Big Fish in the surf?

[mdiventi]

Hi eceryone,

I travel to North Myrtle Beach every summer in August and surf fish all week. Last year I was using the live bait fish that swims in the surf(guess its mullet). Everytime i got a hit, I would reel in for about 10 seconds and the line would snap above the leader. This happened several times and whatever was nailing the bait was huge and heavy. It actually bent the handle on one of my reels. I have a Quantum Boca reel and a Penn slammer. I had 25lb test and a wire leader and neither worked. I want to land whatevers out there. Do I need a better reel, line ,leader, knot? The line was brand new and I thought I had pretty decent reels. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Bite Me]

Have to ask the obvious, what was your drag set at?

[cblocal]

Drag setting is the first question as Bite me asked. Also you don't seem that confident in your knot. What are you tying? When you say you snap the line is it frayed, a clean cut, or curly at the end?

[bigfishhooker]

Any shrimp boats pulling along the beach at that time of year? I have made some fun "poor man's" gulf stream trips hooking sharks within sight of the beach as the shrimpers dump their nets. (Meaning a big pull on the rod w/o heading off 60 miles).

You'd be amazed at some of the blacktips that roam that area in late summer. We were using 30-50lb gear with a butterflied spanish mackeral on 119lb wire for our last one a few years back.