Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
Maybe you can enlighten me---how is landing a 34" fish in a couple of minutes, instead of having to wear it down over 10 minutes on light gear in the Canal, being "rough on the smaller fish"?  |
you added a number of qualifiers...Canal...34" fish...."light" gear...not sure what the Canal folk consider "light gear" or small fish for that matter.....but personally, I'd much rather bring a fish to shore in any conditions with a moderate drag and at a pace that will both tire the fish but do as little physical damage as possible, ripping a fish through current with 80lb test to get it to shore as quickly as possible seems neither healthy for the fish, particularly with the pressure that you can exert with line in that range coupled with the drag exerted by a fast current.. nor does it seem very sporting...seems to me that there are fishermen across the country and beyond that hook, play, land and release fish safely in current with various gear including "light gear" like "flyrods"...you don't see flyrodders cranking down their drags and tripling up on their lbs. test simply because they want to drag the fish to shore for a "quick release" and they, in my mind, are among the most consciencous of fishing groups.....if playing fish in current is resulting in drownings...we ought to encourage fishermen everywhere to crank down their drags and beef up their line, stouten their rods and reel like hell once they hook up
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