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View Full Version : Big fish on small rods



LVC
12-13-2005, 12:32 PM
You hear a lot about needing a big rod to land big fish. Or people talking about not being able to handle a fish because their rod was too small. A lot of this talk involves realitively small fish and I think there are some misconceptions here. Here is some of my take on this :
The rod is a very small part of this equation of putting pressure on fish. You can have a 12wt. rod and a 4 lb. tippet and you are not going to be able to pressure the fish. You can also have a 4wt and a 12lb tippet and do some serious fish landing if you use the rod right. Tippet strenght is much more important. Lee Wulff spent a lifetime proving you can land big fish on small tackle. He would land big salmon on small bamboo rods and he even landed them on just the upper rod section . (Also people are talking about breaking rods on fish. 10lb. fish ! ) He didn't break these little bamboo rods and there is no way you should break a rod on a fish unless the rod has been damaged somehow or is defective. The rod should never come close to breaking if you don't compound the bend or use the rod incorrectly. Maybe in extreme circumstances when a huge fish is in close and you are lifting as in a boat and it surges and you can't react and you are using a light rod. But for the most part we are talking about steelhead and not very big ones at that. Not like tarpon or tuna. When trying to move fish, you need to almost point the rod at the fish. Pull low and to the side. Use the the lowest part of the rod. Don't hold the rod up verticaly. You have very little pressure that way. I once held a tarpon fly in my mouth with 90 ' of line out with a 12 wt. and let a friend hammer away with the rod held veritcaly to prove the point. I had nothing to worry about. I wouldn't do the same thing with a 6 wt. and someone giving me the down and dirty. The point of this is use adequate tippet and sized to the fly. (In B.C. I use 15lb. maxima, not for the breaking strenght but big enough to turn over the large flies and to hold up to the hinging and shock that big flies impart on the tippet ) Learn how hard you can pull on the size tippet you are using. Learn to tie proper and strong knots. Use the rod correctly. I am not saying that there are no limits to rod size in relation to fish. I can land 20 lb. steelhead on a 6wt. but it would be a lot easier with a 8 wt. no doubt. What I do is size my tackle to the average fish. I think if you do get a big one it should be a chalange and exciting and you get to enjoy the average fish all the more. Within reason light rods can handle surprisingly large fish and land them just as quickly as larger rods. However in the hands of except a few experts, light tippets are much harder to use to land large fish and can make the fight much too long for the health of the fish. The size of the rod is more dependant on the size of fly. The larger the fly the easier it is to cast with a larger line. Larger lines need larger rods. I wish I could use a 10wt. to cast for striped bass and have it change into a 8wt. when I hooked the fish. I think there is a misunderstanding about rod size in relation to fish size. As I stated above there are other factors to consider. There is a lot more about this that can be said but my time and writing skills are limited. End of ramble.
LVC

Jgoding
12-13-2005, 02:42 PM
I think you hit it right on the head LVC. I know my rod can handle bigger fish but usually just equate using a 5x tippet with my 6wt as being the one and the same. If you're not worried about breaking your tippet you can pressure a fish quite a lot and rod position is very important as well. I've heard the same argument about the angle of your rod in relation to the fish and holding your rod up gives you the least amount of power but at the same time has the ability to stress the rod the most as you create larger bends. Just a side note, the fish I did lose the other day, I did have the rod at a relatively flat angle so I could pressure the fish as much as I felt my tippet could handle.

Jeff