A guide to catching and cooking Mackerel from Chesil Beach on south coast of Englnd.Shock leader notesWhen you cast a weight you can generate a lot of force just before releasing the line. So everything between the weight and reel needs to be able to deal with that force. Rods are normally supplied these days with the recommended weight it will cast printed on the rod so mine casts between 10 - 40g, in the vid I go a little higher and use 60g (2oz) lead mainly because they do not sell 1 1/2oz (40g) weights in the shop. For 2oz (60g) of weight everything between the weight and the reel requires a minimum breaking strain of 20lb (9kg), as a rule of thumb every 1oz (30g) of cast weight requires 10lb (4.5kg) of breaking strain; so 1oz requires 10lb bs, 2oz requires 20lb, 3oz requires 30lb, and so on. So my setup in the vid starts with a 2oz (60g) weight, the rig is looped in and the main line on the rig is 30lb (13.5kg) so above the 20lb. The rig is looped into a swivel also rated above 20lb. The swivel is tied to a piece of shock leader rated a 20lb bs this is monofilament fishing line, some companies make a particular type of monofilament called shock leader for this purpose. I use two rod lengths as the measure of the length of my shock leader; this means when I wind up to cast the shock leader is wound round my reel half a dozen times. The shock leader is then tied to my main line which is 10lb (4.5kg) using an Albright knot which is strong but also neat and slim for casting. The reason I do not just use 20lb line straight through is 10lb helps me cast further as it is thinner and offer less resistance to the rod eyes. If you are casting large weights say 6oz you can use 60lb rig/shock leader and then something like 15-18lb reel line, with the right rod and technique this can produce incredible distances.
