Losing big fish sucks. There is not a worse “coulda, shoulda, woulda” moment after the first few seconds of losing the big one. We are all too familiar with that brief interval when everything pauses, and your head and shoulders slump as an empty feeling rises up in your gut and the moment of defeat begins to replay itself, over and over, in your mind.
Yet losing the big one often is what makes many anglers come back year after year in the hope of another chance and a redemption. We believe that given a second chance, we are going to do everything correctly and make a big-fish post on Facebook and Instagram. Here are five tips for landing that big fish.
The Hook Set
It all begins with the hook set. If you don’t have a good hook set, you will lose lots of fish. How to set the hook can vary dramatically between situations, species of fish, and the gear being used, but you obviously want a firm hook set to make sure the hook penetrates deeply into the fish’s mouth.
That means setting the hook hard. Yes, you will break off a few fish doing it this way, but your hook set will be more effective every time and thus lead to more success in landing more and bigger fish. Many anglers lose fish because they set the hook too softly and barely prick the fish’s mouth with the hook point. If the hook barely goes in, the chances of it coming out greatly increases. Set the hook hard, then follow through and get a firm connection from the start of the fight.
Your Stripping Hand
Your stripping hand is just as important as your rod hand when fighting a fish. You need to use your stripping hand to put pressure on the fish and engage the battle, stripping line to add additional pressure to the rod to limit the fish’s ability to roll and throw the hook. In trout fishing, once the hook has been set, you usually need to grab two quick strips to make sure that the fish doesn’t come off. However, when steelhead fishing, one strip often is enough because the fish is moving faster, which adds pressure to the line and rod. When fishing with streamers for trout, stripers, or saltwater species, the stripping hand is crucial to inducing a strike, because your hand is manipulating the fly in the water. When the fish eats the fly and you feel the tug¸ make a quick, hard strip set right past your hip and then quickly grab another strip to make sure the fish doesn’t have the ability to throw the hook. Often anglers do the initial strip set and forget to grab a second strip before lifting their rod to start the battle.
Which way the fish is running after the hook set also determines stripping tactics. If a fish is running directly at you, you need to strip line as quickly as possible until you feel the rod load. Sometimes that could mean stripping five to seven times before feeling the pressure. If a fish is running fast away from you, you don’t need to strip at all, because the fish pulling your fly line through the water is keeping the pressure on for you. Being on the water, feeling the line and the rod, is the best teacher, but be aware that the way you use your stripping hand will help you land more big fish.
Palming the Reel
I can’t tell you how many big fish I have watched clients lose by trying to palm the reel as a big fish is running away from them. Don’t palm your reel. I can’t say it enough. Don’t palm your reel. Instead, when a fish is swimming away like a bat out of hell, immediately get your hand away from the reel and trust that the drag will work properly. Whatever you do, don’t be the guy who thinks that stopping a fish swimming at Mach 1 is a good idea. You’ll never win that battle.
The risk of the fish breaking off is incredibly high when palming your reel. When trying to palm a reel, you have to be extremely accurate if you are going to add the pressure needed to slow down a fish without breaking it off. If you think additional pressure needs to be added, slightly increase the drag on the reel.
Twenty to thirty years ago, fly-fishing reels were not crafted as well as they are today, and palming was a way to get a fish to slow down. However, the large majority of modern fly reels have incredible drags. A cheap reel in today’s market would have been the premier reel twenty years ago, and you can trust that your reel was made to handle big fish. If you are still angling for big fish with a reel that needs to be palmed, it is time to spend some money at your local fly shop and upgrade to a reel with a solid drag. Just because the reel was great twenty years ago doesn’t mean it is still great today.
Know Your Gear
If you want to land more big fish, understand the limits of the gear you are using, because this will tell you how much pressure can be put on the fish during the fight. If you know and understand how rod size, leader strength, and hook size affect the amount of pressure you can apply, you should be able to put the maximum amount of pressure on the fish and understand the minimum amount of time needed to wear the fish out. Anglers often try to muscle a fish in when they don’t have the appropriate gear, breaking off the fish or ripping the fly out of the fish’s mouth. Or anglers “baby” the fish and take forever to land it, and thus greatly increase the chance that the fish will throw the hook and also stressing it unnecessarily.
An angler who is fishing for striped bass with an 8-weight rod, 20-pound-test tippet, and a 2/0 hook can put a maximum amount of pressure on the fish. If you tie good knots, it is almost impossible to break 20-pound-test, and the 2/0 hook is so big that it rarely pulls out. However, if that person is just bending the rod in the tip, they are babying the fish and increasing the chance of something going wrong, such as the fish finding a snag or eventually just working the hook loose. If an angler is fishing for trout with a 5-weight rod, 4-pound-test tippet, and a size 20 fly, the amount of pressure on the fish needs to be minimized, because the chances of the hook pulling out increases. This situation calls for taking your time, because if you pull too hard, either the tippet will break or that little hook will pull out. In both situations, knowing the limits of all three parts of your gear — rod, tippet and hook — is the key to landing big fish.
The Rod Butt
The butt of the fly rod — the last few inches of the rod and that small piece of your rod directly below the reel — is an important tool when fighting big fish. I am constantly amazed by the number of new clients who have been fishing for years, yet don’t understand how to use the rod butt to their advantage.
When you are fishing, the rod should be held in a way that is relaxed enough not to fatigue your hand, but hard enough that the rod won’t be ripped from your grasp when you set the hook on a fish. This is a delicate balance. You want to save your strength for fighting fish and not waste it while fishing.
To use the rod butt to your advantage, once the hook has been set and the fish is firmly on, quickly drop the angle of your wrist and put the rod butt against your forearm as you lift the rod. When the rod butt is placed tightly against your forearm, it instantly improves your leverage to fight the fish. The rod in that position transfers energy from your wrist to your bicep muscle, rather than stressing the weaker wrist joint.
These techniques will make you a better fly fisher and increase the number of big fish you land. And the memory of a big fish competently landed beats the memory of the one that got away any day. You don’t even need a social media post to savor it.
