swimbaits

Whaler

Sealiner
most guys now my views on this faset of our sport, but if you want to do it any way make sure your tackle is up to scratch, to get a bait to swim properly from a beach you need it to be strong enough to drag your terminal tackle out through a shore break and beyond the backline, so dont use a 2kg milky on a 10m 400lb steel trace, you will drown your bait! on the other side of the coin dont use  a 50kg diamond as bait when your only reel is a 20/40! the minimun size reel i would recomend is a tn 50 or larger, i know large sharks have been landed on smaller reels but that is not the norm and those guys will not tel how many times they got smashed up before they landed one.

your main line should not be less then .60mm and you should have at least 1000meters on the reel, remember you are going to let the bait out at least 250m, with the bow in the line you can count on about 300m of line out, when you get a pic up you need to feed the fish before you set the hooks, so lets say another 100meters? now you only have 600meters left to play the 200kg + fish you have just hooked! unless it is a 80kg Zambie that has tried to make a pig of himself when he chomped your diamond you have got problems, i would use a 20/o circle on 3meters of 400lb steel with a 2mm windon as terminal tackle for swimbaits bigger then 15kgs for smaller baits i would use a 1.5mm wind on and 2 meters of 400lb piano wire(less drag in the water).

Ps. if you are swimming baits in the western cape you are going to wind up in trouble sooner then later... 
 

BigG

Senior Member
Whaler thanks for your input, i certainly appreciate it depsite your outlook on the topic, this is the info we looking for here

 
 

BigG

Senior Member
Whaler have you had any successes on swim baits, if so do you have some pictures you can post if you haven't already
 

Whaler

Sealiner
BigG wrote:
Whaler have you had any successes on swim baits, if so do you have some pictures you can post if you haven't already
when i lived in natal i swam baits regularly, with little sucsess! i had many hook ups but few converted to landed fish! i could not aford braid and my swim reel was a tld 25, with 500metres of line i used to take my hidings like a man! lol! i have a few old pics of broken tackle and taxed baits that i'l try and upload, i think in my young days we tried to pull them to hard and something always seemed to brake! down here in the SC i have landed a good shark on a swim bait but sealine policy wont allow  me to post a pic...
 

BigG

Senior Member
Nice man.. looks like I'll have to visit your neck of the woods.. But i beleive you when you say fish are huge that side

Your Thresher still takes the most memorable catch on sealine for me, completely unbeleivable, certainly a fish of a life time in our waters, never knew you get them here
 

Whaler

Sealiner
BigG wrote:
Nice man.. looks like I'll have to visit your neck of the woods.. But i beleive you when you say fish are huge that side

Your Thresher still takes the most memorable catch on sealine for me, completely unbeleivable, certainly a fish of a life time in our waters, never knew you get them here
Shot Dude! a few are hooked every year, i think 3 were caught last year but they were quite small, when they are bigger then 50kgs they become quite tricky to land and you need a lot of luck just to keep them on the line for longer then a few seconds! mine was 3cm shorter then the SA record and i've got big plans to beat it this summer!
 

Fluffy

Senior Member
Whaler wrote:
most guys now my views on this faset of our sport, but if you want to do it any way make sure your tackle is up to scratch, to get a bait to swim properly from a beach you need it to be strong enough to drag your terminal tackle out through a shore break and beyond the backline, so dont use a 2kg milky on a 10m 400lb steel trace, you will drown your bait! on the other side of the coin dont use  a 50kg diamond as bait when your only reel is a 20/40! the minimun size reel i would recomend is a tn 50 or larger, i know large sharks have been landed on smaller reels but that is not the norm and those guys will not tel how many times they got smashed up before they landed one.

your main line should not be less then .60mm and you should have at least 1000meters on the reel, remember you are going to let the bait out at least 250m, with the bow in the line you can count on about 300m of line out, when you get a pic up you need to feed the fish before you set the hooks, so lets say another 100meters? now you only have 600meters left to play the 200kg + fish you have just hooked! unless it is a 80kg Zambie that has tried to make a pig of himself when he chomped your diamond you have got problems, i would use a 20/o circle on 3meters of 400lb steel with a 2mm windon as terminal tackle for swimbaits bigger then 15kgs for smaller baits i would use a 1.5mm wind on and 2 meters of 400lb piano wire(less drag in the water).

Ps. if you are swimming baits in the western cape you are going to wind up in trouble sooner then later... 
Where near george area can one swimbait?
 
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