Last week I guided a father, John and his daughter, Elizabeth. During the guide trip I was amazed with how many fish that they had hooked that were lost during the fight. They lost over half of the fish they hooked. This week my wife, Lori, and I fished the same water with the same rod, the same reel and the same flies for a half day. We only lost one fish out of thirty hooked. What was the difference? It was the way we fought the fish. On my guide trip with John and Elizabeth, I spent quite a bit of time coaching them. As the day progressed, they did better. They landed a significantly larger proportion of fish in the afternoon than they did in the morning.
The first thing that I worked on was controlling slack. Slack is critical whenever you are fishing but is even more critical, when you are fishing barbless flies. It should be noted that I always fish barbless flies. That is not just because I mostly fish Catch and Release water, where barbless hooks are required by law. I fish barbless because the next thing you hook may be you or your fishing buddy or guide. You need to visit the emergency room at Baxter Region Medical Center to see the collection of barbed lures and flies that they have removed from anglers and others over the years, to have an appreciation for barbless hooks that can easily be removed on the water.
If there is slack in the line, the trout can shake its head and lose the fly resulting in a lost fish. Remove the slack immediately upon setting the hook. If there is too much slack in the line, you may not be able to set the hook! The way to determine when the slack is under control is to look at your rod. If there is pressure on the fish, the rod will be bent. My rod is my pressure indicator. The more pressure on the fish, the more bend in the rod. Keep your rod bent throughout the fight and you know there is constant pressure on the trout.
The next error that I worked on was to try and land the trout too quickly. When you are fly fishing, you are generally fishing with much lighter line than when you are fishing with a spinning or bait casting rod. I generally fish with 5X tippet (around six pound test) or 6X (around four pound test). In addition, you are using much smaller hooks than you would with other situations. I often fish with size eighteen hooks or smaller. If you have too much pressure, the trout can break off or slip the hook. You do not want to try and winch them in like you do with largemouth bass, where you use twenty pound test or heavier and large barbed treble hooks.
The idea is to take your time and finesse them in. I often tell my clients and students that only one of y’all can do something at a time. If the trout is struggling, quit bringing it in and let it flounce about. If it is not struggling, try and retrieve it.
I also try and get my clients to fight their fish on the reel. This is one of the toughest things for my clients to get used to. They all want to strip the fish in. If you are stripping the fish in, the reel’s drag system is not engaged. It is extremely difficult to control a trout that makes a run. You can release the pressure on the line to allow the fish to run but it is nearly impossible for you to control the proper amount of pressure with just your fingers. I often ask my clients why they bought a $400.00 fly reel, if they were not going to use it.
If they do use the reel, I often see them locking the reel in position by tightly gripping the reel handle. You do not have the reel’s drag system engaged, if the reel is locked with your grip on the reel. I often recommend that my clients not touch the reel unless they are bringing in line.
If you take your time, control your slack and use your reel carefully, you will land a larger percentage of trout.
John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.
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