Eric, Paul makes some good points below. He is in what I call the 'mid-range' section of fighting fish- not small fish and not monster fish. In this area I include all the giant trout, bass, pike, salmon, redfish, and similar sized fish. Also, situations include not just rivers, but lakes, ponds, coastal areas, and the deep blue- my favorite. The obstacles in bringing a fish in quickly and efficiently (besides his size and strength) can be fast currents, stumps, rocks, corals, weeds, etc. In saltwater, one reason to land a big fish quickly is to avoid shark and baracuda attacks.
1. Technically, the tip of a limber fly rod is always pointed at the fish. It's the pressure of the strongest part of the rod, the mid and butt section, that you don't want to point at the fish, unless you want your tippet to break. The higher you hold the rod, the further out into the limber section the fulcrum of pressure will be. The lower you hold it, the more towards the butt end the fulcrom will be. All of this equates to leverage. The more leverage, the more pressure, but also the greater ability to break your tippet or your rod. All of my saltwater rods (Abel and Winston) have boron butt ends for strength and ability to lift a sounded fish with a tippet that is stronger than the rod itself. Pulling to the side in shallow water is a must. Pulling to the side with your fish sounded 200 yards straight down doesn't matter much. I have my own technique for sounded big fish, and it really works well. 2. The direction and amount of pressure you bring to bear is directly related to what kind of fish you're fighting and what it's doing at the moment. Fish change tactics. If you don't change tactics (techniques) with them, say good-bye. If a sailfish or tarpon is cavorting all over the surface, you need one tactic. If he's headed to the horizon at 60 miles an hour, you need another. If he's sounded and turns his shoulder to you, you need yet another technique. If it's a bass in stumps, a salmon in a fast river, or whatever, one needs to match the technique to the fish's size, strength, and activity. And not only technique, but tackle. More later. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Marriner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 4:51 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] Fighting Big Fish > Some brief thoughts: > 1. Keeping the rod-tip up was meant to stop people pointing the tip at > the fish---bad move. > 2. It would have been much better to say, "keep the rod-butt > perpendicular to the fish and the rod angled at 45 deg to the side" but > that's a lot of words. > 3. A vertical rod wastes "pressure" because you are trying to lift the > fish out of the water---bad move. Side pressure continually pulls the > fish off-balance, causing them to fight harder and thus tire more > quickly (the goal!). > 4. Only experience will let you be aware of the "right time" to land a > fish destined for release. > 5. Drowning the line when a fish is running is not recommended unless > you have a very strong tippet; in fact, when a large fish is running > hard is the one time (except right at the finish) when I put the rod-tip > as high in the air as possible to minimize drag on the line. > 6. Whenever possible on rivers, move to keep the fish across or > upstream. > > There are some additional moves to be made to handle specific > situations, but this is a start. > > Cheers, > Paul > http://www.galesendpress.com > -- > Paul Marriner > Outdoor Writing & Photography. Member OWAA & OWC. Author of Stillwater > Fly Fishing: Tools & Tactics (Print [NEW] & CD), Modern Atlantic Salmon > Flies, Miramichi River Journal, Ausable River Journal, and Atlantic > Salmon.
