Went Spot Mozzy on Sunday morning.
Thunderstorm during my drive there.
Could bearly see the road ahead!
Slowed down into a drizzle when I arrived at our meeting point.
Put on our disposable raincoats and started trekking in.
Was pretty sure the rain will stop once we reached Mozzy.
How wrong...
Rain continued with dark skies looming blowing strong chilling wind.
Zero bites...
ZH caught himself a small tilapia though...
Bugger tried to eat his large minnow which is longer than the fish itself!
lol
Spotted a 'hole' in opposite bank's vegetation.
Maybe a snakehead is hiding there waiting out the rain?
Casted and got my Scouter stuck!
Sianzzzz................
Tried pulling it back but my braided line snapped when I tugged lightly.
It must have frayed badly somewhere causing this sudden breakage.
One of my favorite snakehead lure...
Stuck...
Expensive one...
Arrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Decided to retrieve it no matter what!
Stripped down to my underwear and rubber boots, waded my way towards my Scouter which was still clinging on some branch just above the water surface.
The tributary's bottom was packed with loose mud and with every step I took, my leg sank into it to shin level, sometimes up till knee level.
Warm slimy sticky mud flowing into my boots.
Gross but feeling strangely shiok...
Water feels surprisingly warm in this cold weather though...
Rain showed no sign of stopping and instead, grew slightly heavier.
Pass the halfway mark, it suddenly turned deeper until chest level.
Thankfully, mud had progressed to hard ground as the water deepened.
Luckily there's no breeding snakeheads around.
They are known to attack anything (including humans) if their nest gets disturbed.
Not to mention water snakes, crocodiles, water ghosts, leeches, etc.
I'll have no problem as long as there're no cockroaches in the water...
Unpicked my lure and waded back where ZH pulled me up the bank.
Wet and cold but happy to get my Scouter back.
Peeled out and discarded all the remaining line from my spool.
It has been used for quite a long while already.
Might have already suffered some abrasion damage which are invisible to the naked eyes.
Went back home, washed my gear, rinsed my boots along with a hot shower.
Had purchased a spool of Berkley Whiplash Crystal awhile back.
Intend to replace my Sufix 832 with it.
The Whiplash Crystal costs way cheaper than Sufix 832.
One thing I found out about those braided lines on the market is that NONE of them are stating facts on their packaging.
In reality, both are capable of achieving breaking strength of over 35lbs.
I'm talking about the stated breaking strength and thickness on their respective packagings.
For example:
Sufix 832's 20lbs has a diameter of 0.26mm. (stated 0.23mm)
Whiplash Crystal 30lbs measured 0.26mm as well. (stated 0.10mm)
(Above measurements are verified by me personally using digital tools from work which are used to measure paper thickness.)
This means that Sufix is actually marketing it's 30lbs line in a '20lbs packaging' so as to fool anglers thinking that their line is hardier and stronger compared to other brands of the same line class.
While the Whiplash Crystal states a realistic poundage of 30lbs, it conveniently downplayed the thickness by a rather huge margin to their advantage obviously.
I have no faults with Sufix and in fact, has been using their line for almost 2 years now.
The 832 is still a better choice compared to most (not all) braided lines out there.
'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'
Will try the Berkley Whiplash Crystal for now.
I'll prefer fixing it now than waiting for it to fail me in the middle of a fish fight...
No comments:
Post a Comment