Dry spell recovery

[FinsnFur]

I'm coming off an ugly dry spell here. Water has been way too high from rain up north, temps been in the thousands 

I hit a few honey holes yesterday and caught a couple but nothing like I would have hoped for.
Had another state record smallie on the line  and he decided he had other plans and dodged under a big log that was lodged up.
I fought with him for close to 15 minutes, when I decided that all I was gonna get here was a memory here. It was to the point that when I pulled the pole all I felt was that log, he was either laying against it, or got it wrapped, but I couldnt feel him anymore.
I finally see his tail bobbing up and down and I thrash the rod back and forth a couple times but I cant feel him and he cant feel me. I decided to take a pic of the tail, cause that's I'll Im gonna get.



I know it looks close enough to grab but I'm zoomed and it's actually around 10' out to the log. Plus this river (Wisconsin River) is nasty wicked. It runs very deep, very fast and claims many...I wasnt even going to attempt trying to step out to it, on the clattering boulder edge in my sandals, especially knowing that it drops off just past the log.

I found a long limb and began prodding what I could see of him, and pull on the line with the other hand hoping to break him free and get him under that log. All I succeeded in there was getting my line wrapped around the limb. Almost lost my rod trying to reach out there and free IT now before the line snapped.

I was getting so ticked off I felt a bowel movement coming on 

I finally managed to get my line off the limb I was trying to prod with and in doing so I hear the fish thrashing again. (shaking my head) I look over and this time he's on MY side of the log   getting swept down stream very fast, and my pole's about to go with em....How the ?...
I grabbed the pole before the river claimed it...and as luck would have it the fish on the other end came with it

I wanted to take a picture of the hook when I pulled him out, it was literally holding the fish with nothing but "fate"...and very little of that.  By the time I got the camera out of my pocket, the hook fell out.




Here's a better pic of the the distance to the log. Upper middle left of the pic.
I'm guessing around 10 foot out to the log. I had to reach pretty good and I could see the water dropping off fast.


Anyway...yeah the fish and I lived

[Hidehunter]

Heck yeah thats a nice one. Glad you got him in. I had a similar incident last year with a big bucketmouth. I ended up landing him to thanks to my sufix line. I am a firm believer in sufix. Anyway, great fish jimbo.

[FinsnFur]

Tell me about your Sufix. I did a quick search as I've never heard of it, but I didnt do a whole lot of reading knowing I could get a first hand review right here.

I've been a die hard Spider Wire fan for several years. I think I got everything they ever made and put their name on it, from reels to underpants.
Ok....they didnt really make any underpants, but I really love this line.
It's not real good with abrasion, but being a braided line...it's not going to. Castability is amazing on the right reel, and memory is literally non existent

Tell me about this Sufix.

[HaMeR]

That's a real bruiser right there Jim!! Congratulations!!

I use Fire Line & really like it. I need to reline my poles & will look around for the Sufix line.

[Hidehunter]

On my Bass/walleye set-ups I have Sufix Elite and Sufix siege.  The siege is very very abbrasive resistant but does have some memory.  The elite is smooth as silk and is my favorite all time monofilament.

On my musky poles I have them spooled with 100lb Sufix 832 superbraid (which won the best line award at icast the first year it was out in 2010).

I have tried just about every type of line there is I believe and from now on I only buy Sufix.  The smoothness and castability is top knotch.  The mono is tough as nails and very hard to break. The same being said for the braid. The braid is also very quite and doesnt cut into itself in the spool.  It has 8 different braided fibers that are wrapped 32 times in one inch.  One of the fibers is made out of Gore. Im not for sure what that is but I know it makes the line very smooth and almost slippery.

I hate using braided line for bass/walleye.  I am a firm believer in mono for these species.  We have tested braid/mono side by side throwing same bait and presentation and the mono always outfished the braid with bass.  As for musky...They are there to eat and do not care what type of line you have 

[coyote101]

I took some 15lb. Zebco Omniflex braid to Canada on one of my reels . That is what I am using on that smallmouth video. I thought it might be tough enough to resist pike teeth.... I was WRONG! Three times I had pike cut through it like it was butter.

Pat

[FinsnFur]

Nothing resists pike teeth Pat except concrete, and belted radials

I'm surprised to hear you say that about the braided lines and bass fishing Denver. I'm the total opposite. There will never be mono on any of my bass rods again. The stretch sucks.
The signal transmission from fish to pole with the braided lines is so unbelievable that if a fish even breaths on the lure, your going to know it. I love that
Plus hogging em out of the Lillie pads with mono seems like  lost cause.
I'm going to check out the Sufix braid next time I'm at Cabelas. I'm 110% satisfied with SpiderWire, but the thought of something,  ehhhhh, maybe better, has me intrigued.

[Hidehunter]

I aggree with ya that the stretch does suck for sure.  Through my experience though I have alot more action on the mono vs the braid.  I just always thought the bass could see the braid.

Another thing about the Sufix 832 is that it frays very little.  Grab ya some of this stuff on your next trip Jimbo and see what ya think.  Spiderwire makes some good line and will definatly get the job done but I think you may like the Sufix a little better.  I love my Spiderwire polarized sunglasses though