Explain this

Scenario:
You are fishing late at night for cats on the river, all of a sudden you get an agressive bite on your live minnow, the rod is bent over and line is going out, you attempt to set the hook and the instant pressure is applied you end up with a cut line. You never even felt the fish. You re-tie and put on a steel leader, also making sure to check for any weak points in your braided 50 pound test line. You cast out into a different location not far from the first place. 10 minutes later you get another bite, this time you have a fish on, for about two seconds. The same results, the line is cut well above the leader and sinker and you are left puzzled once again… What has happened?

Remember that guy that you all were teasing about getting married? Name starts with an M. Likely that he has spent all of his money on this wedding, cant afford hooks. My theory is that he followed you to your hole and using a piece of old garden hose to breath through, swam under water and waited. With the aid of a sharp knife, obtained some, not only tackle, but bait as well.

Check your rod tip guide for damage. Lost a few lures and a few fish last year before I noticed the ceramic guide had chipped and was fraying my line about 18″ above the lures.

Carp Chaser…. thats happened to me a few tiems actually. And in one particular location. I never used a steel leader though, but you would think it would be tough to instantly break 65# PowerPro. I have always wondered the same thing…. possibly Gar???? OR bad knots???

cc, I’ve never used 50 pound braided but I wonder how it stands up to sharp rocks or zebra mussles. I know that while cat fishing with 20 pound fireline I’ve had my line cut with very little resistance from what I suspect were zebra mussles. Also a friend was using Whiplash and constantly breaking it off in a rocky area. I think that throwing across a current will make the problem even worse as the line slides across rocks and zebies.

Ah this has happened to me also on more than one occasion.My knot was actually cutting itself.It looked like a clean cut every time.After experimenting a little I noticed that if I did not work my knot down slowly and got a little wrap in it it would cut the line.Check your knots carefully.If you are using a palomar,make sure when you put the hook through the loop that there are no twists in the loop.If you are using a doubled cinch make sure the wraps are even and again the loop is not twisted.
I did have it happen on another occasion.When the water came way down I noticed that I was fishing on an old car wreck.The fish were running into the wreck and cutting the line on the rusted remains.

those are some interesting explanations. I don’t think it was metal junk in the river, for one thing this place is a couple of miles from the nearest road. I never knew a knot could cut the line, that’s a good theory but I haven’t ever had this problem outside of that one spot. I will have to pay closer attention to my line and knots though. It could have been a gar, that was my first thought actually, I have seen some large gar in this spot during the day. An underwater camera will reveal all. The thing that is baffling is that this has happened in the same exact spot last year as well.

Try using a 1 to 2 foot leader of 50 lb mono and seeing if that doesn’t help stop the break offs. That superline just isn’t abrasion resistant enough in most cases to hold up against snags and rocky bottoms…let alone gar or toothy critters.

Matt

This may be worth a shot.Try seven strand leader material flexible and you can make leaders whatever length you would like. You can get it coated or
uncoated with nylon. I bought some eight pound test to try on the zebs in Pepin. Thought a six foot length on my trolling rods might work well.I would give it a try if you think you are getting bit off by large toothy critters.

If you have haybailed the spool of your braid in the past you may have many weak points all over in the spool?

This will cut itself part way and latter on as you apply pressure……ZIP…gone…what the heck?

A palamor knot shouldn’t cut itself even with high test line Power Pro and a whale on the end, try a palamor if you think it may be a knot issue.

I suspect old braid abraisons to be the funky deal myself, both dacron and FireLine are known to do this if they have been haybailed badly, even once. May be time to respool?

Hope this is of help.

Catch a piggy!

Depending on what size minnows you were using, I would say that without a doubt it was a snapping turtle. I’ve had a similair situation happen to me, and when I finally hooked it such that it couldn’t get ot the line, I got a good look at it before it snapped through the hook. I have no problem believing they could go through a steel leader. I’ve also had one break leader clips when stealing my catfish.

Doesn’t seem like they go for the smaller baits, though.

Snappers don’t make runs unless they are coasting down river in heavy currents, then it is the river your fighting more then the snapper . Mostly they tug & chew and move off slow and steady, even the 40-60 pound snappers. They do not feel the need to run with baits and would rather eat it on the spot then take it off to eat latter.

We have caught a lot of big snappers on the Red and it’s tribs on mono leaders with no problem at all.

I am still prone to say it is a cat and line falure combo situation then to think it is a high speed turtle.

I had the same experience last week. I was fishing an eddie behind a wingdam. Fishing from shore, campfire and all. One rod with spider line, the others with 20 lb. mono, trilene XT. I landed 7 turtles, the smallest about 14 inches across the shell. I never landed one on the spider line, cut every time. On the other rods, the mono was nicked up, all the way up the (30 inches) line. Two of the turles came in on their backs and the others came in right side up. I think that our lines are being cut by their shells.
I let all the turtles go and I wouldn’t have stayed there if I didn’t have such a nice fire on a perfect secluded beach on a perfect evening. Action is action.