So i am new to the fly fishing world. But things are going better cause i am starting to actually catch fish... Kind of. Over the last couple weeks i hooked into some big river trout. I am using a 9ft 5wt. But i can never seem to get them to my net before they get themselves free. Usually by rising out of the water and shaking their head and they get the fly out of their mouth somehow. I have watched videos on fighting trout and landing them.
Still seem to lose them. Anyone else experience this and overcome it? Maybe some tips?
1.
Get big fish on the reel. Loose line in loops on the water or ground is asking for disaster. You can't effectively follow a fish without having the line on the reel. Line on the water can tangle in your feet or even worse, form a knot that gets pulled through the guides, breaking a guide off. That is why salt water fishermen get big fish on the reel ASAP.
2.
Fight fish from a DOWNSTREAM position. If a big fish gets downstream from you, you must follow it and get DOWNSTREAM from it. If you cannot get downstream wile wading, get on the back and run downstream to catch up and overtake the fish. If at all possible, make the fish fight against the river flow.
3.
USE SIDE PRESSURE to maximize the pressure the fish must fight. DO NOT hold the rod high unless you have to clear line. An upward rod angle pulls against the weight of the fish.
I've seen many beginning fishers who do not know how to fight large fish efficiently. This is because they mimic what they see on television shows. Almost all anglers on TV hold the fly rod up at an angle. It is called the “Orvis Pose.” In my opinion, it is the sign of a newbie.
You will even find blogs that tell you to keep a high rod position. I totally disagree
How To Fight and Land Fish While Flyfishing
Instead, this blog on the top 5 mistakes has it right.
Timeless Tip Tuesday | Mistakes Made Fighting Big Fish
It is more effective to fight fish with the rod tip parallel to the water. By parallel I don't mean that you point the rod tip at the fish. Rather, hold the parallel rod to your side, so that the angle of the line to the fish from the rod tip is still the same as if you held the rod up.
Use side pressure as been said before UNLESS:
A. You need to keep the fish's head up to avoid snags bottom snags, weeds, etc.
B. The fish has run so far that you need to keep line off of the water to minimize stress on the tippet.
C. You are running to catch up to the fish and a high rod tip position minimizes the bow of the line in the water as you run.
These conditions do happen more often with large fish, but if the above situations do not happen, a low rod tip position with the rod to one side or the other places the maximum lateral pull on the fish toward the angler. The reason is simple plane geometry and the way the pull on the fish changes with the upward pull of the line. The higher the rod tip position and the greater the angle of the line up from the fish to the rod tip, the less pull on the fish toward you.
When you hold the rod up, your angle of pull is up and part of the force is going to fight gravity by pulling up against the dead weight of the fish. This portion of the force is wasted and not tiring the fish, nor is it pulling the fish toward you. By holding the rod to your side, parallel to the water or even under water at the level of the fish, all of the pull on the tippet is pulling the fish toward you. As an example, if the angle of pull from the fish is upward at 45 degrees, half of the pull is lifting the dead weight of the fish and only the other half is pulling the fish toward you. If the angle is 45 degrees but parallel to the water, almost all the pull is against the fish and not gravity.
Here's a simpler example. If you pulling on a weight, would you rather be pulling it up hill or down hill? With a high rod position you are always pulling that fish uphill. Don't let the fish use gravity against you.
Not only that but in real life the situation is even worse. While the weight cannot increase it's pull down, a fish can. All it does is angle it's pectoral fins down and the force of the water pulls it down and it can pull down greater than it's body weight.
So if you can pull laterally without snagging the line or leader on an obstruction, do so. It places all of your pull on the tippet against the fish laterally and none against gravity lifting the fish.
In salt water against tough fish like tarpon, you will see experienced anglers placing their rod tips UNDER the water to try to*decrease that upward angle that wastes a part of the tippet breaking strength.
Holding the rod to your side allows you to immediately change the direction of the pull and confuses the fish. For example if you have the rod low to your right side, the fish will naturally pull against the line and try to go to your left. Now if you immediately switch sides to your left, you are pulling the same direction as the fish, and you will gain some line before the fish can reverse itself and try to go to your right. By alternating sides, you can literally "walk" the fish to you. This technique is analogous to a boxer who has to fight someone who can box right or left handed. It doesn't allow the fish to get into a pattern and it will tire a fish much more quickly.
The closer you are to the fish, the greater the actual angle of pull on the fish with this alternating side tactic. If the fish is far away, it won't have much effect at all because the change in the angle of pull at the fish is so small.
Fight fish like the guy on the right.
When you pull to the side, the fish will counteract by pulling against the direction of pull. You can use the instinct of the fish to to bring the fish to you.
Say you are facing the fish and you have the rod to your right. The fish will pull away and to your left. If you now switch the rod to your left side, before the fish can reverse his angle of pull to the right, the fish will swim to the left toward the rod tip. By alternating your pull from the right to the left, and left to right; you confuse the fish and each reversal brings the fish ever closer to you in a zig zag pattern. Basically, it is using the principle of Judo to fight and frustrate the fish. You are using the natural tendency of the fish to pull against line to tire and confuse it.
Use the ALTERNATING PARALLEL ROD TECHNIQUE and you will be surprised at how quickly you can bring the fish to you. I call it "walking the dog". You "walk" the dog right to you.
We all know that the water closer to the surface in a river flows faster than the water that is deeper. When we lift the fly rod, we are trying to bring the fish closer to the surface, where the fish can use the faster water flow against us. The only reason to do that is if the bottom contains snags. If this is not the case, placing the rod tip close to to under the water, places the greatest stress directly on the fish.
I tend to keep the rod just above the surface for two reasons. The first is I often don't really know where the underwater snags are and by keeping the tip just above the water allows me to switch sides on the fish.
But in the situation where the fish is taking the line into the brush or near a known snag. I put the tip under the water because if it gets to the snag, I know I've lost the fish.
This brings me to another key element of fighting a big fish. That is to
know where it will likely go before you hook it. This is known in the military as situational awareness. Whenever you are fishing where you may hook a large fish,
you should know before hand where it will likely head. There are "safe" areas that a fish will head to when it is hooked. Big fish get big because they have likely escaped many times before, and they will do the same move that got them out of trouble before.
So preparedness is key to winning the fight. If you are surprised at how the fish escaped, you were not prepared and that should be a learning experience.
When using extremely light tippets, a "softer rod tip" slower action fly rod will protect the tippet. If you do not have a slow action fly rod, placing elastic material like Rio Shock Gum between the fly line and leader or in the leader between the butt and leader transition will help protect the tippet.
I place this at the end of my post because this will change as advancements are made in polymer chemistry —->
Use the strongest tippet available to you. The stronger the tippet for diameter, the harder you can pull on the fish. At this time I believe it is Stroft Tippet Material. It is what my friend Gary Borger uses.
Gary Borger » Blog Archive » Stroft GTM Tippet Material