Quote:
Originally Posted by numbskull
I think a lot of the above advice is spot and technique specific. Letting a large (and that term is relative to the tackle you are using) fish take a lot of line may work well over sand or with a single hook, but with plugs in strong current or in a shallow boulder fields fighting a fish on a long line stacks the odds against you.
It may help to think of the fight as four stages. There is the take, roll, thrashing bit....where it is easy to get too rough and pull free. The run.......where how much pressure you can or need to risk depends on the strength of your attachment to the fish (i.e., hook/line strength) and what/where the obstructions you will need to deal with lie. The work back.........where keeping the fish coming with its head up while avoiding slack or prolonged pumping that opens hook holes is key. And the landing....... where the angle of pull and degree of tension on the fish changes quickly and some lightening of forces is usually necessary.
When I think about it, however, once you are past the ego stage of fishing where the size of what you catch and kill makes you feel good about yourself there are two main reasons to seek big fish,.......because they are a challenge to find and hook, and because once you hook them they can and often do beat you. So you smile, give them their due, and try again. Not a bad thing.
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Good points Geo,I might add to the landing stage there is th last ditch effort.I have seen many fish lost when the fish makes his last run.Usually as they near the waters edge they realize this is not good and will try with all they have left.On a short line this can be bad.I sometimes will loosen the drag a click at this point and cup the spool lightly to keep just enough pressure on em.
I still think about the one over fifty I lost at my feet..As time goes on I think that it is not that important anymore.I don't NEED a 50 lb fish to justify the sport..I have gotten so much from it already...
Releasing one would be the ultimate in Poetic Justice.IMO
When I think about the evolution of my fishing life.I am a long ways away from the kid who threw his rod down in the sand to tackle his first keeper..
