How To Get A Reefed Fish Free

I’m sure many of us are familiar with the pain that comes from the following situation: you start off doing everything right, your bite detection is on point and a large fish picks up your bait/lure of choice. You set your hook with a solid strike and there is a momentary pause, leaving you wondering if you’ve just hooked the bottom, before your drag starts to sing – your fish is off! 

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There is little that you can do to stop it now. Maybe you’re using light gear; maybe you are in the shallows; maybe you’re at anchor. Whatever the case, the feeling is the same: helplessness. Your fish has gone to ground and no matter what you seem to do, you can’t get it out! 

I don’t know if there is a worse feeling when it comes to fishing. You are left with a hollow sense of what could have been. You can regale your friends with a tale of the one that got away, but they are well within their rights to raise an eyebrow with your unproven claims of its potential size.

I’m very familiar with this feeling – I have experienced it more times than I care to count. However, in recent years, through trial and error, I have found that I have been able to free more and more of these fish that might have otherwise broken me off after going to ground. The following are a few of my observations and resulting tips regarding getting your fish unstuck when soft-baiting in the shallows, though many of these tips will also apply to other forms and depths of fishing.

Giving yourself the tackle advantage
Personally, I’m not one for using the lightest possible line. While I can understand some people’s desire to challenge themselves in this way, I prefer to give myself the best chance of landing a fish and ensuring it is not left swimming around with a hook and trailing line. For this reason, I have upped both the strength of my braid and leader line in recent years. Currently, I most often use either 20lb or 30lb braid and 25lb or 30lb fluorocarbon leader. While this may be overkill when fishing for pannies over the sand, it can be the difference between landing or losing your PB fish when fishing in the shallows or over gnarly terrain in deeper water. 

What’s more, I have found that this heavier line has not significantly impacted the number of bites I get. The advantage of a thicker and stronger line is simple: abrasion resistance. The thicker line provides an essential buffer that allows it to encounter underwater obstacles with less chance of breaking. Braid also has the added advantage of being able to cut through kelp, evidenced by the kelp often surfacing wrapped around your line as you gain the upper hand on your fish. Buying stronger, good quality braid and trace line may be the single most important thing you do to give yourself the best chance of getting your fish unstuck. 

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Rods and reels: A good quality rod and reel combo will also provide a significant advantage when it comes to getting fish unstuck. My soft-baiting combos currently consist of the Microwave V2 or Megawave rods paired with a Daiwa Certate. While these rods have a sensitive tip for imparting action to your chosen lure and for bite detection, the fore section of the blank has plenty of grunt. This is important not only for turning a fish before it gets you stuck but also with getting it unstuck. 

In my experience, a long, powerful soft-bait rod will help you exert sufficient pressure down the line at different angles to assist you in freeing your fish. The longer rods also provide a higher leverage point that can help you minimise the amount of line at risk of abrasion. A super smooth reel, like the Certate, is also important, as it allows consistent pressure to be applied without shock loading your line. 

Knots: There is little point in having the right tackle if your knots are rubbish! The tactics for getting your fish unstuck can include putting a considerable amount of pressure through your line and joining knots. I use an FG knot to connect my braid to my leader as it is the strongest knot you can tie without the use of a tool, such as a PR bobbin. I then use a Lefty’s Loop knot to connect my leader to my jig-head. Apart from allowing your soft-bait to move more freely, I have found that the Lefty’s Loop has held up to considerable force as I have tried to free fish stuck in the kelp.
 
Diligence: What I mean by diligence in this context is not being lazy when it comes to checking if your line has frayed, regularly replacing your leader, and retying knots. Any weak spots in your setup are bound to be exposed if you find yourself in a situation where you need to free a fish from its kelpy haven. 
For me this means replacing my leaders regularly, say every two or three normal fishing trips, and always before tournaments or big trips targeting fish in the shallows. When out on the water, diligence includes running your fingers along your leader regularly to feel for any fraying, and then replacing your leader when needed. It also means not lifting fish in by the leader, which can place a lot of pressure on your leader knot, especially the lefty’s loop knot. I will also cut off a few metres of braid before retying my leader after trips where fish have pulled me through the weed, as it is likely that the braid, as well as the leader, have been exposed to abrasion. 

Giving yourself the tactical advantage
Having the right tackle, knots, and being diligent will go a long way to increasing your chances of freeing a fish stuck in the rough stuff. However, you still need a strategy for getting your fish unstuck. 

Going hard: Upon feeling that my fish is stuck, I like to position the boat so I am almost directly above the point of entanglement. This allows me to minimise the risk of abrasion by reducing the amount of braid in the water, and the line angle also reduces the chance of the remaining braid, as well as the leader, contacting an obstacle. This is vitally important as braid is more vulnerable to abrasion than leader material. In shallow clear water this approach also allows me to get a visual on the area the fish is stuck in and what the best angle is to exert pressure to try and free it. Once in position, I will exert pressure from as close to over top of the fish as possible. 

Often the combination of a superior line angle and increased pressure is enough to pull the fish free and return to the fight with the advantage of reduced line angle and an improved leverage point. 

If I am unsuccessful initially, I will manoeuvre the boat to create different angles to free the fish. On several occasions, I have persisted with this technique for over 15 minutes to free a fish. While it can be frustrating for those who want to get back to fishing, it is quite the buzz when your fish finally comes free. In one instance we managed to free a snapper severely tangled after 20 minutes of implementing this technique. What was even sweeter was the fact we were fishing a tournament and the fish ended up securing us second place. 

Going soft: If the ‘going hard’ approach is unsuccessful, I will then release my bail arm or introduce slack line by lowering the tip of my rod. I assume many people do not attempt this technique for fear of the hook coming loose. However, if you haven’t pulled the hook attempting the first technique, it is generally a good indicator that you have a strong hook set. 
Indeed, it can be argued that the introduction of slack line should be attempted initially instead of ‘going hard’, as I’ve been surprised how often this tactic will lead to a fish freeing itself. Keep in mind though that while the lack of tension will mean you are unlikely to experience further abrasion, you may be allowing the fish to pull your line through more kelp producing a greater entanglement. Therefore, I tend to start with the ‘going hard’ approach and then transition into the ‘going soft’ approach; often alternating between the two. 

It would be remiss of me to talk about getting your fish unstuck without mentioning one more variable at play – luck! I know this more than most having landed a 46kg hapuku after trying to break off what I thought was a bottom snag! Regardless, hopefully these tricks and tips can go some way to increasing the chances that you are left with a feed or a photo rather than a story of the one that got away.

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