Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

Saltheart · 10-26-2000, 10:34 AM

A given bass that is lip hooked is a sure indicator of nothing. You don't always get a chance to do things the ideal way. Sometimes when a bass hits the eel , it gets hooked instantly.When this happens , there is no chance to allow the bass to swallow the eel then set. You got to work with whatever you get for a hook up. Repeatedly lip hooking bass while fishing live eels may mean you have to change your hook set timing. However if you can only land fish that are solidly hooked deep behind the crusher , you are going to miss a lot of good oppurtunities.
To me , the key is to keep enough bend in the rod to insure that at no time does the tension keeping that hook in get relieved. This is done by keeping the rod tip high , and playing the drag based on the pole bend. My drag is set such that a 10 or 12 pound fish cannot take more than a few yards. That's as tight as I can trust it to be smooth. Any more drag is applied with the thumb on the spool. using my thumb also allows me to feel the energy level of the fish. I would say there is the run , the stop , then the retrieve , then the landing.
On the run you want to cause the fish to expend energy. The energy expended by the fish is the applied force times the distance over which the fish moves against that force. If you were to graph the energy expenditure by the fish , you'd find that far more energy is expended by allowing the fish to run under a good line pull rather than clamping down and holding the fish still at near line breaking tension. For those technically inclined , the energy is the area of the force displacement curve. That is the force times the distance. If you visuallize the graph , you can see that we can sit at some force level , say 80 percent of breaking load of the line , and extend the x axis (displacement) way out by allowing the fish to run. You can extend that displacemnet 200 to 500% if you want. On the other hand , you can only increase the tension or applied force by 20% then the line breaks. Therefore you can cause that fish to expend 10 to 25 times the energy if you allow the fish to run against a well tuned drag than you can by maximizing the tension and risking a breakoff. Well tuned being high tension but not locked down.
Now that you understand the energy expenditure aspect of landing the fish (simply the force times the distance) , the next thing is to be able to sense the power drop. Power is the rate at which that fish can expend energy. At first , the fish is like a new battery. The little toy car goes like hell when the batteries are fresh. As the fish expends energy by covering distance against the drag force , it starts to use up its stored energy and its ability to apply that energy at a fast rate goes down. The fish is now fighting with low power. The fisherman feels this lose of power generating ability by noting that the speed of the run begins to slow. When you feel this lose of power by the fish , you have to slowly but firmly apply more and more pressure to stop the fish. This now puts you into a dangerous time for the fish to become unbuttoned. Since it can no longer take line against your now fully thumbed drag , its liable to run sideways or even back at you. Thats when you have to be able to take up line quickly to keep the rod bent. I believe more fish are lost at this point in the fight than any other except the last 10 yards.
Now you have stopped the fish and you must retrieve all the line without giving even an instant when the line loses tension. Finally that fish comes in within about 30 feet or less of shore. Now you have another problem to deal with. In that close , the leverage on the rod caused by the decreased distance from the fish gets high. If the fish is brought in too quickly without allowing a good expenditure in its energy , it will at the last second when it sees its prey (you) put out a big burst of energy at a high power level. In close like that , the line and rod can't really absorb the power and therefore the hook gets a high pull force and some side to side leveraging. That often causes the hook to tear out. In addition to tiring the fish more before attempting to land it , backing up from the water to increase the distance from the hook to the rod tip helps. Lastly , use any wave motion available to help the last 10 feet. A real wave or even a boat wake can help a lot to slide that fish up on the sand where you can then quickly move forward and grab it.
Anyway , thats how I land big fish. Its grounded in science and has proven itself in practice. The exact layout of the area , pilings , boulders etc may mean you have to inprovise but the basics are always the same. Tire the fish , sense its lose in power , stop the fish , retrieve the fish , land the fish.
My guess is that the hook didn't rip out on Marc. My guess is that after the runs described , that fish had lost it power and turned and ran at him. It was probably mechanically hooked but the point wasn't in(this happens a lot too) .
This turned into a long post. My guess is that few fisherman understand the line tension , run distance , energy , power relationships involved in landing a fish. Many do it just right because they have learned through experience. For those who neither understand nor have the experience to have learned the hard way , I hope this post helps.

10-26-2000, 10:34 AM	#10
Saltheart Registered User iTrader: (1) Join Date: May 2000 Location: Cumberland,RI Posts: 8,555	A given bass that is lip hooked is a sure indicator of nothing. You don't always get a chance to do things the ideal way. Sometimes when a bass hits the eel , it gets hooked instantly.When this happens , there is no chance to allow the bass to swallow the eel then set. You got to work with whatever you get for a hook up. Repeatedly lip hooking bass while fishing live eels may mean you have to change your hook set timing. However if you can only land fish that are solidly hooked deep behind the crusher , you are going to miss a lot of good oppurtunities. To me , the key is to keep enough bend in the rod to insure that at no time does the tension keeping that hook in get relieved. This is done by keeping the rod tip high , and playing the drag based on the pole bend. My drag is set such that a 10 or 12 pound fish cannot take more than a few yards. That's as tight as I can trust it to be smooth. Any more drag is applied with the thumb on the spool. using my thumb also allows me to feel the energy level of the fish. I would say there is the run , the stop , then the retrieve , then the landing. On the run you want to cause the fish to expend energy. The energy expended by the fish is the applied force times the distance over which the fish moves against that force. If you were to graph the energy expenditure by the fish , you'd find that far more energy is expended by allowing the fish to run under a good line pull rather than clamping down and holding the fish still at near line breaking tension. For those technically inclined , the energy is the area of the force displacement curve. That is the force times the distance. If you visuallize the graph , you can see that we can sit at some force level , say 80 percent of breaking load of the line , and extend the x axis (displacement) way out by allowing the fish to run. You can extend that displacemnet 200 to 500% if you want. On the other hand , you can only increase the tension or applied force by 20% then the line breaks. Therefore you can cause that fish to expend 10 to 25 times the energy if you allow the fish to run against a well tuned drag than you can by maximizing the tension and risking a breakoff. Well tuned being high tension but not locked down. Now that you understand the energy expenditure aspect of landing the fish (simply the force times the distance) , the next thing is to be able to sense the power drop. Power is the rate at which that fish can expend energy. At first , the fish is like a new battery. The little toy car goes like hell when the batteries are fresh. As the fish expends energy by covering distance against the drag force , it starts to use up its stored energy and its ability to apply that energy at a fast rate goes down. The fish is now fighting with low power. The fisherman feels this lose of power generating ability by noting that the speed of the run begins to slow. When you feel this lose of power by the fish , you have to slowly but firmly apply more and more pressure to stop the fish. This now puts you into a dangerous time for the fish to become unbuttoned. Since it can no longer take line against your now fully thumbed drag , its liable to run sideways or even back at you. Thats when you have to be able to take up line quickly to keep the rod bent. I believe more fish are lost at this point in the fight than any other except the last 10 yards. Now you have stopped the fish and you must retrieve all the line without giving even an instant when the line loses tension. Finally that fish comes in within about 30 feet or less of shore. Now you have another problem to deal with. In that close , the leverage on the rod caused by the decreased distance from the fish gets high. If the fish is brought in too quickly without allowing a good expenditure in its energy , it will at the last second when it sees its prey (you) put out a big burst of energy at a high power level. In close like that , the line and rod can't really absorb the power and therefore the hook gets a high pull force and some side to side leveraging. That often causes the hook to tear out. In addition to tiring the fish more before attempting to land it , backing up from the water to increase the distance from the hook to the rod tip helps. Lastly , use any wave motion available to help the last 10 feet. A real wave or even a boat wake can help a lot to slide that fish up on the sand where you can then quickly move forward and grab it. Anyway , thats how I land big fish. Its grounded in science and has proven itself in practice. The exact layout of the area , pilings , boulders etc may mean you have to inprovise but the basics are always the same. Tire the fish , sense its lose in power , stop the fish , retrieve the fish , land the fish. My guess is that the hook didn't rip out on Marc. My guess is that after the runs described , that fish had lost it power and turned and ran at him. It was probably mechanically hooked but the point wasn't in(this happens a lot too) . This turned into a long post. My guess is that few fisherman understand the line tension , run distance , energy , power relationships involved in landing a fish. Many do it just right because they have learned through experience. For those who neither understand nor have the experience to have learned the hard way , I hope this post helps.