Strike drag, and fish expectations

[yachter]

Hi all, I'm new to fishing and have just acquired a lot of the equipment for my first foray into this world, a rod, reel, a load of weird and wonderful lures, line, etc, I've rigged my rod and real, but, despite reading Dick McClary's excellent 'Fishing afloat' and scouring the internet... I have a few things I'm really not sure about still... If anyone has any advice on these points I'd much appreciate it. I'm intending to troll (from a yacht, downrigging with a weight or paravane) in Greece, around the Saronic islands, in October.

I'm confused about strike drag. Advice seems to vary from 1/3 of test line breaking strength, through 10% or even a bit above trolling drag. A bit above trolling drag seems kind of sensible to me as surely one doesn't know how big a fish one is likely to snag, and how much tug it will have, but it seems like uncommon advice... I also have no idea what sort of strike drag a 5lb, 10lb, 20lb or 50lb fish is capable of inflicting.

Also, it doesn't help not having any idea what I'm most likely to catch in Greece. It would be helpful to know what is most likely as there are an awful lot of fish species and I'm obviously not skilled at identification. I've looked up data on endless fish, and there are obviously a lot that CAN be found in the Med, but information about which realistically are the ones one is actually going to find, seems scarce. Anyone any on what the likely candidates are?

Related to the above two issues, there is the question of what to fish for... I don't know what species or what size of fish I should target to be honest. All I really want is something (or a few things), not too small, not too big, to feed the crew at lunch time. I don't know what fish size to aim for, and some lures often seem to be advised as better for particular fish, but really, I just want any (edible) fish!

Obviously I can experiment, but some sort of starting advice would be really nice if possible.

Regards,

Michael.

[KKK]

If trolling don't strike the fish will hook themselfs

[yachter]

Ahh, so the strike drag is about setting the hook? I obviously missed this point. Presumably then, the sensible thing to do is set a relatively minimal drag while trolling so the clicker goes nuts when some fish or other takes the bait, and use a max drag setting appropriate to protect my line and rod from breaking?

[KKK]

I think what you might be refering to is the strike of the fish against the drag, as opposed to the strike of the rod, personaly I would set the drag just enough so the line did not pull out as I was trolling you may not need to set the ratchet as you will notice a bite quite easily some of the small european barracucda will swim towards the boat but you will notice your line comming towards the boat, you are getting to the time that tuna may be about, mainly yellow fin (I think)

[KKK]

You may need to tighten your drag to suite your personal style once you have your first fish, it is a case of what suites you and how much play you wanty to give your fish

[yachter]

Excellent, thank you very much indeed, maybe I've misunderstood some of the stuff I've read containing the word 'strike'. You've interpreted correctly what I was asking though. I'll review my reading material carefully, but either way, what you say makes perfect sense.

Thanks also for your comment about Yellow Fin Tuna being a possibility, that would be most excellent, though hopefully I won't end up with a ridiculously big one that I don't really have the experience for, though it would be fun! :)

If anyone has any other ideas/comments on what I might commonly find around Greece, early October, I'd welcome the input.

Cheers!

[rick177]

love 2 do that maybe 1 day (;