landing a big fish...
 

i'm getting ahead of myself now and will probably never catch another fish for as long as live due to this post.. but in the most rare chance that i do i would like to be prepared. as opposed to winging it and losing the fish. (i've lost a couple in the 30" range at my feet last year)

how exactly do you land a large (35#+) bass on the rocks? a beach seems easy enough, just drag it in till it cant go any where. wading waist deep, you don't really hafta pull it out the water. just get a grip on it some how. but on the rocks... it's gotta come out of the drink some how, and beaching it isnt an option. so what do you guys do?

the only some what sizely fish i pulled out of the drink in rocky situation was from jetty like rocks, and i made a hail mary grab at the gill plate since it was going home with the guy anyway. i rather avoid that situation since i plan on sending anything other than the most massive of fish back. would love to not risk gill damage. or is that pretty much the only way to do it? other than swiping at the leader and hoping it holds?

i only ask cause the one thought that has been spinning through my head since that second fish last night has been "how is this getting up on this rock?" with another person there the answer was obvious.. he's getting wet. but if i was alone.. i'd waste valuable time trying to figure it out.

when you get to your spot, before you even take a cast you should be looking around and making sure there is a way to land a fish. What is the point of casting from a rock that you cant land a fish on? Always have a plan of attack if/when you hook up.

well i can land it.. i always check to make sure it's possible. at this spot its not like its a drop off. i rarely fish (theres one spot where its very iffy but doable) where there is no way to get to the water. it just i dont know how to get a hold of a large fish properly. lets just say i have no practice doing so. cause i don't.

how ever droning over it in my head i'm starting to realize the gill plate is probably the only option as far ways to hoist it up. i could in theory drag it up in most cases. but if my line snapped at my feet, i'd have a conniption.

either grab it by the gill plate or get your hand in its mouth and grab the lower jaw. I typically fish eels and grab the leader, slide my hand down towards the head then grab the lip.
If using plugs you can do something similar, but watch out for the trebles.
always make sure where you grab will be hook free.

I fish eels 99% of the time...so I go right for the lip and hold on because there's usually one last wiggle in them...I found I miss more often if I try to get them in the gill. With plugs and trebs, I'd think the mouth is a little more difficult though...

i'd definitely prefer lipping it. but is that feasible on a large fish on the rocks? i could see some swimming accompanying that. if not at the very least, alot of botched attempts. and a couple lost fish due to not be able to properly fight off the run after a missed grab.

add on - i'm really tall so its a long bend down to my feet. which is awkward with a rod in hand.

Keep 'em a rod's length away from you, swing 'em by you, and walk/guide them to shore ahead of you, then walk up to them keeping tension on the rod , grab the leader and get a gill plate.

First off, use heavy enough tackle that you have some control. Second, try to let the fish tire itself out before bringing it in close. Time when you bring it within reach with the waves / conditions. Grab the leader and guide the fish to where you want it, and lip it or slide your hand under the gill plate. If using plugs, I usually grab the plug, then the fish, but it depends how its hooked / where the hooks are relative to where i want to grab it (you can't just lip a fish if there are 5/0 trebles all over the place). Often you can use a wave to put a fish on the rocks too.

At some places where its particularly difficult to land fish, i'll stick with eels, riggies, or soft plastics with a single hook to make landing fish easier. otherwise, i just crush the barbs and hope for the best.

any advice on the gill plate grab. last one like i said it was goin home any way.. so i just shoved my hand in there with out a care. what sort of approach should i be goin for? i'm thinkin i should be aiming for the bottom of the plate. correct?

i'll just stick to smaller fish (on purpose :hihi:) alot easier to lip

on bigger fish, don't "thumb" them, grab them with an overhand grip on the jaw, with four fingers in the mouth and the thumb below the jaw. If reqired, put your rod under your arm pit and use two hands to drag them up the rocks. Like mike's grabbing this one.

Get a boga grip or some sort of lipping tool? I don't know how well that'd work w/ really heavy fish though. Or where you put your pole while trying to use the grip w/ one hand and grabbing the leader w/ the other...

years ago we had a jetty that was atleast 10' above the water at low and maybe 6 at high..no way were you going to walk anything around or down this one, just to bloody long...so I hit the hardware store and picked up fiberglass extention handle[paint roller kind] that would telle out to 10', close up to 5'...cut the end off and put in a gaff hook that I put into a wood plug that fit inside the pole and put hose clamps around the pole to hold everything in....no lost fish even with large waves wacking the rocks.

good stuff now i have some idea of to grab them. as opposed to standing there goin... "how the heck..." i still have a feeling ifi i do get anything overly large, i'm gonna lose it while trying to get it under control.

you should have seen me last night. completely taken by surprise. not only was it the biggest fish i've caught but the first one on a plug in for ever. heck its been almost a month since i've caught ANY fish. between the trebles the rocks and the fish i couldnt collect my thoughts. lucky the siwash into my pants stablized the fish long enough for the treble to pop out of he top lip so he could open wide and say ahhh for my thumb.

note to self - switch out the 4/0s for 5/0s