Fighting Large Fish

[Walshmiko]

Just recently I lost a really good trout for the stream I was fishing. (Well, Actually I think this is the third time this fish was lost since spring, Its a smart one) So Anyways my quest for knowledge for fighting large fish began. My research led me to an article written by Dave Whitlock, what a wealth of info.. There's a whole list of do's and don'ts that he went over in the article but I wanted to list a few on tpo because we all can benefit from DW'S Article... He explains that more fish are lost do to the excitement of the angler, the adrenaline gets pumping and Bam the fish is lost! See most fish can swim with the force twice there body weight, some even more.. That's why its best to never have your drag set to tight, always give the fish controlled slack line''controlled". I quote Dave"Its better to give then receive, else your sure that your gear is strong enough to stop and turn your specimen.. For the most part fish will oppose the line pull and changing rod angles/directions will offten bring fish under control and wear them out.. Dave and I know Aaron has mentioned this, Its best to get and stay on the down stream side of the event.Th odds are
in your favor being below, Hooks seem to stay in, you have more control and I'm sure if current is present that the fish will be burning more engery..
Ref: Dave Whitlock/ Fly Fishing and Tying Journal
Im sure we all can add more info to this topic, and I would love to hear more..

[Troutastic]

If I'm fighting a big fish, I try as best as possible to stay parallel with the fish along the river. Its super important that you don't let the fish get downstream of you if you can help it, and if its a little upstream, that's not always bad either. This gives you the upper hand in that the fish has to work much harder because he's battling both you and the current. This will exhaust the fish much quicker, and in reality you want to be fighting these fish for as little time as possible. The longer the fight, the higher chance the variables will come into play and you lose the fish. He gets downstream of you, you're in a world of trouble, as you have to go catch up with him, and in that time, you need to worry about obstacles in the stream, slack, etc.

I also try to get them on the reel as fast as possible. Sometimes these fish will immediately come at you right after setting the hook, and I see a lot of people make the mistake of trying to "reel it in," when there is way too much slack in the line for that to be effective. Usually this results in the fish coming unhooked when they finally have the slack in control. If the fish starts coming at me, I strip in line as fast as I possibly can, when he settles for a quick second I reel in the slack and try to get him back on the reel.

It is also important to be aware of major obstacles in the river, such as big boulders, rapids, to help you avoid taking the fish or letting it take you into them. Sometimes you can coax the fish around them if you're careful with the line tension and keep your rod tip high, and play the angles.

... just a few things I've learned over the years through trial, and mostly error :

[Silver Creek]

Here is something that is not often mentioned in fish fighting strategy.

On TV programs I see anglers take a high rod position almost automatically and unnecessarily. This leads to other anglers thinking that this is the best way to fight all fish and the only way to fight large fish. As a result very few anglers consider the upward angle of the fly rod as a variable when fighting fish.

I disagree with the high rod tip position unless:

1. The fish has run so far that you need to keep line off of the water to minimize stress on the tippet.

2. There are snags near the surface that can catch the line.

3. 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.

Consider a 100 lb wt on the floor that will slide toward you with a direct pull of only 5 lbs. parallel to the wt. Any less and the wt stays where it is. Say you have 7 lb test mono in your hand. You pull sideways against the wt and it will slide toward you because you can pull with the full 7 lb directly toward you.

Now get up on a ladder and pull up at 45° angle to the wt. At an angle up of 45°, only 70.7% (sin 45°) of the force vector is toward you and 70.7% (sin 45°) is up on the wt. So the pull (force) along the ground is LESS than 5 lb even though you are pulling 7 lb on the line. You cannot move the weight even though you have a 2 lb pull advantage on the resistance of the weight.

Now get right above the wt and pull. There is NO LATERAL FORCE, so even if you had a 90 lb leader, you cannot pull the wt lateral because all of the 90 lb pull is going to fight the gravity pull of 100 lbs.

Here's an even simpler example. If you are in a tug of war with someone, would you rather be pulling that person 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 wt 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.

[AaronJasper]

Goop tips!

Also, get to know what it takes to break your tippet. The harder you can pull on the fish the better, that is, of course if you know exactly how much it takes to break the leader. I have actually snagged the fly on a tree to see how hard I could pull on the fly before the tippet bears. You'll be amazed if you try it. Just be careful not to flex the rod in the up position, you will break the rod before the leader! You will learn that even with 5X you can pull with almost all your might!

If you want to be really nerdy try it with different knots. You will see slight differences.

The only x factor with this is shock from the fish thrashing about. That is the only thing that can get you, besides a snag.

[Magnet]

Make sure your tipped is not frayed near the business end which is likely to happen after catching several smaller fish. This happened to me this past week end. When the big one came my tippet had already been been marginally compromised and the battle was very short.

[dublhaul1]

What about bowing to fish?
I'm basically a saltwater crusty and the idea of throwing slack at a jumping fish on a relatively light tippet is commonplace, but I rarely see trout anglers do this....I would think that this would make sense for big trout on really light tippets and small, fine wire hooks?

[wwelz]

stay calm - Develop a fish fighting routine - practice the routine with smaller fish perfect it with larger fish-Remember efficiently fighting and landing big fish leads to a better release and increased survival rates for big fish- Thats the real goal . We don't kill these fish we release them to breed and to catch another day.

[Troutastic]

Another thing, and I've also unfortunately learned this from experience... If you have big fish on with smaller hooks, you cannot give them too much pressure. It WILL straighten the hook. Happened a couple times this weekend when I was tired of fighting the fish and I tried to muscle them in on size 20 and 22 hooks. My bad. It's important to find that balance between not enough and too much, and that just comes with practice...

[VTflyfishing]

Letting the rod do most of the work also helps to tire the fish out.

[mc]

Obviouly you should always try and get below the fish but if this is not possible then often this works: rod tip at 90 degrees to the current flow and right down almost on the water.Wait till they calm down then try and move them towards you .If they start to come then strip like mad to keep them coming .The key is there head is down in the water so less panic and when they strat to swim forward keep them going .For stillwater folk its like after the strike on the rolypoly .Keep on going and while you feel the weight often they come almost to the boat before they rebel.