INDIANANGLER

To all the Knowledgeable fishermen here ,

lately I came across this situation while rock fishing a river mouth. Casted a metal jig into the waves, and got a hit, thought it would run but no drag scream or runs, tugged the line and it was steady as a rock, so I eventually thought it was snagged to a rock below. But then the drag started moving slowly and taking line, thought it might have been the current, but with the line held tight on the rod, it couldn't have been the current. Was it a sting ray? or a grouper? or just a log rolling with the current on the ocean floor? after tugging and trying to set loose the lure, if i let the drag a little bit loose it started taking line. Tried for few mins to see if I could set free my lure and it eventually broke off


Your thoughts appreciated!

Mostly probably it will be some wood log or debris floating beneath. String ray should have bolted and it would fight.
Grouper will stay in the rock and it would not move even if you let loose the drag.

May be crab(stone crab), this happened to me, but for dead bait, not sure about jig.

Quite possible...but i was jigging, reeling not sure how the jig fell down so fast.... thanks for your inputs venkatesan!

yes this sounds very familiar to what happened. but the crab might have been a huge fella or must have got his legs locked on a rock and slowly moving! thanks adbu!

It could be old nets or some kind of a cloth caught up with other debree and moving around in the current.
I've had similar situation around Chennai and managed to bring it to the shore more than a couple of times.

Maruthu

Besides, anything that's going to hit your metal lure is very likely to be moving slowly

Maruthu

Maruthu,

Yeah a net maybe but when i tugged it was like a rock, so must be a log, I wish i could have retrieved my lure

Similar experience on a river in North Australia. Felt I had snagged on a rock underwater for quite sometime...... took off the pressure on the line and it started moving.

It was a grouper/rockcod, landed successfully.

Kingfish

It was this guy .... a larger one could decide to move slowly if hooked or just stay and sulk.

Kingfish

Wow! thats a nice grouper Kingfish...here they call them 'gobros'. Ah i wish i could have landed the guy then, would have been a sweet surprise+ would have got my jig back. It amazes me how they could attack the lure in a second and then be still like a rock!! Great catch kingfish !