A report from SteveL
I went out on Saturday morning after dropping my son off at work at 5am. I had just picked up a 7wt Albright XX 7-weight rod and I was eager to try it out with a furled leader I made the other night so I headed for the flats to catch the rise in tide.
I soon caught a 2.5-pound bonefish (Oio)and tagged it but there was not much action after that. On my way in to shore I ended up stalking multiple bunches of fish all tailing in the shallows. Some were ten feet from shore. I counted at least twenty Oio but none showed any interest in what I threw at them.
That afternoon I went back to catch the second rising tide and stood in the middle of one of the reef breaks by Blue Hole. My first hookup was a screamer. It must have run 80+ yards before breaking off my 20 pound tippet. So next I tied on a 30-pound tippet to my furled leader and soon hooked up again. This time my line got bunched up - so I was hanging on to the tangle and fighting this fish. It too breaks off and this time my furled leader snaps (6 strands of 8 pound mono). So I repair it and tie on another 30-pound tippet. I hook another fish and it runs toward shore. I had it on for several minutes so knew it was hooked well. I figure I have a good chance of landing this one but it was out about 150 feet and still taking line when everything goes slack. My 30 pound tippet breaks! I guess it was just that sort of day.
I went out the next day to try again hoping for the same kind of action, but only managed to tag a 2-pound fish.
So at least I got to break in a new rod and test out my furled leaders on some fairly heavy action.