Broken Main line

[love to fish]

Larry, Today I was watching your show about fishing somewhere of the coast of S. America, near the the small island wherer Pappiloon (?) was imprisoned. You had hooked a fish (a very large one) and I broke off your line which you said was 100lbs main, and 300lbs leader. Now, I have fished quite awhile, for much smaller fish. What I don't understand is: how does a fish "break" 100 lb line when there is noway a person can exhirt that much pressure. Did the fish fray the line or bite though it. Sorry for the long question, just very curious. Thank you

[dahlberg]

Hi LTF
Yours is an excellent question. Some of the rascals cut us off on rocks. We started out using 150# power pro and 300 lb sufix. Several cases where the 300# sufix was breaking before the 150# power pro! We switched to Hi Seas 300 and it solved that problem!
A couple of the fish actually broke the main line where no rocks were involved and if we didn't put the brakes on we'd be spooled. It's amazing we didn't pull the spools and axles right out of the reel frames.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that a person can't exert 100 lbs on a fish, but I assure you, if you'd like to bring a scale I can show you how to exert a well over 100 pounds. It's got to do with lowering rod angle when you pull, and pulling straight back. I commonly run my drags (tricked with added washers) in the 75 pound+ range in the sunset position!
Thanks for the post, and good question!
best,
L