Fishing with Tony Lincoln | Fishing rods

I SEE many rods come into the shop for repair that have broken approximately 20cm from the tip.

The majority of these have been what's known as, high sticked.

Fishing rods have been designed and built to follow a working curve when under load. Most rods are not made to exceed a 90 degree angle between butt and tip, (which when exceeded, is known as high sticking), and when they do, they break, with the more modern composite rods being more susceptible to this than older fibreglass rods.

As an example, if we have a fish on and bring it in right beside us, with the rod vertical, it will cause the rod to try and bend into a tight, "U" shape, which is not what it's designed to do, and in a high percentage of cases, causes the rod to break at that approximate 20cm mark. Picture an upper case, "L" , turned sideways as a safe angle for our rod to bend to, without risking breakage.

A rod's power is in the butt section, NOT in the tip and once taken past 90 degrees, the risk of breakage increases rapidly, with absolutely no gain in power, and an actual loss of control of the fish.

Once broken and repaired or shortened, the rod will never have the same feel or perform as well as it did at its original length. They've been designed and built to work at their optimum performance, at their original length, with the original guide spacings etc. A shortened rod can result in a loss of tip sensitivity, loss of casting accuracy and distance, and in some cases, can also cause increased line tangles when casting due to now altered guide spacings.

If we look after our gear and use it the way it was intended it will perform better, catch us more fish, and save our wallets.

Thanks for reading ladies and gents.

Remember: Talk to old people, they know stuff you don't. Talk to young people, they know stuff you don't.

FISHING REPORT

• Still a lot of bait in Bramble Bay, with yellowtail pike starting to make an appearance as well as the herring and hardy heads.
• A couple of stray tailor to 55cm caught at the southern end of the peninsula.
• Squire, snapper and grassy sweetlip on the rocky points and inshore reefs.
• School mackerel, bonito, queenfish and trevally in Bramble Bay, off Woody Point Jetty, and around the corner to Scotts Point, (remember to stay out of the Green Zone).
• Flathead in Hays Inlet, the Pine River, Scarborough Spit and foreshore, and the mouth of the canals.
• Mangrove jack, cod and trevally in the Newport canals.
• Mud crabs are making their way further down local creeks and rivers.
• Sand crabs at Scarborough and Deception Bay.
• Prawns starting to move out to the creek mouths and into the inshore bays.
• School and spotted mackerel wider in the bay, particularly around the beacons and again, some very respectable longtail tuna inside Moreton Bay.
• Snapper, tuskies and some, "unstoppables", on the artificial reefs inside Moreton.
• Sharks are making a nuisance of themselves with numerous anglers losing the best half of their fish to them.
• Spanish Mackerel, cobia, wahoo, mahi mahi, and juvenile black marlin offshore from Bribie, both Stradbrokes, Moreton, and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.