Wednesday, October 14, 2009

7 Things To Remember When Landing A Large Fish

Have you ever had the pleasure of having a large fish on the end of your line? I'm not talking about a big fish. I'm talking about a LARGE fish. The size that almost instantly makes you break out into a cold sweat, and think to yourself, "My God!" If you have, these tips may help you land that fish. They've been learned by being the victim of not landing that fish, which is a place I would rather no human being has to experience.
1) Set your drag BEFORE you start fishing. You don't want to hear the familiar "zzzzzzzzz", from the drag being too loose or the popular "snap" of you line when your drag is too tight. Check it by pulling it with your hand every ten or so casts.
2) When you have a nice fished hooked and it wants to run, by all means let it. Let the fish tire itself out. This is absolutely imperative to landing a large fish. Let the fish's strength work for you by tiring the fish out. Let it run.
3) When the fish makes a nice "run" (a "run" is when it's pulling drag out) point your rod tip at the fish. Any bend in the rod will put un-needed pressure on your line. So point your rod tip towards the fish when it's making a run.
4) If the fish jumps point your rod tip down. Try to keep your line tight as tight as possible. I've lost many rainbow trout after they start jumping like crazy. When they jump, you need to keep contact with them as much as possible.
5) If you can see any cover in the water, get the fish as far away from the cover as you can. Large fish will almost always run towards cover. This is especially true with trout. If there's a fallen tree in the water, a big trout will by god do everything in its power to get into it. And if it gets into the cover, 95% of the time it's game over. So keep them away from the cover.
6) If you're fighting a large fish in current while wading or standing on the bank, and the fish just stops, don't panic. Many times large fish can position themselves in the current in such a way that they just hold there. As if you were stuck on bottom. It's a crazy thing when you experience it, but I've personally lost more than one fish when the fish does exactly this. I've also landed very nice fish on very light fishing tackle by allowing the fish to just "hold" there for a while. In every case, within 15 minutes the fish begins swimming again. If you use your polarized sun glasses, many times you can see the fish just "holding" there. This is one of those places where patience comes into play.
7) The first time that you actually catch a glimpse of the fish, DON'T PANIC! I've seen it happen, and it's happened to me. Many times, when you catch a glimpse of the monster on the other end of your line panic overtakes you. You must remember to breathe and keep your composure as much as possible.
If you keep these seven things in mind, it could very well help you to land that large fish the next time you have it hooked. That's my hope, that we can all land a monster at least once in our fishing lives. Just keep in mind that it took me three years of hard fishing on the same river and the loss of four or five monsters before I landed the monster I have hanging on my wall. But I knew there were fish of that caliber in the river I was fishing. I just knew it! Keep at it, and your hard work will pay off.
Trevor Kugler - Co-founder of JRWfishing and founder of yourmoneyconnection.com Trevor has more than 15 years of business experience and currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country - Montana.
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