We have been testing a lot of fishing gear on our BFG 2500
(February 2021) … In 2020, I acquired an old drafting table. Like really old school and weighs as much as a small car. Being bored to death during all the pandemic fun, I decided to repurpose it. Honestly I have come up with some weird stuff for projects the past year. This one was fun and has been even more fun breaking stuff.
The center column rises up twice its height, and can lift two hundred and fifty pounds (video below). Which is not a surprise considering how heavy the drafting table top was we took off. Long story short, she got a paint job, added some hooks, screw eyes and two scales; a Rapala digital fish scale, and a Crane Scale. The crane scale can weigh up to twenty five hundred pounds. So we named her the BFG 2500, because Breaking Fishing Gear is her job, she can pull to 2500 pounds, and I love playing Doom.
We have been testing gear for weeks now. Every other day. “Hey man want to break all these swivels today, hooks, lines?” Yaaaaassssssss!!!
By the way. The hard part has been figuring out how to attach some of this gear, especially the bigger stuff.
Attaching a 2200 pound swivel to this machine with gear that is stronger proved a challenge. We also had to rig up a block and tackle to turn that 250 pull into 2500 pounds. This has been a learning experience.
There may be a few holes and “S” hooks stuck in the ceiling. Now we use heavy chain links I cut that can handle about three thousand pounds. There is also a thirty plus foot cord on the switch box to operate the BFG 2500. You can stand around the corner until you hear that “pop”. Then go back and look at the video footage. Even with the cameras hooked to the TV it is hard to see the exact number and point it breaks.
We decided to show you some drop loops we busted up first. We had an issue with someone just yanking on a rig, looped over a nail and breaking the line. They seemed to think the rig isn’t strong enough based on that “test” now known as the … “That isn’t how that works nail test”.
A fish is not going to hit your line like that, unless it is huge. In which case the rig, rod, reel etc. wouldn’t handle the load anyway, and the rig would hopefully bust first.
Anglers mostly catch fish under five pounds on these rigs in the surf. On the forty pound drop loop rigs they are catching large flounder, and even striped bass just fine. Would I target forty pound striped bass with a twenty pound top and bottom rig? No, but I have seen these rigs handle fish that large. Because in the water fish weigh about a fourth of their actual weight, and can’t even pull that weight. This is why you don’t grab the leader when landing a fish. Picking it up or using a net takes the full weight of the fish off the gear, or the rig snaps.
Occasionally in the surf, we get that twenty pound cownose or summer ray that pulls like a truck and the rig handles that. I’ve seen those cheap hooks break before the rig on rays. So how can it bust on land like that (the nail) and yet handle the pull in the water? Physics baby!
Archimedes’ principle, physical law of buoyancy, stating that any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid (gas or liquid) at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. The volume of displaced fluid is equivalent to the volume of an object fully immersed in a fluid or to that fraction of the volume below the surface for an object partially submerged in a liquid. The weight of the displaced portion of the fluid is equivalent to the magnitude of the buoyant force. The buoyant force on a body floating in a liquid or gas is also equivalent in magnitude to the weight of the floating object and is opposite in direction; the object neither rises nor sinks. For example, a ship that is launched sinks into the ocean until the weight of the water it displaces is just equal to its own weight. As the ship is loaded, it sinks deeper, displacing more water, and so the magnitude of the buoyant force continuously matches the weight of the ship and its cargo.
In water fish do not weigh what they do on land. Obviously, and according to Archimedes’ Principle .
How much fish weigh isn’t the issue with line, unless you are picking the fish up with that line.
It is how hard the fish can “pull”. Granted weight helps that “pull”, as well as current, but in this case, catching small fish in the surf. These fish are not going to pull hard enough to bust your line. Especially when you use drag correctly. Also your reels won’t let you pull beyond about fifteen pounds before the drag screams. We tested that too, almost snapped two rods. I did find a study online about how hard fish pull, it is a real page turner. ” Understanding Fish Linear Acceleration Using an Undulatory Biorobotic Model with Soft Fluidic Elastomer Actuated Morphing Median Fins”. Interesting read. One thing we realized is the amount of variables is impossible to test for without using actual fish, and a large variety.
HUGE Shout out to Rapala for their digital fishing scale durability. I launched that scale a hundred plus feet into the air over two dozen times, clearing trees. It has grass stains on it now and still works like a champ. Despite it has been dropped in the ocean as many times as well.
We tested twenty, thirty, forty, and sixty pound drop loops from a variety of brands. We had another theory to check out. Research online shows (claims on 30 pound line) that most drop loops break at thirty percent of the line’s strength. A thirty pound drop loop should break at nine pounds, twenty at six pounds etc., these didn’t.
One theory we had was the diameter of these lines is the issue. The higher the pound line, but at about the same diameter, would break at about the same “pull”. We broke three drop loop samples of each line and took the average. The lines were tied dry and the line was dry. We will test wet lines, soaked for two hours later. Another variable, but we figured most people won’t be using two hour soaked rigs. I mean who marinates their gear?
Twenty pound fishing line dry drop loop …
Grand Slam diameter .45 mm … broke at 18 pounds
Berkley diameter .40 mm … broke at 15 pounds
Thirty pound fishing line dry drop loop …
Grand Slam diameter .50 mm … broke at 18 pounds
Berkley diameter .55 mm ….. broke at 22 pounds
Forty Pound Fishing Line dry drop loop
Grand Slam diameter .60 mm broke at 22 pounds
Berkley diameter .60 mm broke at 24 pounds
Triple Fish diameter .60 mm broke at 22 pounds
Sixty pound Fishing Line dry drop loop
Grand Slam diameter .70 mm … broke at 26 pounds
Based on all of this we concluded, despite what your line is rated. If you are tying drop loops or any knot. The larger the diameter the stronger the entire rig will be which should be a no brainer. But similar diameters with a different rating will break close to each other. Good to know if you are using very small hooks and need the thickest line you can fit through the eye.
The line would start to stretch typically at the beginning of the first drop loop’s knot. Once it began to stretch it would soon snap in the knot. We are going to start looking for the stretch points next. There are so many interesting variables to test. In this process we discovered some things about some of the hooks we use. That will be next, but we did a few.
Now since we are using a machine, it is not the same “pull” as a fish on a rod. The rod takes a lot of the “pull”, and fish are hydrodynamic. We were curious. If these lines break at fifteen to twenty seven pounds. What does that feel and look like on a surf rod? If I pull on this surf rod to get eighteen pounds of pull in the surf that kingfish is headed to Mars with Perseverance to start a colony.
The next test was putting drop loops with hooks attached to a brake rotor and pulling with a surf fishing rod. The rotor weighs twenty seven pounds it should be enough …
So what had happened was …
We set up this ten foot surf rod and attached that hook to the rotor. The scale was between the rig and the rod. I’m pulling on an angle, because I’ve seen this happen too often, plug to the head.
I’m pulling as hard as I can, as soon as the rotor left the ground, the scale launched. This was about an hour after Antares went up and I am pretty sure we beat her first 100 feet speed record. That scale cleared three trees and landed sixty yards behind us in the woods. She had a hang time of two seconds. Long enough to say where the &*%$# did that go?
It took twenty minutes to find it buried in brush, the next one was hanging in a tree. We decided to move to the field. Those loops busted at about fifteen pounds, we think. Things happened way too fast those two tests. Even hard to see in video because the Rapala scale is spinning like a top before launch. Might explain that hang time.
We set up near the field and tried this again. Now there are a bunch of rotors stacked on a central rotor. It looks like a junkyard daisy, she isn’t going to move now. The scale is going to launch, but we are good now.
The hooks are being attached to the inner rim of the rotor so we get the full strength of the hook, or so we thought. On the machine the hooks are looped on a eye hook. It can take more stress like that. The hooks do bend. Due to that we use closed heavy duo clasps on the line for the tests. Why break more gear and we need the drop loop tested without anything else moving. One less variable.
Hooked onto the rotor was a little more realistic like a fish and I wanted to make sure the hook didn’t leave the planet. I like walking in my yard barefoot, so does the dog.
We only tested twenty pound line drop loops and three hooks. Pulling on them with a 10 foot surf rod with thirty pound braid on my Tsunami SaltX6000. The line was twenty pound Grand Slam.
Hooks …
Gamakatsu number 2 circle hook …
hook stretched out at 15 pounds and drop loop snapped. Hook is trashed.
Owner Number 2 Mosquito circle hook …
hook stretched out at 14 pounds and drop loop snapped. Hook is trashed unless you want to bend it back with pliers.
DS Custom Tackle number 2 circle hook …
hook had barely any stretch when drop loop broke at 15 pounds. Could easily still use the hook. Impressive, we need to really bust these up now.
The Rapala Digital Fish Scale was launched every time. The backlash on that pull would snap the thirty pound braid like thread. It is that same high pitched snap sound you hear when you know you just sent your surf fishing gear out for good one last time.
All the drop loops pulled on with a fishing rod snapped at about fifteen pounds. The bend in the rod is ridiculous. I’m pulling with all I got, but trying to maintain a steady pull. So Andrew can read the spinning scale before it sends itself.
The “hook up” is as near fishing conditions we can get without putting a live fish on the line and trying. Yes that idea came up. Comparatively in the surf you will never be pulling on a line like this with a twenty pound top and bottom rig. Unless you are snagged or dealing with a large ray or shark.
In other words the twenty pound drop loop rigs are solid to use for most fish in the surf or where ever you are fishing. The diameter of the line makes a difference. The smaller diameters do break close to each other and the higher you go in line rating the higher the break percentage. Twenty pound drop loops break close enough to forty pound line drop loops to give you that confidence of landing a decent sized fish. The difference is the ratio of line strength to drop loop strength with roughly the same diameters.
Next up we will break all the hooks and swivels we can get our hands on. We know depending how a hook is “set” it can take some serious pull or snap like a twig.
That will be a lot of fun and a lot of things to break. If you have any suggestions let us know we are having fun busting gear.
We are also working on a format for video. After ninety video “takes” to get the test recorded right, then it is a lot of editing and a lot of info to show.