the trend continue. I could just see myself paddling down a canal or river in search of giant perch or monster pike or even fly fishing on a trout reservoir from one of these and given there is not many waters in the UK that an angler can actually launch a full sized boat from or need to launch a full sized boat from I can only see the popularity of Kayak lure fishing growing from strength to strength.

The Llangorse Kayak Angling British Championship was very well attended with 60+ anglers registered to fish with the idea of raising money for HOW (Heroes on Water) charity. The weather forecast was not in favour of the anglers and forced the start time to be pushed back to 11 am and end early as the wind picked up leaving the anglers with 3 hrs of competition time. The weather did not put them off even when one poor chap who had his kayak flipped in the heavy gusts of wind they carried and determined to get a result.

It was a tough day for the Kayak Lure Anglers as I understand the damage was done on dead baits. Below is a copy of the report from Edward Gibson chairman of the SWKA ( South Wales Kayak Anglers)

“First of all i would like to thank all of you for supporting the British championship kayak angling predator hunt on Llangorse Lake. The weather didnt play fair with us but we did manage to get a small window to launch which saw 57 anglers take to the water and 18 catch returns handed back in with some nice fish on them.
I would also like to give a special thanks To Gus at Escape Watersports, Raymarine, Palm Equipment and also Quantum specialists for their support and very Generous prizes.
Total amount Raised for Heroes on the water is £1042.00
1st Michael Harpur. 237 cm 3 Pike £150 Escape Watersports & Trophy
2nd Lars Lundberg. 201 cm 3 Pike £100 Escape Watersports & Trophy
3rd Ian Pickering. 121 cm 2 Pike £50 Escape Watersports & Trophy
4th Alistair Cole . 105cm 2 Pike Selection of Battleshad Lures, Quantum
Specialists
5th Matt Boast 90 cm 1 Pike, 2 Perch
6th Kelvin Morris 89.5 cm 1 Pike
7th Grant Harris 87.5 cm 1 Pike
8th MarK Radcliffe 81 cm 1 Pike
9th Neil Whitehead 73 cm 1 Pike
10th Nathan Evans 69.5 cm 1 Pike
11th David Morris 66 cm 1 Pike
12th Dane Wood 65.5 cm 1 Pike
13th Steven Tibbenham 56 cm 1 Pike
14th Mark Hewitson 54 cm 1 Pike
15th Chris Aspinal 53 cm 1 Pike
16th Simon Adams 52 cm 1 Pike
17th Paul Foster 50 cm 1 Pike.
18th Danny Kilcullen 41.5 cm 2 perch.
Kelvin Morris won the Raymarine Dragonfly 5pro with the largest Pike
Paul Foster won a Quantum Shogun Rod for catching the smallest Pike on the Lure.
Team Competition
1st SWKA
Michael Harpur, Jamie Samual and Kelvin Morris 326.5
2nd, Hobie.
Matt Boast, Rob Appleby and Lars Lundberg 291.00
3rd, Ocean Kayak
Dane wood, Keith Ward and Ian Pickering 186.5
4th Jackson
Jackson,
Sam Baxter, Mark Radcliffe and Martin Collinson 81.00
5th HOW
Neil Whitehead, Liam and Graham, 73.00
Thanks once again for the tremendous support the sponsors and entrants showed us this year, hopefully we can beat the figure next year and get you better weather.
Many thanks
Ed Gibson
Chairman of South Wales Kayak Anglers”.

It was also great for me to catch up with Daniel Brackley and Gary Palmer who were on hand supporting the guys in the Kayaks as well as having a few casts themselves.

Whilst I have been considering a full sized boat for some time now I see a lot of benefits of having a kayak on the UK waters and am really considering the options available on the market that will give me even more options to cast lures.

For more information on the SWKA you can visit their official website by clicking : Here

Kayak Lure Fishing Llangorse Wales

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About Me

A Fisherman's Tale

Welcome to “A Fisherman’s Tale” . A place for me to share with you my passion for fishing through pictures, videos, stories, tackle reviews and interviews of the best quality. I encourage all anglers who have this same passion to share with me and the community their own “tales” and experiences. I believe we can all learn from each other and become better anglers and ambassadors for the wonderful sport of fishing.

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