One of my favorite aspects of fishing is that whenever you think you’ve learned just about all there is to know, Mother Nature laughs in your face and treats you like a newbie who doesn’t know which end of the rod to hold.
That happened to me a couple of trips ago while casting along the Lake Pontchartrain train trestle with Capt. Justin Bowles, Chris Macaluso and Sam Barbera. I put some fish in the boat, but not as many as any of them, and the experience left me wanting to slam the door and kick the dog when I got home.
The problem, I suspected, was that I was using slightly thicker leader line, and Lake Pontchartrain that day was cleaner than a surgical scalpel.
To get the taste out of my mouth as quickly as possible, I made plans to go back with my son, Joel, two days later, but before we left home, I cut off my 20-pound fluorocarbon leader, and replaced it with 12-pound fluoro. I didn’t know if it would make THAT big of a difference, but I couldn’t figure out anything else to change.
You’ll have to watch the accompanying video to see how it went, but suffice it to say, despite a 30-year career in outdoor journalism, I’m still learning stuff every single time I hit the water.
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