Got 5x?

[jhaquett]

That's all that matters

Sounds like you had an epic battle

Amazing what a 4(?) pound fish can do a 185(?) pound man!

[A Matthews]

Beautiful fish. I caught one like that at Watt about a month ago. It's a great feeling!

A week ago out at Watt, I tried swinging for halfpounders with a heavier line (say 3-4x florocarbon) and shorter tippet (say 4 feet) and I found three great reasons to like it: 2 fish (both ldr'd), I could yank flies free from most snags, and, I didn't worry about the line breaking in trying to get the fish in quickly from out of the current.

Only thing is, I've been way more successful with dries this year and my experience is you can't get too heavy on the line without the fish snubbing your offerings....

[dtp916]

How am I landing wild 22" browns and 23" rainbows on 6x tippet with a #20 fly in less than 5 minutes on my 3 wt and you're throwing 5x on a 5 wt and taking 30 minutes to land a hatchery hp?


On a lighter note, that is a very nice fish!

[jbird]

How am I landing wild 22" browns and 23" rainbows on 6x tippet with a #20 fly in less than 5 minutes on my 3 wt and you're throwing 5x on a 5 wt and taking 30 minutes to land a hatchery hp?

Why dont ya tell us James? Lets hear it from the "pro".

J

PS We need an emoticon for "attitude check".

[jhaquett]

Why dont ya tell us James? Lets hear it from the "pro".

J

PS We need an emoticon for "attitude check".

[Ed Wahl]

Let's back off a bit guys, James is pretty close to dead on here. While his fish are a bit bigger than what I'm used to I've never fought a trout over 5 minutes. At that point I'd feel real bad for the fish. Sorry Joe, but a half hour and that fish(a hatchery fish anyway) should have gone on the grill. While they do take off strong after a rest in your hand, most will die after a fight like that. With experience you'll start horseing them in a lot quicker, normally either the fish is pulling line out or your pulling it in, never a standoff. That tippet is a lot stronger than you would think, push it to the limit to get the feel for what you can do.

[jbird]

The point is that the original poster already humbly admitted that fact after a couple guys pointed it out. There was totally no need to bring it back up! Theres nothing like getting kicked while your licking your wounds. Maybe we should write a song about it and we could all sing about how he fought the fish too long...come on guys! give him a break


Jay

[PaulC]

I agree with Jay.
Slim tactfully brought up the point and that should have been enough.
This sport is a continual learning experience and everyone is sitting on some point of the never ending learning curve.

The trend on the board, which I find disconcerting, is some of the corrective post by others come across as arrogant and overly critical.
That, and the fact that they are quite frankly non-informative or helpful in the least.

Lets take the 3wt "look at me" post for example.
What would have been useful is how a lighter stick can work to your advantage on very light tippet and larger fish.
Things like how the softer action in the rod gives more protection to light tippet against shock and can help the angler apply more mean pressure to the fish.

Or how an angler can use the current and turning the fish to his/her advantage to land it in a quick manner.
Things like turning the fish so it is fighting the current and not you, while zig-zagging it to the shoreline and out of faster current.

How about other tips for the angler to help him bring in the next fish quickly?

I guess I miss the more open helpful advice of the board of the past.
Like all aspects of life, I find the more I learn about a topic, the more I realize I have a lot more to learn.
New anglers bring fresh perspective and force an experienced angler to re-encounter those stumbling blocks from the past.
Sometimes a new solution comes out of the fresh perspective which is definitely cool and benefits everyone.

Unfortunately, like others that have already done so, I will probably start spending my time elsewhere.

Paul

[aaron]

Unfortunatley one bad apple has taken this entire thread south. I'm locking it, hopefully it will serve as a learning experience for how to fight fish, and more importantly how NOT to act on this board.