Hearing “fish on” can get a fisherman’s attention like nothing else. Adam Clancey talks fighting fish, and the best techniques to secure your catch.
Once you’re hooked up to a good fish, your mind starts racing and heart speeds up. Unfortunately, fish are often lost in the crucial start of the fight, due to a number of overlooked processes or gear issues. Only experience with playing big fish can help you know what to do, because every fish will act and react in different ways. There are, however, many skills and techniques that can help land your catch successfully. The real key to landing big fish starts with the process you go through when you are heading out fishing.
Having balanced tackle is a great start. Balanced tackle is where the rod, reel and line weight are all suited to each other – there’s no point in having a great reel, with a rod that is too light, or heavy line with a reel that can’t take much pressure. A reel should fit nicely in the reel-seat of the rod. A wobbly or loose-fitting reel can lead to movement in the reel seat when the pressure comes on. Subsequently, this can make it hard to wind smoothly and lead to angler fatigue. In worse case scenarios, the reel can fall off the rod entirely. You might scoff, but I have seen it happen several times, sometimes leading to a lost fish.
Often reels come with back clamps to help secure the reel to the rod. If your reel doesn’t have a clamp, try securing the locking rings on your reel seat with a few wraps of electrical tape. Check that your reel seat and grips are still in good working order and above all else take a good look at the guides on your rod. A broken or damaged guide can spell disaster in a number of ways: guides falling off, damaging line, or snapping it entirely.
The next process is making sure the line you are using is in good order, regardless of whether you’re using braid or mono. It’s important to replace your line regularly, particularly your leaders. Old leaders will often have fractured knots or chafing caused by normal wear and tear. One of the biggest factors, and one of the most commonly talked-about is knots. It does not matter if you are using budget gear or top-of-the-line tackle, if you tie poor knots then you’ll lose fish unnecessarily. You need to practice your knots and be able to tie them consistently well. Although you can learn a large variety of knots, most fishing can be handled with a uni knot for attaching hooks lures and swivels and an FG knot for joining leader to braid; both of which, when tied well, are very reliable.
Hooking up can take many forms, depending on what style of fishing you are doing. Bait fishing can involve letting a fish run and setting the hook, while the bite on a slow jig is almost instantaneous. Strikes can also be subtle or a huge smash and grab.
Managing a strike is very important. It is critical to get tight on the fish but once you are, you do not necessarily need to go like a bat out of hell to get it to the boat. Best practice is to get the rod into a good working curve; once this is achieved, the reel’s drag will come into play.
Drag settings are a bit of a contentious thing with modern gear, with some tackle able to apply a huge amount of drag pressure. While this is great if the rest of your gear, especially terminal tackle, is up to the strain, it is quite easy to rip a hook out of a fish if you try and monster it to the boat.
Remember, you are ‘playing’ a fish, and not ‘winching’ it.
Don't panic if you start losing line in a hurry.
Once you have managed the strike, the first run is an area where angling technique really comes into play. Firstly, don’t try to lock up on the fish by jamming down on the reel with your thumbs or pushing the line into the grips of the rod. While those types of actions have their place, they’re better off used with heavy tackle and later in the fight. If you have pre-set your drag the only way the fish is going to break you off is if it drags the line around an obstruction.
Running out of line is a common fear but very rarely happens. If you do get over half your line off the reel, use any method to get some line back on the reel. This may include chasing the fish using the boat or moving around the rocks, river or beach.
Rod angle when fighting a fish will help or hinder the fight. If the fish is a long way out, the rod should be held high to keep as much line out of the water and to keep the line tight. When fishing deep, the rod should be held at a 45-degree angle to keep it loaded.
Try and hold the rod at 45 degrees when a fish is fighting deep.
As an angler, you can do a lot to help yourself when fighting a trophy fish. Firstly, try and keep your body in an upright position with your feet spread shoulder-width (or more) apart and knees slightly bent. This will keep you as balanced as possible. Obviously, you can’t remain static so be prepared to move as the fight dictates. Keeping your arms as straight as possible will reduce fatigue. The use of a rod bucket and harness will help a lot when using heavy gear. But don’t be in a rush to put one on; concentrate on keeping the line tight and only harness-up once the fight has settled down.
A rod bucket, harness and strong stance will help when playing a good fish.
We have all heard it before; ‘pump and wind’ sounds easy but you can only pump when the fish is not taking line and when you wind you may only get a small amount of line back. Part of the pump and wind technique is not letting all the weight off the rod on the down stroke. It is important to keep the line tight as loose line can result in a hook falling out. The other part of ‘pump and wind’ that is often handled in an uncoordinated way is over-lifting on the upstroke. Lifting the rod too high will result in a lot of pressure coming off the line as the rod is not working at full pressure. It can also lead to disaster – if you lift too high the rod can be ‘point-loaded’, ending up in a breakage because all the pressure is concentrated on a small section of the rod.
The skipper of the boat can make a huge contribution when fighting a good fish. Assuming that you are not at anchor, the boat can be manoeuvred in such a way that the line is kept tight and on an angle that keeps the angler in a good position on the boat. The best spot is with the angler on the stern with the boat drifting away from – not towards the fish.
More fish are lost boat-side than at any other time during the fight. It can be the result of a poor move by the angler or the fish suddenly going under the boat or around the prop. Even worst is when the person in charge of landing the fish thrashes at it with a gaff or net and knocks the hook out, or snaps the leader by holding on too tight.
Gaffing or netting a fish is something that does not need to be done in a rush. It pays to have both net and gaff handy.
I am sometimes guilty of trying to net fish which are far too big to be netted. I prefer nets as they minimise damage to fish that I may want to release.
Leader the fish alongside the boat. If the boat is stationary, run the fish into the net head-first. If under way, slowly running the boat forward is good, then slip the net behind the fish and let it slide back into the net. If using a gaff, angle the gaff over the shoulder of the fish towards the head and gills and pull the gaff in firmly. Trying to attack the fish as if the gaff is an axe will often fail, with disastrous results.
When a fish is being landed, the angler should move back to give the person landing the fish plenty of room, and be prepared for the fish to run off suddenly. After the fish is lifted onto the boat, quickly placing a cloth over its eyes will keep it from thrashing around. Many people have been impaled by a fish with a lure hanging out of its mouth when it hit the deck. Dispatch it quickly, THEN take the hero shot of the fish you have just landed.
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