Fighting Techniques

[Wednesday Caster]

What are the bene's or negatives of fighting fish with the rod up high or parallel to the water? I see both being used but can't truly see a benefit one way or the other if the rod is doing the work. Thanks.
Quinn

[Rick J]

Generally if your tip is up high you are fighting the fish off the tip and not applying much pressure but protecting the tippet. To effectively tire a fish you need to apply maximum pressure and you generally do this from the butt of the rod - you can do this in the vertical position with a flatter rod angle rather than raised high. With the rod tip parallel to the water you can not only apply maximum pressure but also vary the angle of the pressure - you want to keep the fish off balance so if he turns one way, you apply pressure the other way with the rod low - this will generally get the fish in in the quickest amount of time.

Nothing wrong with a high tip early in the fight especially if using light tippet you need to protect

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

See if you can watch the Gary Borger video "South Island Sampler" on fly fishing New Zealand. We rent it at Kiene's for $1 / per day.

In this video and other Gary uses these techneques to land trout much faster.

It is easier to demonstrate this in person.

[Tony Buzolich]

Try and read any of Stu Apte's writings or films showing his "down and dirty" technique of which he is a master.

Most of his practice has been on large tarpon using 12# test. Yes, TWELVE. And most of the tarpon that he refers to are 100# to 150+# fish.

If I remember right, he lands a lot of these tarpon in twenty minutes or less.

Quite a feat and it works. I've been able to use it a lot on salmon and it'll work for just about any fish.
TONY