Backing...How much is enough?

[ducksterman]

Hey flyguy....then how come he titled it...
"Backing...How much is enough?"

[racine]

I've had trout take me into the backing about 10 times in the last 6 years. Not much but when you do hook that wild/native 16/18/20+ fish on a 5-7x tippet on a river watch out. 2 weeks ago I was in Yellowstone fighting rainbows and browns the biggest one of which fought me for 20 min. and only took 20-30yds of backing. The next, a brown of 18", took me well into 3/4s of my backing that I could see the end coming up and had to order my guide to get on the boat and catch him. 30 minutes later I landed that bruiser after a long chase on the river. He took me into my backing 4 times and after landing him noticed he had bent my hook. My flies had bent hooks 4 different times on this same river. My Lamson was a bit overfilled with backing but this trip I was grateful for all the extra I had. I don't think I would go to gel spun but I might consider using 15 lb backing to get more.

[Mike Thomas]

Well guys, I always put as much backing on my spool as it will take. I see my backing more often as I fish the Tongariro, the fish are often 20+ meters away so an initial run of only 10 meters will get me into the backing. It is not uncommon for a fresh Tongariro Rainbow to run downstream as much as 2 or 3 pools, and if you cant keep up you are going to need some of that backing! Some of you may remember this is how I smashed my elbow a few years ago, running on cannon ball sized bolders is not as easy as it looks.
It amazes me how often the trout will stay in the same pool and slug it out at close range though.
All the best.
Mike