Grey Iguana line!

[Salahayano]

Hello everybody,
It's me again with another question, sure I'll find an answer here at this lovely place.
I went to the tackle shop to buy a line for my trolling reel, the best I found was Iguana (Balsax Co), but I didn't find the clear, so I bought the grey, am a little worried about it, am afraid it will appear in the water,
so what do you think?
Another question please, which is better: to tie the rapala directly to the line or to tie a swivel between the rapala and the line??

Thank you,

Ahmed Salah.  

[Salahayano]

Hellooooo, please answer, it's urgent, where are you Alan?, you are always helping.

[Bryan Young]

Ahmed,

Alan is on vacation. 

Line color is a preference and is also depent on water color.  Some say that light reflexs off clear lines and gray absorbs some of the reflection.  Others say that in clear water, clear is better.  I've jigged with bright orange lines before and still caught fish. I think the fish was reacting to the lure than noticing the line or it's just dumb fish.

If you have any doupt, I'd say, tie on a small, but strong swivel (like Spro), leader up with fluorocarbon then to the rapala.  I recommend tying loop type of knot so that the lure is free to move.  Knots that cinch down limits the lure movement.

Personally, I like to add a jumper ring.  The jumper ring will secure the lure, and you could also add a swivel.  Much like you see people use split rings, except jumper rings stainless rings that are either welded or brazed together.  This is how I make my own ringed hooks. 

Hope this helps.

[Salahayano]

Of course it helped a lot bro, thank you very much.

Ahmed Salah.

[SoCalAngler]

Depending on what your trolling for the act of trolling it's self is more of a reaction bite by the fish so grey line may not be that big of a problem. All my trolling lures are rigged with clear leaders attached to a swivel and then I attach a snap swivel to the main, this allows me to change lures without having to retie.

There shoule be no need to attach a swivel to a Rapala as a swivel is used on trolling lures to stop line twist if a lure spins a bit. A Rapala should not spin when trolled so there should be no line twist and hence no need for a swivel. Sometimes Rapala's do need to be "tuned" to make them swim strait.

[Salahayano]

SoCalAngler, thank you very much now i know when i should use a swivel, still worried about the gray line, am fishing in the Red Sea, which means clear water, any ideas?

[Nessie Hunter]

Hellooooo, please answer, it's urgent, where are you Alan?, you are always helping.

5 hrs in the middle of the night here (local time 2 AM till 7 AM) is not the best for Alan or others of us that are sleeping or Drinking/passed out. LOL.   

Swivels have weight & may change the action or sink rate of the lure.. Snap swivels (that snap onto lure) are prone to popping open also, not good.....

Many use the Rapala knot that is a loop that stays open. This allows the lure to move in a more natural or intended way...
http://www.animatedknots.com/rapala/index.php

Line with Pigment has always been a concern to me.. Quality Fluorocarbon line has a better chance of not being seen by fish for finesse or slow presentations.
Any line with red, blue, yellow green etc etc Pigment will have visible color seen by the fish... 
At depth the Water will filter out certain colors of the spectrum (red is first color to go at as shallow as 10 to 30 ft) the line then just looks black (pigment has no color but is still Opaque from the pigment).....

I do use green mono in our green stained lakes & shallow water bass fishing.
Deeper freshwater I use Seaguar Fluoro for the light refraction ability (invisible?? or less visible at least)....
Saltwater I try to get Fluoro leaders on live bait rigs etc that are not reaction type baits...

Reaction type baits Fast lures, top water, jigs, Yo Yo etc (fresh & Salt)..  You can ( most times) tie direct to Braid or ??. 
The bait is moved fast and triggers the fishes reaction is Predatory and they dont have time or worry ?? to see the line...

Best of luck, and remember the Time differences...  !!!!   LMAO       



.

[Alto Mare]

Another question please, which is better: to tie the rapala directly to the line or to tie a swivel between the rapala and the line??

Thank you,

Ahmed Salah.  

I tie a leader directly to the rapala  approximately 2 feet in lenght , I then connect the main line with a swivel.

[Bryan Young]

Since Nessie brought up snap swivels, when throwing jigs, I have sue a Spro swivel (because of their size and weight) and a Berkeley McMahon snap swivels so that I can change lures without cutting line.  Will not snap open on a bite.

Since you are working the action of a Rapala, the strick will most likely be reactionary, and would probably not worry about the color...  In fact, I really don't worry about color very much and I still caught fish whatever that means to you.  Yes, I still fish with bright yellow braid.

[Alto Mare]

Same here as far as color goes. I've used red-black-blue- gray-clear and cought fish on all of them. I can't tell you if the fish reacts to the line colors simply becouse I can't see out their eyes, we can only speculate. One think I can tell you is that I do not believe that any manufacturer would come out with a line that scares fish away . About the rapala., the reason I like to tie the line directly to it is because I had my share of having the treble hooks stuck in the ring, snap swivels and hoops, I also believe that the rapala will have more of a natural action with just the line tied directly to it. Just my opinion.

[SoCalAngler]

Here is how I set up my trolling lures. For all fishes other than billfish I use around a 6' leader, for billfish I use a 10-12' leader. I dont' use flouro just strait mono as I have never noticed a difference in my hook up rate when I did try flourocarbon leaders for trolling. You can see the snap swivels I use attached to the white feather. I have never had or seen one come unsnaped while trolling or hooked to a fish. Now if your fishing anywhere there is a chance of catching a wahoo NEVER use a silver swivel, they just love the shinny stuff.



If you are worried about the gray line attach a swivel to the main line and use a clear line for the leader and tie that to the Rapala or whatever.

[Dominick]

Hey Socal:  with regard to Rapalas.  As you know down in Baja they troll at high speeds.  Which of the rapalas will handle the high speed without jumping out of the water? Dominick

[SoCalAngler]

Hey Socal:  with regard to Rapalas.  As you know down in Baja they troll at high speeds.  Which of the rapalas will handle the high speed without jumping out of the water? Dominick

I don't fish them a whole lot in Baja but I like the Rapala Magnum lures. You do have to watch your speed with this this style of lure be it a Rapala, YoZuri, MirrOlure or whatever brand you like. This style of lure must be trolled at a speed that gets the best action and vibration out of the lure, and for the most part that is slower than say feathers, hoochies, grass skirts, cedar plugs or whatever.

Edit: Trolling the bladed type lures for me is done around 4-5 knots most others around 7-8 knots and heavier lures like jet heads, Catchy spinners or something for wahoo can be trolled even faster yet.

[Salahayano]

Hellooooo, please answer, it's urgent, where are you Alan?, you are always helping.

5 hrs in the middle of the night here (local time 2 AM till 7 AM) is not the best for Alan or others of us that are sleeping or Drinking/passed out. LOL.  

Swivels have weight & may change the action or sink rate of the lure.. Snap swivels (that snap onto lure) are prone to popping open also, not good.....

Many use the Rapala knot that is a loop that stays open. This allows the lure to move in a more natural or intended way...
http://www.animatedknots.com/rapala/index.php

Line with Pigment has always been a concern to me.. Quality Fluorocarbon line has a better chance of not being seen by fish for finesse or slow presentations.
Any line with red, blue, yellow green etc etc Pigment will have visible color seen by the fish...  
At depth the Water will filter out certain colors of the spectrum (red is first color to go at as shallow as 10 to 30 ft) the line then just looks black (pigment has no color but is still Opaque from the pigment).....

I do use green mono in our green stained lakes & shallow water bass fishing.
Deeper freshwater I use Seaguar Fluoro for the light refraction ability (invisible?? or less visible at least)....
Saltwater I try to get Fluoro leaders on live bait rigs etc that are not reaction type baits...

Reaction type baits Fast lures, top water, jigs, Yo Yo etc (fresh & Salt)..  You can ( most times) tie direct to Braid or ??.  
The bait is moved fast and triggers the fishes reaction is Predatory and they dont have time or worry ?? to see the line...

Best of luck, and remember the Time differences...  !!!!   LMAO      

Nessie Hunter, am sorry sir I'am from Egypt, but i did that cuz there was a lot of members online, they are online all the time, I don't know how

[Salahayano]

Thanks for all of you guys, thanks you are always helping, we have fishing forums here in Egypt but they don't have that spirit and that amount of information.
Finally I decided to tie the rapala to a florocarbon (If I find here, its hard to find it in Egypt, they buy the meter for 10LE, about $1.5) leader using the Rapala Knot.
My last question here, which is the best knot to tie floro to mono?

Thank you all,

Ahmed Salah.