Following on from my last casting blog, I have now put the XTS line to the test, when casting its performance is great and I highly rate the strength at the knot.
My first week fishing was at Fishabil in France, where I could put it to the test as it would benefit me if I could get the extra distance with my hook bait. The rules are you can only place your marker the distance you can cast, so after several casts I was hitting about 130 yards with ease. I used the boat to place my marker out which was a 15ft long thin plastic pole with reflective tape around the top of it. Using the throwing stick I soon was placing freebies around the pole; my option was the16mm Squid Liver from Berkley Gulp. My rig set up was made up from a size 6- 360 hook and a soft coated
I started to put up my STI lite when one of my rods rattled off, as I hit it I couldn’t stop it, after a good 30 minutes I manage to get it close in, but still couldn’t see what it was as the water was a light chocolate brown colour. When I started to get it to the top, I could see it was a nice sturgeon I just managed to slip its head into the net, well half of net as it was too big for my 52inch net. It weighed in at 41lb, not bad for my first fish. That day I bank another 4 sturgeons on my rods.
The next day the rain started and never stopped for 8 hours, all I could do was sit in my Bivvie the whole time. After re-baiting my rods, it was time for some food; I had brought some fresh chickens on the way past the supermarket the other day which were still cold in the cool bag. I started to de-meat the chickens and prep the veg when one of my rods started peeling of line and my alarm was a high pitch tone, as I struck into the fish,
I knew it was something special, after a long 40 minutes fight I discovered I had a big catfish on. I tried several times to slip the landing net under it, the catfish just swam backwards. My only option was to jump in and try to place it in the net by hand which worked, and thinking to myself how do I weigh the fish which was about 8 feet long? I managed to get it in my recovery sling which was a continental one, with its tail bent over and 2 weighing scales at each end. It came in at 85lb.
Not bad as I’m only using 12lb line and I thought my rod was going to snap in half.
So after sorting out the right rods and line to cast further, and playing big fish I can now say that the line is perfect for all kinds of carp fishing and I won’t be changing it for a long time
Thanks Scott
Tight Lines
