Articles and stories on fishing in general

Posts and other content that look at all things fishing in general, salt water and fly fishing.

World Record Line-Class Confusion

I just read a bleating blog comment from a Big Game boat skipper somewhere in the US beefing about the fact that he bought some 20lb rated line, but he said it over-tested by nearly 1lb, i.e. broke at 21lb and was therefore useless for chasing 20lb World Records.

The moan reveals some widespread confusion, and flat-out miss-information, about the breaking-strain line classes as used by the IGFA (International Game Fishing Assoc.) to determine World Record claims.

When the IGFA was set up they decided that as the organisation was international they would use metric weights for setting line classes – that is the line classes would be set in kilogrammes.

But in the US line classes were described in pounds, and still are. But the nominal US pound rating (called US Customary) does not match the line-class in kilos. For instance the 10kg line-class, is 20lb line in US customary terms, but its IGFA rated class is 22.04lbs. So the line being moaned about above was within class.

So if you are chasing World Records it is usually best to buy ‘IGFA rated line class’ line – that is line that is manufactured to break under, but as close to the line-class as possible – but know that the line is rated to kilogrammes not the pounds often shown on the pack. It should also be remembered that line tested for claims must break under the line class.

Here are the line classes used by IGFA, showing the kg class, US customary, and the actual lb line-class the line will tested under by the IGFA.

Line Class (kg) US Custom (lb) Test (lb)
1* 2 2.2
2* 4 4.4
3* 6 6.61
4* 8 8.81
6* 12 13.22
8* 16 17.63
10* 20 22.04
15 30 33.06
24 50 52.91
37 80 81.57
60 130 132.27

* Also Fly fishing record tippet classes

Posted by Tony Bishop in Articles and stories on fishing in general, big game fishing

Flyfishmagazine: Dont be that guy….

A story for all fishermen, salt and fresh water……

Via MaineToday comes a story of fly fishing conversation etiquette. I think we all have met that guy…
“I caught a 22-inch rainbow yesterday,” he offered, with nothing else. I could see he was waiting for me to, pardon the pun, take the bait.
He waited a few seconds, maybe 10, and took a quick puff of his cigarette.
“Not here, you know.”
I just nodded, and he puffed again.

He then went into a long litany of where he’d been fishing, how many fish he’d caught and how long they all were. To hear him tell it, he’d filled an entire wall with trophy-sized mounts — all from the last six days!

He caught a brown out of China Lake. “You know that’s open, right?”
He caught splake by the bucketful near Bingham. “They’re all, like, 15-24 inches up there.”
And then there was the rainbow.

“Oh, they’re biting all right. You just got to know where to go.”

I guess the only fisherman I hate to be accosted by as much as the guy above is the old, “Ya should ‘av been here yesterday” guy, who then proceeds to tell you in meticulous detail, why. Just what you need when the fishing today is hard.

Don’t Be That Guy

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing humour

Fishing in Baseball Caps – Words Of Warning

Last week I had some pre-cancerous lumps removed from my ears, and back of my legs. These were ‘burnt’ out using liquid nitrogen. Another two on my neck had moved a bit too far past the ‘pre’ stage and had to be surgically removed.

Unfortunately this has become almost routine over the last 15 years. Every couple of years another lump or two pops up that has to be removed.

Part of this is down to the the unhappy fact that here in New Zealand we lead the world in the incidence of skin cancer per head of population. This is not just down to the fact that we have virtually no airborne pollution to filter out the bad rays, but also down to the fact that we spend a great deal of time out in the sun.

Unfortunately for old farts like me slipping past 60, we did not know about the dangers of long-term unprotected exposure to the sun back when we were young, but we are paying the price now.

While the doctor was treating my lumps we were chatting, he was a keen fisherman, so a subject wasn’t hard. So I asked him about skin protection for fishermen – and he trotted out the usual; cover-up exposed bits, slap on heaps of a total sun-blocker on bits unable to be covered, and re-slap every 30 minutes.

But it was the last bit of advice that got my attention – throw away your baseball cap and buy a wide-brimmed hat. Most of the skin cancers he sees on out-door people are on the face, neck and ears.

To use his own words, “baseball caps do not cover neck, ears, cheeks or throat – they are about as much use as chocolate tea-pot. Any one who spends a lot of time in the sun, like a fisherman, who wears a baseball cap is simply a bozo.”

Posted by Tony Bishop in Articles and stories on fishing in general, Life & Stuff

New Fishing Quotes and Sayings – Feb 14, 2008

I recently added 10 new quotes and sayings to the  quotes page, bringing the total to 640.

Of the new quotes, this one caught my eye, a rather good twist on and old quote:

“Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he’ll eat for weeks!”

– Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005