Marking a breakline. from the string below.

Finesse Forum

Date: May 09, 2006 at 11:36:23
From: ken, [pool-70-109-217-38.prvdri.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Marking a breakline. from the string below.

One method of fishing that can be helpful is to mark the break line with two or more floats. You can buy them or make them. One end has a weight and the other a small highly visible float of some sort. The weight has to be heavy enough to hold bottom in the current.

The weight of the jig head is very important. The sink rate is what is critical -- not fishing deep.

Always try to fish with the lightest weight that works. You can get a light weight jig deep by making sure that there is no drag on the line. You do that by letting the jig free fall with no resistance but never lose contact with it as fish ordinarily take it as it is falling. If you let it fall without tending it you will miss many, many fish.

You use the rod tip to pick up the line off the surface of the water and try to keep a straight line to where the line cuts through the surface and down to the jig. (This is why it is called finesse) IT takes skill and concentration to do it well.

What you describe in fishing the pilings is called the Liesenring Lift in fly fishing. It is a very good technique for upstream control. You can feel the resistance of the jig by raising your rod tip and feel every touch as it move toward you.

Then it passes the boat and moves down below. You can maintain your depth control by back reeling or by dumping line and raising you tip to compensate and then pick the line up with your finger and drop the tip slowly to let the jig move down maintaining contact. It works and you will get better and better at at it as you do it over and over again.

When you are casting across the current you are in fact doing this same thing but you have to monitor the drift so that the current does not put a bow in your line.

This is where the different weights of jigs becomes critical.
If it is too heavy you will feel it but it may not drift correctly. IT is a balancing act between resistance from the jig for feel and being able to hold your depth. The better you get at it the lighter the jigs you can use and accomplish the result.
The size of the plastic is also a big factor in resistance and sink rate.

Most folks just cast an reel and sometimes this is all that is necessary. It is the simplest approach. The more you develop finesse skills the less you will find yourself doing that cast and reel technique. It is not a consistent producer although it is good for a few aggressive fish most of the time.

Getting back to the marking of the breakline...

If the breakline is straight them you put the first float at the top of the section you want to fish and the other at the bottom (downstream) of that section.

Then you position your boat so that you can fish each section of that breakline in a systematic way.
Either Leisenring Lift or across current.
You will be able to fish a part of it with various weight jig heads and drift the lure through each drift with precision and change your weights and lures and techniques until you have satisfied your curiosity and exhausted your ideas. Then you drop down and fish the next section systematically.

This gives you a visual starting point and in a way orients you in a similar way to the bridge pilings. IT gives yo a sense of location that you can not get with your eyes unless you have something to focus on. Do not underestimate that visual connection as you often do well at the pilings and it may be that you have more understanding of the control needed because you can see what you are doing in relation to a fixed point, "The bridge, "but there are also fish downstream from the bridge on th3e breakline that you have had difficulty catching. You can catch those non-bridge fish too if you are systematic in your approach. You just need a visual aid to orient your presentations.
If there are fish there on that breakline you will be showing them your lures in a controlled fashion and you will be able to refine your presentations in a measurable way.
You can try different colors and types of lures and sizes and weights. You will also be able to Carolina rig flies and even worms and try shrimp fly's and worm flies.

You con also put little floats on the leader between the weight and the lure/fly to raise the fly up off the bottom and really strain the water.

The biggest difficulty is in detecting the strikes as they are often just a stopping of the lure not a "Hit" Heavy lines and soft tipped rods make this detection more difficult to detect. Mono dulls the feel and the difference between six pound mono and 8 pound is major both in the drift profile and in detecting strikes.

The paddle tail grub that Mann's makes is not a swimming action grub it looks like a tear drop and has no action. Curly tail and shad type grubs with the swimming tail are often refused by suspended fish or negative fish. Their action repels the fish when they are in a passive or negative mood. YOu can see this for yourself on flats where you can see a fish react to tiny differences in the energy level built into lures. Some time the best action for results is no action at all. When that is happening a curly tail grub will spook fish just lying on the bottom while a tear drop grub that is small will draw them closer and closer. Move it and, "Whoosh," they spook. Just raise your tip and feel the grub and do not move it at all, Just tighten and they will come right over and pick it up. I do not know why but it is true. Not always but always when the fish are negative. So "Great Action" can be the worst possible action. Gitzits and similar lures are also great passive action lures and they are also active action lures. Try them you may like the results.

Stationary active fish, those which are holding in current and intercepting food that comes to them (This is the norm) will not move to a lure but if it comes to them in a passive way carried along by the current in the way that they expect their food to come to them (that is why they are holding in current by the way) they will often take it and often very gently. They are not expection it to try and get away form them. They just intercept it like catching a ball thrown to them.

With negative fish which are not feeding but just suspending or passively hanging in the current taking a rest from life, the smaller and less intrusive the lure and presentation is, the better the chance of success.

It is similar to what is called a do-nothing approach although it is not exactly the same. You use current to present the lure in a passive way. Think of dead drifting a nymph in a river for trout and keep a hair of back pressure feel to the lure as it drifts along the breakline.
Any touch or hesitation or a sense of losing that contact, like the pressure lightens to the jig or you lose contact with the jig; is a fish. It may not be one but you have to act as if it is to find out. You cannot prove a negative ("that's not a fish") unless you act.

What this marking of the breakline does is give you a target to orient your presentations to and enables you to cast and fish precisely and that in itself will help you refine your senses and give a real discernible measurable order to your presentations.

It really works. It does take some effort to mark those break lines but fishing this way is a revelation and it tunes you up very quickly.
It takes time to mark a brakline but it does not waste it.
Fishing with out real order uses up your time and energy like a like a gambling addiction uses up your money..

Spend you time like you spend your money.
Invest it in developing your skills. It has value.

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Follow Ups:

Re: Marking a breakline. from the string below. SalI 09-May-2006 15:50:20 (1)

Re: Marking a breakline. from the string below. John Kelsey 09-May-2006 16:52:30 (0)

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