Putting a fish on the reel is a phrase that some don't quite understand. A major difference between landing or losing a fish often has to do with the drag setting, and the excess line laying at your feet.
Checking the strength of your drag is simple, and seems pointless when you first hit the water; until a 15" fish breaks itself off of your tippet because you forgot to re-adjust it from the night before when the last fish you fought was considerably larger and required you to tighten the drag to really horse it in. Adjust your drag according to the type of fishing you are doing. If you are making long casts with a dry-fly have your drag somewhat relaxed so that you can strip line quickly during a long cast, and if a fish is hooked the initial jerk of the drag doesn't break off the fish running quickly to the bottom. If you are fishing sinking line with big streamers, go ahead and tighten the drag because bigger fish are generally going to be caught on the bottom with big flies.
Always be aware of your excess line while fishing, especially from a boat. If you are making a dump cast and are expecting your fly to drift about 30 feet further downstream when suddenly a fish comes from out of nowhere and engulfs your dry-fly you are going to have a lot of excess line flying through your guides. If you are not careful, the line is going to wrap around your reel and break the fish off. Stripping baskets help, but are usually just used for salt-water.
Many people who are just starting out, generally catch smaller fish and are used to squeezing the line in one hand and pulling it in with the other. This technique is perfectly suitable for those small fish. However, when you head to a bigger river and actually hook into a decent fish, squeezing that line is the last thing to do. Be aware of your excess line and slowly let the fish run to take the line out, while still maintaining pressure on the fish. Then let the drag do its job. Let it tire the fish out, and don't be afraid to tighten the drag while fighting a fish if it is not working at the setting you have it on. Having a smooth transition from hook set to letting the fish run to reeling the playing it in is the difference in losing it or netting it, most of the time. Crazy things happen all the time and losing a fish for an unknown reason is one of them. Things happen. If you want to improve your odd's of landing that pig however, make sure you check the drag setting, know how to control your excess line, and of course play the fish according to how hard it is still fighting and the tippet size you are using. Good things will usually happen.
1 comment:
From what I have been told.... the deschutes or the Big D has hard fighting redsides that are strong from fighting a hard current in a big river..... just like the fish in the Deleware.. the Other Big D, Coinkidink? I think not. I learned on the Deleware for a reason. My time will come.
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