Casey,

That's a very good point. When fishing with a fixed-length-line system, it's a "fixed system". There is no give. Apply enough pressure, and something is going to sooner or later fail. Ideally it's your tippet that fails. As tippet size and strength increase, at some point, something else will become the weakest link (i.e. your rod).

One might argue that when a fish breaks your rod, at least it provides a memory and a good story. That is probably the one downside to fishing a fixed-length-line system, there is a practical limit to the size of fish you can realistically expect to bring to hand.

Of course, when you break a rod trying to free yourself from a snag, that's not much of a memory or story. Particularly with a snag, there isn't much excuse to break a rod. It only takes a few seconds to collapse your rod, you can then grab your line and pull to one's heart's content. Once free, it only takes a few seconds to extend the rod, and you are back in business.

Fishing fixed-length-line systems is definitely a finesse affair. It's a different mind set than fishing a Shakespeare Ugly Stik.

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