Follow-up comment on "rod wt vs fish size"

There was some question on what the big deal was about using big rods, for large fish, when a smaller weight rod can catch the same fish!

If you want to try and catch a big fish on a light fly rod or even a small tippet, please keep the fish, and eat it. The fish will most like not survive if released.

Overplayed fish, on to light a fly line/fly rod, or to small of a tippet, are stressed beyond a lethal point of exertion. You may be playing, but the fish is fighting for its life. Over-stressed fish, are more likely to become ill, and diseased (use to be into freshwater aquarium fish, as hobby). Diseased fish can pass some of these diseases to other fish in the same local. Toxins build up in the tissue of the fish, from a fish that is played too long on too light of a fly line/fly rod, and this toxin can become lethal to the fish.

I would like to think, us Fly Anglers, are of a higher class of Anglers, to use the proper equipment to not needlessly do more harm than need to catch the fish. Especially if we are required or planning on releasing the fish! If it was not that important, there would not be so many different weight of fly lines, and the respective fly rods and fly reels that go with the line. Use the correct size of tippet, for the fly being used, and for the fish being fished for. And please be a responsible angler, when it involves our public fishing waters, and the fish that reside there.

Maybe I read the comments of some member in the wrong light, but I believe it should be consider crimminal to purposely fish for fish with too light of a fly line/fly rod/tippet.

~Parnelli

[fcch]

Parn,

Nice post and a good heads up. Equates to deer hunters using to small a bore.

Further, up here, we'll discourage C&R when it's just too warm. The fish is ALREADY stressed.

Light gear and light tippets are fun to use, but not always appropriate. When clients are C&R, I'll ALWAYS ask that they move to heavier tippets, even if that means they'll get less connections.

For Atlantics, on C&R, we go to single barbless.If we connect on a light tippet, and can't muscle in the fish, we'll break off after a short time.


------------------
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/:1cd1b]http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/[/url:1cd1b]

Steven H,
I agree with your not playing fish too long but a small rod won't stress a fish any more than a large one. Its a matter of how long the fish is played. #1, I think that a fish should be broken off BEFORE its exhausted! #2 This season, I'm going to go one step further. I'm going to release the fish without removing it from the water whenever possible. #3, I'm going to ask any youngsters to do the same. Think it will fly?

Ol' Bill

[fcch]

Snipe,

I don't take a lot of pictures stream side, so there's really not a lot of reasons to take a fish out of the water. Just run your fingers down the leader to get to the fly, hold the fly and the fish can often jump right off your barbless hook.

For me, the challenge in FF'ing is to get the fish to take (especially for Atlantics and Sea runners), so my idea of fun isn't playing the fish to exhaustion just so I can take a picture and put back 18 lb of dead organic matter into a river

Of course, my flies are quite large compared to many of you, so grabbing the fly is easy for me.

Proper hook setting helps too. Don't strike vertically (trout and Salmon). Let a fish take 'n turn on streamer swings.

Learn how to do the long line release.

Break off if your rod can't muscle in a C&R fish.


Note: I post quite a few pics of fish. 99% of the fish in the pictures are for the BBQ. Rule of thumb, If the fish is more than 1 ft from the water, it was a keeper.


Released fish


Keeper

My 0.02$ (and hey, 0.02$ Canadian is starting to be worth something)


------------------
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/:47839]http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/[/url:47839]

Christopher,
I've been reading a lot of your posts lately, and it seems like your .02 cents is always worth more than face value.


------------------
A free gift waits for those who ask.
--------------------
Lotech Joe

[lee s]

I agree with not overplaying a fish. I do NOT agree however that a heavier rod will whip a fish faster. Your tippet is the fuse. If you can break the tippet with whatever rod you have in your hand, a heavier rod will get you NO more pressure to the fish.
Most people need to learn to effectively use the gear they have in their hands.
.......lee s.

[fcch]

Joe,

Thanx,... I DO have a tendancy to be a bit opinionated (sp?), but I figure one can express their ideas as long as the word RESPECT is a part of one's vocabulary.


------------------
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/:84935]http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/[/url:84935]

[OkieBass133]

When I go after big fish with a light rod I'm doing it with heavy tippet (usually going after carp). I don't have any problems wrangling a 10 lb. carp, and the fights usually get over pretty quickly. Since I don't have to worry about babying light tippet, as soon as the fish is ready it gets released. "Ready" is the point where I can get a hand under its belly or can grab the fly with a pair of pliers to pull it out without touching the fish.

[fcch]

Lee,

I agree ... I wonder where the idea came from. I have an old #8 rod (glass) that'd be outgunned against a 6lb grisle. Just to much flex. Once a bruiser sits in the current, its like a cinder block.

The old glass rod will just bend and bend. On the other hand, the same fish in the same pool would be no match for a #5 XP.

I match my rods to the water and conditions I fish, not the fish. I match the tippet first to the fish and second to the fly.

------------------
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/:86bab]http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris_chin/[/url:86bab]



[This message has been edited by fcch (edited 26 February 2005).]

[Bill Blake]

I get or lose most of my fish in well under 2 minutes regardless of the setup I use. I'd rather take in to consideration my observations of the fish and the fight itself than just assume that because I caught it on 6 or 7x tippet that I should kill and eat it. Rod and tippet size have NO BEARING on whether a particular fish is exhausted after it is caught. Duration of the fight, time out of the water, temperature, the amount of energy the fish exerted all do have a much more direct effect on whether the fish is going to survive. Please, don't assume that because someone uses a light rod, that they are overexerting their fish, because we all need to be conscious of how much stress we put on them.