Landing BIG Fish on the Bow

[Dr.Shortington]

Howdy Fellas,

So I am relatively new to the Bow River, been fishing it hard the past few years as some of you may know, and have had some really, really, good success. The past couple nights I have hooked into some monsters.....and a few weeks ago I managed to land a 25" brown which was the thrill of a lifetime.

So what's the problem you ask? The problem is that I have probably lost 6-7 fish over that past few weeks that feel this size or bigger and I am starting to get frustrated. Last night I had one on for about 10 minutes. I set the hook and this thing just took off down river, at first it was fast, so I did my best to make sure it didn't spool my reel, then it just started slowy swimming away! Literally there was nothing I could do. I couldn't reel in any line, all i could do is just stand there as it went a few hundred feet into my backing.

At this point I started to wonder what to do. I started to walk downstream towards it but it was dark and I was stumbling around on the rocks so I stopped. But my question is, how the hell do I land this thing? Is it just a matter of waiting it out? I feel like this thing was just doing whatever it wanted. There was so much tension on my rod, but it was still taking line whenever it wanted. So I began to wonder if I shouldn't tighten it, or maybe loosen it?

Anyway, long story short it finally spit the hook out. My line was intact, including my fly. So at least I know my leader and knots are fine. But I really need some advice on how to fight these monsters!

I also hooked into a few that just took off........run straight downstream for about 5 seconds then....gone. Not sure what is going on! Anyway....what a night. Didn't get off the river until about midnight but the adrenaline is still going! Would appreciate an advice you guys have re: drag, how to set the hook, reeling techniques, palming the reel etc. I need to land these beauties!

[Tb_45]

As someone who fishes a ton in the dark a few pieces of advice I have would be,
Beef up your tippet, once it hits dark I jump up to the heaviest tippet I can get through the eye of my fly. Also as much as I love my 4 weight rods, fishing in the dark for 24"-30" fish (in spots where one wrong step can ruin your night) just wasn't cutting it. If you had him on for 10 minutes I would guess your doing a pretty good job on the hook set, and playing the fish. A bit beefier rod/tippet might give u some extra help to be able to steer the fish into some easier water for you to land them. Congrats to you on getting into some huge fish and wishing you luck to land some of these hogs! Also a good headlamp is invaluable for navigation ****ty terrain in the dark

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by Tb_45

As someone who fishes a ton in the dark a few pieces of advice I have would be,
Beef up your tippet, once it hits dark I jump up to the heaviest tippet I can get through the eye of my fly. Also as much as I love my 4 weight rods, fishing in the dark for 24"-30" fish (in spots where one wrong step can ruin your night) just wasn't cutting it. If you had him on for 10 minutes I would guess your doing a pretty good job on the hook set, and playing the fish. A bit beefier rod/tippet might give u some extra help to be able to steer the fish into some easier water for you to land them. Congrats to you on getting into some huge fish and wishing you luck to land some of these hogs! Also a good headlamp is invaluable for navigation ****ty terrain in the dark

Thanks TB.....I actually learned on the Bow with an 8 wt. and just recently bought a new 6 wt this year....luckily for my my leaders seem strong and my knots good too. I will definitely tie up with some 3x or 2x even though my line hasn't been breaking. I like what you said about being able to steer the fish. I literally just feel like they can do whatever they want!

Most of the ones I lose are off and on in about 10 seconds.....they just run so hard as soon as the hook is set. A few times I have been palming my reel and the knob of it will get caught in the side of my hand and they will get off. Just trying to do my best to create the right amount of tension but I feel like I might be doing something wrong

[403Bowhunter]

Morning! Its good to hear you're having success on the bow, regardless of you having issues landing fish.. It can sure be a cruel river sometimes.

Anyways, firstly legitimate 24"+ fish are not as easy to come by as some of the online forum fisherman may lead you to believe lol But, a good 19-20" fish can still put up one heck of a fight.. Theres a couple questions I'd have for you regarding fighting the fish - Are you nymphing, streamer, dryfly? What weight rod? What weight of tippet? These factors will all play a role in your ability to land a fish, from a probabilistic point of view anyways.

Let me make a couple of assumptions.. Say you're nymphing with a 5wt rod and 3x tippet... This is more than enough to land almost any fish in the bow on any given day.. You see your bobber go down, you set the hook, and the fish starts screaming down stream like an olympic swimmer. First thing I think is if I see backing, I'm extremely surprised and there are 2 thoughts in my head - a) This is a serious bad boy and I better start running downstream Asap or b) I have him foul hooked... With more experience you'll be able to tell if its a or b most of the time. From my experience, fish taking you out into your backing on the bow is rare, and if its happening to you on a semi-regular basis I would recommend tightening your drag significantly... You'd be suprirsed at how much tension you can actually put on your equipment. For example - to really see what 5lbs of force feels like, rig a pully up to a tree, run your fly line and tippet through the pully and attach a 5lb weight to the other end - you'll be absolutely shocked at how much force you need to lift that weight off the ground. This is an excellent exercise to see just how much force you can put on your equipment and on fish in general.. I've used this method with a 12lb weight prior to Tarpon fishing trips in the Keys, and this is the sole reason why I'm able to consistently land 80+lb tarpon in under 20 minutes (Its not the only factor, but its a key contributor). When you do this exercise, you'll notice you wont be able to stand in one spot and simply lift the weight off the ground by lifting the rod tip. The only way to lift it will be to keep the rod tip low to one side of you and pull back to the side.. If you were on the river, this would mean your entire rod is out perpendicular to you and parallel to the waters surface.

As for you hooking into fish and then pulling the hook right away, its hard to say if you're not getting a good set, or if you're just running into a little bad luck! I would say if you had a fish on for about 10 minutes your hook sets are fine, you may just be taking it a little easy on the fish - sometimes this is required, like when you're fishing 6x and trico's - but typically when running a nymph rig you can really lay the boots to em. A combination of rod tip low to the water, bending that rod down into its butt section, and tighter drag will help you a lot i think.

Anyways... Thats my advise... Figuring out how much actual pressure you can put on your equipment and the technique in which to do this will help you land fish much much quicker... It's not only good for your ego when you land a big one, but its much better on every fish you catch because you aren't playing them into exhaustion.

Hope this helps a little bit! Best of luck.

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by 403Bowhunter

Morning! Its good to hear you're having success on the bow, regardless of you having issues landing fish.. It can sure be a cruel river sometimes.

Anyways, firstly legitimate 24"+ fish are not as easy to come by as some of the online forum fisherman may lead you to believe lol But, a good 19-20" fish can still put up one heck of a fight.. Theres a couple questions I'd have for you regarding fighting the fish - Are you nymphing, streamer, dryfly? What weight rod? What weight of tippet? These factors will all play a role in your ability to land a fish, from a probabilistic point of view anyways.

Let me make a couple of assumptions.. Say you're nymphing with a 5wt rod and 3x tippet... This is more than enough to land almost any fish in the bow on any given day.. You see your bobber go down, you set the hook, and the fish starts screaming down stream like an olympic swimmer. First thing I think is if I see backing, I'm extremely surprised and there are 2 thoughts in my head - a) This is a serious bad boy and I better start running downstream Asap or b) I have him foul hooked... With more experience you'll be able to tell if its a or b most of the time. From my experience, fish taking you out into your backing on the bow is rare, and if its happening to you on a semi-regular basis I would recommend tightening your drag significantly... You'd be suprirsed at how much tension you can actually put on your equipment. For example - to really see what 5lbs of force feels like, rig a pully up to a tree, run your fly line and tippet through the pully and attach a 5lb weight to the other end - you'll be absolutely shocked at how much force you need to lift that weight off the ground. This is an excellent exercise to see just how much force you can put on your equipment and on fish in general.. I've used this method with a 12lb weight prior to Tarpon fishing trips in the Keys, and this is the sole reason why I'm able to consistently land 80+lb tarpon in under 20 minutes (Its not the only factor, but its a key contributor). When you do this exercise, you'll notice you wont be able to stand in one spot and simply lift the weight off the ground by lifting the rod tip. The only way to lift it will be to keep the rod tip low to one side of you and pull back to the side.. If you were on the river, this would mean your entire rod is out perpendicular to you and parallel to the waters surface.

As for you hooking into fish and then pulling the hook right away, its hard to say if you're not getting a good set, or if you're just running into a little bad luck! I would say if you had a fish on for about 10 minutes your hook sets are fine, you may just be taking it a little easy on the fish - sometimes this is required, like when you're fishing 6x and trico's - but typically when running a nymph rig you can really lay the boots to em. A combination of rod tip low to the water, bending that rod down into its butt section, and tighter drag will help you a lot i think.

Anyways... Thats my advise... Figuring out how much actual pressure you can put on your equipment and the technique in which to do this will help you land fish much much quicker... It's not only good for your ego when you land a big one, but its much better on every fish you catch because you aren't playing them into exhaustion.

Hope this helps a little bit! Best of luck.

Thanks for the post Bow!

Here was my setup last night....

6wt rod
4x to a hopper
3x to a dropper nymph

They were targeting both!

I should clarify that I have only been into my backing twice. Last night this fish took me to a place in my backing that I ever thought I would go haha...still can't believe it.

So my question for you is....would you walk downstream towards it? I thought that was a good idea but didn't know if that was a legitimate technique. I tried reeling about 10 times and it was not getting me anywhere.

Also, what is the best way to create tension when they hit and run? I really just don't know how much drag is enough, and how to prevent them from ripping line off like crazy!

Your pully example is great! I was facing down stream with my tip in the air I will try your advice next time.

[vital shok]

Had a bunch hitting little foam stone and a trailing caddis last night

[403Bowhunter]

Your set up sounds fine...I would definitely walk downstream towards the fish.. This is a very legit technique haha! Just remember that if your rod tip is in the air you're hardly putting any pressure on that fish. It doesnt matter for most trout fishing, but on the bow there are some bruisers and you definitely have to drop that tip to your side and bend the heck out of your rod.. If the fish is downstream of you a ways, and your rod tip is in the air above your head, you are putting virtually no pressure on that fish. You're basically just putting enough tension in the line to keep the hook in his jaw, and he's sitting comfortably in the current just waiting you out.

When they hit, I wouldn't worry too much about instantaneous tension etc... Just keep it tight enough to survive that initial run, and then you can start giving them the gears. As for drag setting, it's hard to say anything about this unless I can actually feel it.. But ya simple advise is to get that rod tip down to your side and bend the rod parallel to the water surface.. Above your head = no good.. despite what others may tell you lol I am very confident in this from my experience with much larger game fish on the fly.

Yah try out the pully just for fun anyways! People will definitely look at you funny, but every year I go out and "fight the tree" for a bit just to have that point of reference in my head as to how much pressure i can actually place on that fish.

Best of luck!

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by 403Bowhunter

Your set up sounds fine...I would definitely walk downstream towards the fish.. This is a very legit technique haha! Just remember that if your rod tip is in the air you're hardly putting any pressure on that fish. It doesnt matter for most trout fishing, but on the bow there are some bruisers and you definitely have to drop that tip to your side and bend the heck out of your rod.. If the fish is downstream of you a ways, and your rod tip is in the air above your head, you are putting virtually no pressure on that fish. You're basically just putting enough tension in the line to keep the hook in his jaw, and he's sitting comfortably in the current just waiting you out.

When they hit, I wouldn't worry too much about instantaneous tension etc... Just keep it tight enough to survive that initial run, and then you can start giving them the gears. As for drag setting, it's hard to say anything about this unless I can actually feel it.. But ya simple advise is to get that rod tip down to your side and bend the rod parallel to the water surface.. Above your head = no good.. despite what others may tell you lol I am very confident in this from my experience with much larger game fish on the fly.

Yah try out the pully just for fun anyways! People will definitely look at you funny, but every year I go out and "fight the tree" for a bit just to have that point of reference in my head as to how much pressure i can actually place on that fish.

Best of luck!

Honestly that's exactly what it was like...because it stopped running and was slowly swimming away, just like it was out for a casual swim! I am eager to try this out.

Sounds like the initial run is the biggest challenge....I grew up fishing lakes, so these river fights are new to me. Man do the pull like crazy at the start!

Like I said in my first post, couple of times the knob on my reel got caught in my palm and I think it cost me, so I am trying to be aware of that. Thanks for the convo.

[MTB_FlyFisher]

Originally Posted by Dr.Shortington

Here was my setup last night....

6wt rod
4x to a hopper
3x to a dropper nymph

Not sure what everyone else thinks about this, but I typically try to keep the breaking strength of the line to my hopper greater than that to my dropper. I find that if I snag up or otherwise need to break off, it's nice to at least have the potential to get the hopper back.

With the way you're set up, if your nymph were to get snagged on the bottom you'd likely break off both hopper and dropper since the 4X should break before the 3X would. If anything else, consider using 4X to connect your dropper.

for example:
3X leader to hopper, 4X to dropper
4X leader to hopper, 4X to dropper
4X leader to hopper, 5X to dropper

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by MTB_FlyFisher

Not sure what everyone else thinks about this, but I typically try to keep the breaking strength of the line to my hopper greater than that to my dropper. I find that if I snag up or otherwise need to break off, it's nice to at least have the potential to get the hopper back.

With the way you're set up, if your nymph were to get snagged on the bottom you'd likely break off both hopper and dropper since the 4X should break before the 3X would. If anything else, consider using 4X to connect your dropper.

for example:
3X leader to hopper, 4X to dropper
4X leader to hopper, 4X to dropper
4X leader to hopper, 5X to dropper

You know what....typically I do haha, but I retied my nymph because of the size of the fish I saw feeding, but didn't bother on my main leader. No worries about snags in that section of the river. I was also slowly stripping in.

[millsboy79]

Originally Posted by Dr.Shortington

Thanks for the post Bow!

Here was my setup last night....

6wt rod
4x to a hopper
3x to a dropper nymph

They were targeting both!

I should clarify that I have only been into my backing twice. Last night this fish took me to a place in my backing that I ever thought I would go haha...still can't believe it.

So my question for you is....would you walk downstream towards it? I thought that was a good idea but didn't know if that was a legitimate technique. I tried reeling about 10 times and it was not getting me anywhere.

Also, what is the best way to create tension when they hit and run? I really just don't know how much drag is enough, and how to prevent them from ripping line off like crazy!

Your pully example is great! I was facing down stream with my tip in the air I will try your advice next time.

I would say if you're not breaking lines then you can increase your drag. Like others have said if you have the fish on for 10 minutes the rest of your techniques must be pretty good.

Sounds like you know what you're doing and have done better than I ever have lol.

Hope your good luck continues.

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by millsboy79

I would say if you're not breaking lines then you can increase your drag. Like others have said if you have the fish on for 10 minutes the rest of your techniques must be pretty good.

Sounds like you know what you're doing and have done better than I ever have lol.

Hope your good luck continues.

Thanks mills.....seems to me like the big ones come up at night. The smaller ones will begin to feed about 830ish then the big ones around 10. I was on the water until about midnight last night!

[Pikebreath]

Using the " down and dirty" as 403bowhunter is describing in his posts should land any Bow River trout in under 10 minutes provided you are using appropriate tippet.


Shake it more than twice and you're playing with it!!!!

[bonedogg]

Thanks for the lesson on dropping the rod to the side, learn something new every day, a true forum among gentlemen!!!

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by bonedogg

Thanks for the lesson on dropping the rod to the side, learn something new every day, a true forum among gentlemen!!!

I could have used this info about 12 hours ago




But yes, thanks fellas. I'd appreciate any more advice as well.

Tight lines this weekend!!!

[SNAPFisher]

If you have ever fished for Salmon in the rivers on the West coast or steelhead, you quickly learn about how to handle a fish.

(1) Sideways pressure is huge. I think that was said here already. You should be able to move the fish towards you very early on when you realize you have a big fish.

(2) Switch sideways direction. If to the left is not working quickly switch to your other side and see if you can bring the fish towards you. Imagine what is happening under the water at the end of your line. If you did 1 and 2 you should have just turned the fishes head two different directions. It seems to break the spirit of the fish when you do this early on. Your still in for a fight but using this honing this technique is key...especially for the West coast but can apply anywhere.

Unless you are in terrible current and need to walk towards it to move it out, I wouldn't advise it. Sometimes you have to due to circumstances but then you probably picked a bad spot to being with. Once that fish feels it is winning it may not give up - walking towards it sometimes changes the whole outcome.

Other great suggestions already on here including upsizing tippet.

Other possibilities beyond your control, I had a similar incident to you this year. Someone else suggested to me it could have been a very big pike or laker. I know, the laker sounds nuts but it has happened to others. Did you see the fish? In my case I didn't and did pull the hook pretty early on but it was unstoppable until then. Another one is you may have hooked it in the butt or under a fin. Just a matter of luck to land those fish.

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by SNAPFisher

If you have ever fished for Salmon in the rivers on the West coast or steelhead, you quickly learn about how to handle a fish.

(1) Sideways pressure is huge. I think that was said here already. You should be able to move the fish towards you very early on when you realize you have a big fish.

(2) Switch sideways direction. If to the left is not working quickly switch to your other side and see if you can bring the fish towards you. Imagine what is happening under the water at the end of your line. If you did 1 and 2 you should have just turned the fishes head two different directions. It seems to break the spirit of the fish when you do this early on. Your still in for a fight but using this honing this technique is key...especially for the West coast but can apply anywhere.

Unless you are in terrible current and need to walk towards it to move it out, I wouldn't advise it. Sometimes you have to due to circumstances but then you probably picked a bad spot to being with. Once that fish feels it is winning it may not give up - walking towards it sometimes changes the whole outcome.

Other great suggestions already on here including upsizing tippet.

Other possibilities beyond your control, I had a similar incident to you this year. Someone else suggested to me it could have been a very big pike or laker. I know, the laker sounds nuts but it has happened to others. Did you see the fish? In my case I didn't and did pull the hook pretty early on but it was unstoppable until then. Another one is you may have hooked it in the butt or under a fin. Just a matter of luck to land those fish.

As always thanks for the tips SNAP.

I could feel its head shaking, so I am assuming it was hooked clean. I did not see it jump though, so it's all a mystery. Would have just loved to see what type of beautiful creature was on the end of that one!!! Like you said....unstoppable was the word!

[walking buffalo]

A couple of thoughts that may not have been covered yet.

Drag on the fly-line can cause a pretty significant tension with the current. Almost all of the "Big ones that got away" from me on the Bow have been in the same scenario. The fish gets a head of steam down and across stream resulting in a belly of line that is near the breaking point due to the drag on the line. I know that some of the fish wrapped the line below a rock before heading upstream....

Possible Solutions.... do what you can early on in the fight to keep the fish from getting a significant amount of line. Put the pressure on early. Try to keep the fish downstream rather than down and across, by using the rod tip. Follow them downstream as possible. Don't wait for them to get a ways downstream, start following immediately....

Get your line out of the water.... When possible, tip high and line in a direct tangent to the fish.

Beef up your tippet. - If you are willing to catch fewer but bigger fish, go to a 1 or 0x. For sure this will lower your hookup rate, but will give you the advantage in landing the big ones. If using a 4x tippet, a couple pounds of drag pressure only leaves you with a couple pounds pressure to move the fish....

Use only one fly. The tandem rig will cost you hooked fish as the second fly often snags rocks/debris during a battle with a big fish. Yes, you may experience fewer hookups, but this is the trade off for increasing your chances to land the big ones.


Since making these changes to my fishing style when I target the bigger fish, my landing rate of 25"+ fish skyrocketed....

[scel]

Originally Posted by Dr.Shortington

So I am relatively new to the Bow River, been fishing it hard the past few years as some of you may know, and have had some really, really, good success. The past couple nights I have hooked into some monsters.....and a few weeks ago I managed to land a 25" brown which was the thrill of a lifetime.

So what's the problem you ask? The problem is that I have probably lost 6-7 fish over that past few weeks that feel this size or bigger and I am starting to get frustrated. Last night I had one on for about 10 minutes. I set the hook and this thing just took off down river, at first it was fast, so I did my best to make sure it didn't spool my reel, then it just started slowy swimming away! Literally there was nothing I could do. I couldn't reel in any line, all i could do is just stand there as it went a few hundred feet into my backing.

You are catching big fish on relatively little hooks. I would only expect to land 1 in 4. I am on a bit of a long-distance-release streak myself.

I remember my first battle with a Bow River Bruin. He shot downstream into my backing then swam around the bridge supports, where we had a 10 minute stand off, then the hook just popped out.

The only reliable way to catch big fish is to chase them down the river. a 24-25" fish will be 5-6lbs, plus some fight and add some current, you will need 2x, fantastic knots, and perfect hook set to strong-arm a fish like that in.

I manage to land a couple of big browns a year. 80+% are at dusk or in the dark. Turn on your headlamp. Make your way to shore. Start trundling down the river to pick up line. We both know how exciting it is once you tangle with a beast, but there is no need to move quickly. If you manage to land it, you will likely want to be close to the bank anyway

The Bow River is one of the few places where a good reel with smooth drag is a potential advantage. For most fly fishing, the reel is just a line containment device. it still does not matter for 95% of the fish you catch on the Bow. But 1-in-20 are the trophies the Bow river is famous for. I would still avoid palming the reel. The more *pops* you make with the line potentially dislodges the hook. Turn up the drag if you need to and put faith in your knots/tippet. That being said, I have never regretted upgrading my first POS reel to a Lamson Guru 2.0 (I do not think they make it any more, but even the cheapest Lamson reels are solid). 7+ years later, and the reel is still a rock solid piece of my angling gear. I have gone through a few different rods, but kept the same reel.

[RavYak]

Ah the thrill and difficulty of trying to catch big trout. I don't catch them in the river but I catch some bigger fish in lakes and that is tough enough, a river adds even more difficulty. On lakes I refuse to use anything under 3X tippet now because 4X just isn't strong enough for the big girls(unless you want to break off or overplay and kill them...). And that is on lakes so fighting a fish in current I would consider going even stronger.

I'm going to use sturgeon as an example now but I know trout would be the same. With sturgeon you need to be able to stay ahead of them and keep them under control, if they get far ahead of you and in the current you will have an extremely tough time getting them stopped and then have to drag them up against the current which is impractical.

To avoid this you need to have your drag set properly, which is a catch 22 when fishing for big fish because if you have your drag set properly for a 25+ incher it is going to be too tight for most of the fish you are catching. That is why I have a bad habit of fishing with too light of a drag but on a lake thankfully a guy has more forgiveness. On a river if you fall behind you need to make the effort to catch up and get beside or ahead of these fish. At night and on rocks etc this could be hard but you need to do it, have a good headlamp so you can see where you are going. If you fall way behind chances are you will never land that fish being stationary.

With sturgeon a guy uses large hooks and can use 50 lb line and huge amounts of drag and horse them in but you usually can't do that with trout. You could upgrade to a 7/8wt rig and 0x tippet and then you would have the power to horse them in but you are also going to be limited in the flies you can use because of line size and also because you need a good size hook to get a good strong hook set that won't just rip out of their mouth under such pressure. So if you decided to go that route you would pretty much be limited to streamers , if that is what you use anyways then it wouldn't hurt to have a heavy streamer rod setup you use when targeting these big ones, you can always have your lighter 6 wt setup for when you get bored of the heavier gear but that doesn't help when you hook up to the big ones on the lighter gear.

[robson3954]

I think it was Galloup that had a vid talking about instantly switching to a side angle after the set. If you typically catch a fish from down stream and the pressure on his jaw is from downstream, it's common sense that they will run down stream. I'm still trying to remember to do this.

Also walk, run, jump, swim (yes I have been very wet chasing a bull) downstream if you have to. If a fish gets down of me in anything but gentle water, I go down to meet him. No sense stressing my tippet/knots pulling a fish against the weight of the current. Yanking a 10" fish upstream in good current puts a serious bend in the rod, let alone a 24 incher.

[rycoma]

Just a little advice. I landed a 24" brown last fall on my 3wt while standing stationary on a rock in the middle of the river. That being said side pressure is you friend. By that I mean getting you rod flexed low to the water pulling in the direction you want the fish to go. He has to follow his head regardless. Turrning his head is important. Pulling up make him rise up in the water column not directional. That is where side pressure comes in and is much easier to turn him. The angle of the flex of rod is also very important. Take a look at ECHO rods on you tube and you will quickly see that its your rod and more so the butt of the rod that fights big fish not the tip. Also keep your hand on the handle not the rod itself.

[3blade]

8 wt...and you probably hooked a laker (head shakes and a submarine run) . Once a fish is over 2 lbs, they are strong enough to boss you around in a river, since I upgraded to the 8 very few have gotten away. Also it's been said, but get a reel with a smooth drag, and get them on the reel ASAP.

Fish move opposite to the pressure, so if you can get your rod to your downstream side you will make them fight the current and the rod...that being said, the big guys know to use the current to get away from danger and just blast downstream. Plenty of downstream fish sprints by steelhead anglers everywhere

[ambaga]

Using 7x

Sent from my SGH-M919V using Tapatalk

[Daceminnow]

To add to what some have already shared a couple of articles you may find beneficial.

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...-a-tight-spot/

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...ame-changer-2/

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...d-not-the-tip/

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/uncat...t-ten-seconds/


Dace

[Dr.Shortington]

Originally Posted by Daceminnow

To add to what some have already shared a couple of articles you may find beneficial.

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...-a-tight-spot/

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...ame-changer-2/

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...d-not-the-tip/

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/uncat...t-ten-seconds/


Dace

Some good techniques and stories too...always fun reading stuff like that. Funny how it paints a picture in your mind

[abff]

Excellent comments and tips gents. A great read.

Thanks to all who contributed.

[Dr.Shortington]

Went out with some 1x, 12 lb. last night. WOW. What a difference!

I didn't catch "the big one" but I landed a 22" rainbow with ease. I think it was a combo of both the "down and dirty" technique along with the tippet size. Caught 3 other browns in the 18" range easily. Seemed like after the initial run I was able to gain control of the situation a LOT quicker.

Cheers fellas!

[nekred]

I often fish for grayling in Northern BC.... and I catch fairly big grayling but there are also large trout and char in the same waters....

I have video where I was fighting one and ended up losing him as I was bringing him in and he rolled in shallows and knock hook out with a rock....

He made many runs then went to a deep part of the hole and just sulked....

I pulled cross stream, downstream and he would not move.... It was like I was hooked on a rock so I went upstream and added gentle pressure (sideways rod and he started moving again and I got him into current where he started tiring out again.... after about 25 minutes from original hook up I final had him almost to shore and had some great video when as a mentioned above he unbuttoned himself just as I was bringing him to hand in the shallows....

Biggest advice is to be patient and steady and enjoy the experience.... if you know the pattern and bigger ones come out at night switch to heavier gear... in the interior of BC where I catch large rainbows you have to gear up and adjust... especially in the lakes where you have to run the "Kamloops Leaders". I am going in 3 weeks and can't wait....