Fred Hall Del Mar - my experience - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Rusty · 03-27-2011, 12:33 AM

7 or 8 years ago I started out fishing using spectra on the sporties and the captains told me to get rid of it. They called me spiderman. It created nightmare tangles from hell. After putting in 3-4 years of fishing sporties 2-5 times a week with mono (awesome job I had), I learned to catch fish with mono and a flouro leader consistently. It took a lot of painstaking work. Transferring to the kayak, I just used what I new... Mono / Flouro.

From what I understand, the biggest advantage of using spectra straight to flouro is that your bait is able to swim a lot more naturally, thus you should get bit more often. On a kayak or PB, this is great. You can chop through kelp when needed as well. The downside is you have no stretch (forgiveness) in these two items, like mono does, so if you have spaghetti arms like me, you might be taking a beating.... Which is why I have yet to switch over.

Personally, I think Josh's idea from a while ago (which has taken me a lot of time and thought to comprehend) of wrapping mono first, then adding spectra on top followed by 6-8' of flouro... is genius. - correct me if I'm wrong on the setup please. You have all the elements of getting bit (specra / flouro = free swimmer), and once something starts pulling enough drag you get down to the mono it gives you a little forgiveness. The only possible drawback is that I would think the spectra would slide into and lock up in the small spaces between the spooled mono. Does that happen Josh?

Anyone fish solely spectra to flouro on normal rods / guides (say seeker black steele or regular calstars? Is it hard on the guides / rod? I'm giving serious thought to switching over now that my skillz have improved and I rarely fish sporties... but I'm gonna have to start doing more push-ups.

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03-27-2011, 12:33 AM	#4
Rusty Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: LJ Posts: 201	7 or 8 years ago I started out fishing using spectra on the sporties and the captains told me to get rid of it. They called me spiderman. It created nightmare tangles from hell. After putting in 3-4 years of fishing sporties 2-5 times a week with mono (awesome job I had), I learned to catch fish with mono and a flouro leader consistently. It took a lot of painstaking work. Transferring to the kayak, I just used what I new... Mono / Flouro. From what I understand, the biggest advantage of using spectra straight to flouro is that your bait is able to swim a lot more naturally, thus you should get bit more often. On a kayak or PB, this is great. You can chop through kelp when needed as well. The downside is you have no stretch (forgiveness) in these two items, like mono does, so if you have spaghetti arms like me, you might be taking a beating.... Which is why I have yet to switch over. Personally, I think Josh's idea from a while ago (which has taken me a lot of time and thought to comprehend) of wrapping mono first, then adding spectra on top followed by 6-8' of flouro... is genius. - correct me if I'm wrong on the setup please. You have all the elements of getting bit (specra / flouro = free swimmer), and once something starts pulling enough drag you get down to the mono it gives you a little forgiveness. The only possible drawback is that I would think the spectra would slide into and lock up in the small spaces between the spooled mono. Does that happen Josh? Anyone fish solely spectra to flouro on normal rods / guides (say seeker black steele or regular calstars? Is it hard on the guides / rod? I'm giving serious thought to switching over now that my skillz have improved and I rarely fish sporties... but I'm gonna have to start doing more push-ups.