These apply particularly to river smallie fishing in my case.
You are into a fish, but the trout fishing reflex kicked in, and you have lifted the rod instead of a line strip hook set. I have lost some fish in this case, and landed a few that were not well hooked. Do you?
A. Stick it out and hope for the best.
B. Somehow manage to get the rod pointed at the fish and try to get a hand strip hook set on the fish.
You are into a fish, with about 6 to 8 feet of slack line on the water. You try to get the line back on the reel but the fish keeps coming to you, and you can’t get ahead of the line you are hand stripping in to stay with the fish.
Is it advisable to give that 6 to 8 feet of line back to the fish right away,(not allowing slack into the line) before he makes a run to you?
I lift the rod and pull back with my line hand at the same time. That way I am reducing the slack and setting the hook in one motion. After that go with A - always stick it out & hope. Actually that’s all my fishing.
For #2, yes, I would try to let the fish take back the line until I had enough tension to keep fighting the fish by stripping or until I could get him on the reel. That happened Sunday while fighting a Carp. The beastie charged the boat and I suddenly had a handful of slack. I stripped in line as fast as I could until he changed direction and I was able to feed him line, got tension back, and got him on the reel.
#2 . . . Instead of giving the line back to the fish to get it on the reel, I will lightly anchor the line with a finger, and reel up to catch up when I can. If it runs hard, I can slip line back to it. If it comes at me again, I can stop reeling and start stripping. Use the rod, lower and raise to give line and take up small amounts of line.
I would go with answer A on the first question. If you attempt to point the rod and then re-set the hook, you’ll probably pop it out. I do the same as raw69 suggested, strip the line in as i’m lifting the rod tip.
For the second question, I do the same thing as waynep does. I’ve lost too many fish trying trying to reel and give back line at the same time. I keep the line in my hand until I feel the fish is under control, then i’ll try to get all the line back on the reel.
I am trying my best to use the hand strip hook set. In fact the other day I kept telling myself, “don’t lift the rod, don’t lift the rod”. First strike, what did I do? Lifted and stripped simultaneously. I got it half right. The hook was well set on that fish though. I did land one larger fish, and I did get away with letting him have the line at my feet, and brought that fish to hand with the reel alone. He helped me out however by running sort of across and away from me, right at the get go.
Yes, that is another lesson I had to relearn as well. I now keep my file right at the side of my vise and give each hook a few strokes right after I pinch the barb.
The hook was well set on that fish though. I did land one larger fish, and I did get away with letting him have the line at my feet, and brought that fish to hand with the reel alone. He helped me out however by running sort of across and away from me, right at the get go.