Some Big Fish and Fishing Line

After I left the beach house on Friday the 17th I stopped at Breachway Bait and Tackle where I talked to Captain Mouchon and let him know I would be stopping by for a while the following morning.  He then proceeded to show me a cooler where the two fish below were being stored.  Both of those had been caught that morning, one by him and the other by one of his customers.  These striped bass are huge and bigger than anything I have ever caught.  He claims that one of them weighed in about 34 pounds and the other close to 50 pounds.

The next morning I raced down to Breachway Bait and Tackle for about 8:30 am on Saturday the 18th.  I spent about three or four hours there with Captain Mouchon and his customers.  On this day he showed me how to take line off and put new line on to a reel.  There is a special machine in which you use your foot on a pedal to create a speed at which the line will spin.  Then you balance the line and the reel in your fingers and either help to place the line on or take the old line off of the reel.  Unfortunately I do not have a picture of myself using the machine but below is a picture of the same machine that I used.

Line is extremely important when it comes to fishing.  Depending on which type of fish you are fishing for it is important to have enough line as well as strong enough line to reel in the fish.  Certain lines are only meant to hold a certain amount of weight and if a big fish is on the end of a weak line that line has a much greater chance of breaking.  There are two main types of fishing line known as monofilament and braided.  Braided is a newer type of fishing line and there is a huge debate that is ongoing about which line is better.  There are several pros and cons to both such as braided allows you to feel every little bump in the water and there is no 'memory' in the line meaning that there are less potential knots when reeling it in.  However, people have used monofilament line forever and have always caught fish without a problem.  Monofilament is cheaper as well and people say if something is working why change it?!  Furthermore, at the end of the line you should tie a piece of leader line which is what connects your line to your lure and hopefully to your fish.  This leader is usually very hard and will not break easily.  If a blue fish comes along with sharp teeth or any other fish with sharp teeth hopefully this leader will not break as easily as if the lure was simply tied directly to the line.

Below is a picture of myself tying a new lure onto my line.  it may be difficult to see but there is a clear difference between the leader and the line.  Knots are very important when it comes to fishing as well.  You do not want to have any knot come loose and have that be the reason you lose the fish!  The knot I am tying below is a classic fisherman's knot which will not come undone.  You first wrap the line three times around itself then put the end into the hole that forms and then finally put the end into the next hole that forms.  You then pull tight on the lure and leader and the knot will fasten itself right close to the lure.  It is also important to cut any stray ends of line which could be a dead give away to the fish.  Some old toenail clippers work great!