Playing 10lb carp and 15lb line problem

Doubled my PB carp today got a 10lb common and it was only my second common ,very happy LAST CAST OF THE DAY (the real one)

Could have missed out on a larger one about three times but caught three more up to 4lb.

Horseshoe Lake at Birch House LakesBirch House Lakes

Ednaston
Brailsford

I would gues i played it for around 4 minutes and it was on 8lb (tested the night before) the hook link was 8LB(tested) as well as i had just had a 6LB hooklink snap on the fish before this one.

I was using an okuma interceptor pro and had the clutch set just right it was very good but should i have played it longer ??

As exciting as landing a 3lbish fish with my no handles centre pin in the middle of the afternoon, Finger churning action can't wait to catch a big fish with this reel going to be scary!! I am in the middle of a barbel campain at the mo with this too!!

Do you want to tire a fish out or just get it so you can get it in the net with a struggle .

My other problem when I first got there was i was trieing out my new okuma silavra pro (got this as a cheep second reel that is compatable with my main one)that I have started to set up for barbel river fishing .

15lb main line and 8lb hook lengths was the plan but have some 15lb braid on order for hook lengths.

I have never used anything over 8Lb before and the 15lb was a nightmare coming unwound like a slinky every other cast and generally being anoying if I didn't keep a very close eye on it ,it didn't look like it had to much line on it though I know this would be the assumption .
Any ideas ?
Maybe go for 12lb ?

Ok answered these questions myself .
On youtube the average time spent playing a 10lb carp seems to be 4-5 minutes so I was about right.
I have taken lots of line from my misbehaving reel and it is fine now , the lesson being don't fill it up to the lip as if it was 8lb line .

So glad YOU could be of assistance

theres no certain amount of time it takes to land a fish, each fish is individual you just have to learn when a fish is ready, too tired is bad for the fish and too early and the fish could damage and stress itself more.

for the line, for the size of carp you are catching (3-15lb) 8lb should easily cover it. A big mistake that some make is that you should be using a line to match the weight of the fish. judge your line weight based on what stresses the line will be subject to, including snags etc.

also, the coiling of your line is caused by memory. Better quality lines have less memory. thinner line less memory too.

all the best

you also don't need to fill the reels to the lip if you aren't casting far - but as jonnie says, a better line will probably help.

Line Tests
Tackle Box tested breaking strains and diameters ...


http://www.tacklebox.co.uk/line_tests.htm

good link. Cheers!

If you have a prob with your line doing a curly whirly off the reel just hook/tie it to a post, walk off peeling line off your reel to the required distance, wind down so your lines tight and bend into it hard and holt it for a spell then release the tension. Repeat this a couple of times and then your line should be nice and limp.

Oh I love a bit a nice limp line :wh

Cheers for the info chaps can't say I agree with that line breaking test site not sure how they come to some of there figures I personally found that my daiwa sensor 8lb line had gone down to 5lb after 6 fishing trips mainly on the feeder, this was after I had to take a long hard loo at what was going wrong after loosing three potential barbel on one night.(mostly line snapping at the knot on the initial take)

I first checked out the video's on knot's in the begginers and improvers thread then when through about 8 meters of line before I got it up to 8lb consistantly .

I now will not re-use my hook lengths either, if they actually get any strain.

are you sure your knots are secure? also check the last ten feet or so of your line before tying your end tackle on. If you can feel or see any roughness, cut the line back appropriately.

dayglowfroggy said:

can't say I agree with that line breaking test site not sure how they come to some of there figures

Click to expand...

The Tackle Box test all the lines their self. They take line from different points on the spools and measure the breaking strains 5 times using a salter tension and compression tester, and diameters using a digital caliper.

Give them a bell. They'll be more than happy to explain more... 01322 292400

Oh I believe they do things right it's more likley to be my scales not up to much but I have been checking other line and finding it to be at about the right breaking strain for what it says it is ie 6lb breaking at 6llb.
The other factor worth mentioning is that I always test using a figure eight knot loop and this is supposed to give 90 % strength so the figures given are proberbly right as they are often 10% more than the stated figure on the line .
I just think that since I will be using a figure eight knot thats the one to go with.

jonnie said:

are you sure your knots are secure? also check the last ten feet or so of your line before tying your end tackle on. If you can feel or see any roughness, cut the line back appropriately.

Click to expand...

I would go one better and cut off about 6 yards after the last session , better to be safe than sorry . :w

dayglowfroggy said:

15lb braid on order for hook lengths. I have never used anything over 8Lb before and the 15lb was a nightmare coming unwound like a slinky every other cast

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The braid used for hooklengths is different from the braid used for reel line. The reel line stuff will cut the fish's mouth.

Secondly, if your line loops badly, you may be loading your reels the wrong way round. Check with Woody's series on loading reels, recently added to FM