Cats and rig tubing

[Roger5]

Just ordered some Rigmarole tubing , reason being, last year on a water that wasn't to far from where I lived at the time, I had my 30lb mono (big game) cut by a hard fighting cat, I've managed to land a few since without problems, but this keeps playing on my mind, interested to know what other cat anglers do, I do realise that the pectorals are rather rough/sharp, my thoughts are that the tubing will give some protection to the line, any help appreciated, thanks Rog

[suffolk si]

Never had a problem to be honest, I use esp synchro landed loads of cats to a reasonable size on it...

[Roger5]

Never had a problem to be honest, I use esp synchro landed loads of cats to a reasonable size on it...

I don't personally think that the esp comes in a high enough breaking strain for cats on a regular basis, what are you considering as a reasonable size ?
Or are you just getting them whilst carping ?

[suffolk si]

Never had a problem to be honest, I use esp synchro landed loads of cats to a reasonable size on it...

I don't personally think that the esp comes in a high enough breaking strain for cats on a regular basis, what are you considering as a reasonable size ?
Or are you just getting them whilst carping ?

I use the 18lb that breaks at about 25lb with a good knot, the lakes I fish mainly have fish in the 30-50lb with the odd fish pushing sixty. I have used braid in 45lb there too and use rig tubing on that but I believe that’s in the rules to protect the fish. To be fair anything over 60lb and I would agree and probably not use the esp synchro

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

If you are using stepped up carp or pike rods then there is not much point in using main line much over 20lb bs,

Cheers, Alan

[Roger5]

If you are using stepped up carp or pike rods then there is not much point in using main line much over 20lb bs,

Cheers, Alan

I understand that,
I'm using 4lb and 5lb test cat rods, 4500b and 6500b reels, 25 and 30lb big game mono, proper tools for the job.
More interested to know about using rig tubing, so as to avoid cut offs, cheers Rog

[suffolk si]

just to be clear you are getting cut off on mainline not hooklength? if it is mainline then rig tubing aint a bad idea , protect fish too i guess. but honestly its not something ive ever experienced.
are there gravel bars, mussels or something else in the venue that could be the cause?

[Roger5]

just to be clear you are getting cut off on mainline not hooklength? if it is mainline then rig tubing aint a bad idea , protect fish too i guess. but honestly its not something ive ever experienced.
are there gravel bars, mussels or something else in the venue that could be the cause?

Hi si, yes, definitely mainline,as far as I know there's nothing in there to cut the line, went as cat was taking line off the clutch, all that's there is beds of weed, had to get in and clear weed to net a 50+ last year, will be using rig tubing from now on , just to be safe, the rigmarole should be on its way to me today. Thanks Rog

[suffolk si]

just to be clear you are getting cut off on mainline not hooklength? if it is mainline then rig tubing aint a bad idea , protect fish too i guess. but honestly its not something ive ever experienced.
are there gravel bars, mussels or something else in the venue that could be the cause?

Hi si, yes, definitely mainline,as far as I know there's nothing in there to cut the line, went as cat was taking line off the clutch, all that's there is beds of weed, had to get in and clear weed to net a 50+ last year, will be using rig tubing from now on , just to be safe, the rigmarole should be on its way to me today. Thanks Rog

good luck buddy, i will be giving them a go in the next few weeks too

[pikin]

How longs your hooklink? The fish may have engulfed the lot and the pads were wearing on the mainline?
I have had that and a painful experience it is retrieving it?

[Roger5]

How longs your hooklink? The fish may have engulfed the lot and the pads were wearing on the mainline?
I have had that and a painful experience it is retrieving it?

Not impossible, but I tend to use circle hooks, so in theory the hook should be catching on the way out, I've just made up a couple of longer hook links, which should hopefully help cure the problem, thanks. Rog

[Mark Phillips]

Just ordered some Rigmarole tubing , reason being, last year on a water that wasn't to far from where I lived at the time, I had my 30lb mono (big game) cut by a hard fighting cat, I've managed to land a few since without problems, but this keeps playing on my mind, interested to know what other cat anglers do, I do realise that the pectorals are rather rough/sharp, my thoughts are that the tubing will give some protection to the line, any help appreciated, thanks Rog

I've done a lot of catfishing over the years and never had the issue you describe. Even when playing those big fish and the line keeps bumping them in the fight, nope, no breakages from that. All sorts of things can result in a line breakage and this happened, once? In open water I have used 20lb mono with no issues in terms of line breakages, in fact having the inherent stretch of mono is a bonus - I use 4lb tc Dawia Powermesh rods, play them hard off the clutch.

It's a fact of life that line gets broken, no matter what you fish for. Line could have had a weak spot as a result of damage in transit, could be a iffy rod ring, could have been a snag you grazed, could have been a lot of things, but 99.9% sure it will have nothing to do with it being a cat or making contact with one for that matter.

I would not use tubing as a leader, simply because if you do need to protect the line against snags, that's a lot of tubing and it's not going to cast well through the rings. For cats and carp, I use Kryston ton up as a leader, usually a couple of rod lengths, sometimes more if the situation dictates. That stands up to most issues you'll encounter - even direct contact with gravel bars and zebra mussels. The only use for tubing is to pin the line to the bottom that's in proximity of the hook link to create the safe zone and of course, to protect the fish from being cut by the line (if using braid).

[Roger5]

Just ordered some Rigmarole tubing , reason being, last year on a water that wasn't to far from where I lived at the time, I had my 30lb mono (big game) cut by a hard fighting cat, I've managed to land a few since without problems, but this keeps playing on my mind, interested to know what other cat anglers do, I do realise that the pectorals are rather rough/sharp, my thoughts are that the tubing will give some protection to the line, any help appreciated, thanks Rog

I've done a lot of catfishing over the years and never had the issue you describe. Even when playing those big fish and the line keeps bumping them in the fight, nope, no breakages from that. All sorts of things can result in a line breakage and this happened, once? In open water I have used 20lb mono with no issues in terms of line breakages, in fact having the inherent stretch of mono is a bonus - I use 4lb tc Dawia Powermesh rods, play them hard off the clutch.

It's a fact of life that line gets broken, no matter what you fish for. Line could have had a weak spot as a result of damage in transit, could be a iffy rod ring, could have been a snag you grazed, could have been a lot of things, but 99.9% sure it will have nothing to do with it being a cat or making contact with one for that
I would not use tubing as a leader, simply because if you do need to protect the line against snags, that's a lot of tubing and it's not going to cast well through the rings. For cats and carp, I use Kryston ton up as a leader, usually a couple of rod lengths, sometimes more if the situation dictates. That stands up to most issues you'll encounter - even direct contact with gravel bars and zebra mussels. The only use for tubing is to pin the line to the bottom that's in proximity of the hook link to create the safe zone and of course, to protect the fish from being cut by the line (if using braid).

Hi Mark, I never suggested using tubing as a leader, the tubing is only used to protect the first couple of feet of the mainline from a cats pectorals, which can be pretty sharp, not sure where you got the idea of tubing going through the rod rings either?, but that aside, I like the idea of using ton up or maybe catlink as a leader, just tied up a couple of longer hook links in both ton up and the heavy catlink, thanks for your input. Rog

[Mike J]

Just ordered some Rigmarole tubing , reason being, last year on a water that wasn't to far from where I lived at the time, I had my 30lb mono (big game) cut by a hard fighting cat, I've managed to land a few since without problems, but this keeps playing on my mind, interested to know what other cat anglers do, I do realise that the pectorals are rather rough/sharp, my thoughts are that the tubing will give some protection to the line, any help appreciated, thanks Rog

I do not fish for catfish but I have fished for species that would damaged the fine line that was essential to get a bite. What I used to do was thread the hooklength through some clear tough tubing and rig it so when the hooklength came under tension the tube would slide down to the hook knot.

The tubing used was then being sold as carbon tubing, it was sold by the metre and similar to a biro tube but much harder and tougher. I still have some if your interested in knowing more?

.

[Roger5]

Just ordered some Rigmarole tubing , reason being, last year on a water that wasn't to far from where I lived at the time, I had my 30lb mono (big game) cut by a hard fighting cat, I've managed to land a few since without problems, but this keeps playing on my mind, interested to know what other cat anglers do, I do realise that the pectorals are rather rough/sharp, my thoughts are that the tubing will give some protection to the line, any help appreciated, thanks Rog

I do not fish for catfish but I have fished for species that would damaged the fine line that was essential to get a bite. What I used to do was thread the hooklength through some clear tough tubing and rig it so when the hooklength came under tension the tube would slide down to the hook knot.

The tubing used was then being sold as carbon tubing, it was sold by the metre and similar to a biro tube but much harder and tougher. I still have some if your interested in knowing more?
Thanks Mike, but I've pretty much had enough of this now, I should have my new rig tubing sometime tomorrow. Then I will be playing with that for a while,
I hate it when things go wrong, losing a good cat was never on my agenda thanks again Rog
.

[Roger5]

Sorry Mike J, not sure where my reply went, am new on this forum, was just saying that I reckon I've wasted enough of people's time on this, I've got some rig tubing coming sometime tomorrow, so will play with that, I was originally asking for people's thoughts on the problem of cut offs on cats pectorals, I know this can happen, and was wanting to know best way around the problem, luckily I've never had these problems when piking, if I had I would have packed it up, thanks anyway. Rog

[Mike J]

Sorry Mike J, not sure where my reply went, am new on this forum, was just saying that I reckon I've wasted enough of people's time on this, I've got some rig tubing coming sometime tomorrow, so will play with that, I was originally asking for people's thoughts on the problem of cut offs on cats pectorals, I know this can happen, and was wanting to know best way around the problem, luckily I've never had these problems when piking, if I had I would have packed it up, thanks anyway. Rog

No problems.
Ive experienced similar cut-offs (fraying leading to a break) problems caused by the tail of big fish hooked in shallow water, I got around it by using flourocarbon but getting an angle on the fish proved the most effective.

Don't worry about asking questions.

.

[Mark Phillips]

Just ordered some Rigmarole tubing , reason being, last year on a water that wasn't to far from where I lived at the time, I had my 30lb mono (big game) cut by a hard fighting cat, I've managed to land a few since without problems, but this keeps playing on my mind, interested to know what other cat anglers do, I do realise that the pectorals are rather rough/sharp, my thoughts are that the tubing will give some protection to the line, any help appreciated, thanks Rog

I've done a lot of catfishing over the years and never had the issue you describe. Even when playing those big fish and the line keeps bumping them in the fight, nope, no breakages from that. All sorts of things can result in a line breakage and this happened, once? In open water I have used 20lb mono with no issues in terms of line breakages, in fact having the inherent stretch of mono is a bonus - I use 4lb tc Dawia Powermesh rods, play them hard off the clutch.

It's a fact of life that line gets broken, no matter what you fish for. Line could have had a weak spot as a result of damage in transit, could be a iffy rod ring, could have been a snag you grazed, could have been a lot of things, but 99.9% sure it will have nothing to do with it being a cat or making contact with one for that
I would not use tubing as a leader, simply because if you do need to protect the line against snags, that's a lot of tubing and it's not going to cast well through the rings. For cats and carp, I use Kryston ton up as a leader, usually a couple of rod lengths, sometimes more if the situation dictates. That stands up to most issues you'll encounter - even direct contact with gravel bars and zebra mussels. The only use for tubing is to pin the line to the bottom that's in proximity of the hook link to create the safe zone and of course, to protect the fish from being cut by the line (if using braid).

Hi Mark, I never suggested using tubing as a leader, the tubing is only used to protect the first couple of feet of the mainline from a cats pectorals, which can be pretty sharp, not sure where you got the idea of tubing going through the rod rings either?, but that aside, I like the idea of using ton up or maybe catlink as a leader, just tied up a couple of longer hook links in both ton up and the heavy catlink, thanks for your input. Rog

That's fine mate, something lost in translation, not uncommon on this Forum Just suggesting that if you're going to use a leader to protect from snags or abrasion, it is good practice to have a decent length, hence you'll likely be casting it through the rings. As far as cats damaging main line, there's really no need to do anything above the hooklink or use longer hooklinks - so, unlike one Forum Monkey who likes to dish out his words of wisdom on anything and everything, I've actually caught a lot of cats in the UK and never once experienced any issues along the lines you describe, but if adding some tubing above the hooklink gives you confidence, then that's the right solution for you. Was actually planning my first cat session this weekend, but then saw the forecast

[Roger5]

Cheers Mark, I'm fairly happy with where I am now, I'm going to use about 2.5 /3' tubing just to put my mind at rest, no long casts where I'm fishing at the moment, more a small pond really, normally fish larger venues ( Loch Lomond, and some other bigger ponds) but I know there's a couple of lumps in there, and I need the practice, thanks for your help. Rog