Control Your Fish!

I titled my article last month, Giving Ourselves the Best Chance for Success, I talked about areas to target, useful techniques, choosing the right gear and lure selection, to name a few topics to consider. Staying within a reasonable word count often proves to be a challenge for me, not only when writing but apparently when speaking, too! Just ask my wife or any of my friends. It’s not that I’m a motor mouth, I just believe in being very thorough. This said, there was another important topic that I wanted to discuss last month but simply ran out of space. When I was in marketing years ago we called it, “closing the sale.” In the world I live in now I guess we could call it, “landing the fish.”

We spend so much time and effort trying to locate fish and then we use precisely the right tactics and lures to trick them, only to sometimes lose the battle because we made a single wrong maneuver when fighting a trophy fish. This is maybe a more common issue in the nearshore and offshore world with tarpon and billfish but I’ve witnessed it plenty of times with big trout. Hell – I’ve done it myself, and more than once!

I was with my friend, Walt Kalinowski, back in 2009 (I think). Walt had been on some good trout down in Baffin Bay and we needed some footage for some instructional videos that we were helping create at the time. We had caught some decent trout early and Walt decided to make a move to another area that had recently coughed up a few above average trout. Our good friend, Jeff Lankford, had joined us to add another top notch fish-finder in the mix. We all jumped out on a shallow flat and headed in different directions, armed with the lures that each of us felt in our minds were best-suited for the conditions, time of year (March), and the size of trout we were targeting.

I was chunking a MirrOlure Paul Brown Corky Devil in amber with limetreuse tail. We were all catching solid trout up to 6 pounds. After about an hour into our wade, the wind had kicked up to 18 knots or so, causing the water to become streaky (which I love, by the way). I told the camera guy to come with me and that I saw a well-defined mud streak on the inside of the sandbar with mullet flipping in it. We walked down the flat. I fired off a cast along the edge of the streak where the clear water met the turbid water. After a couple of cranks and twitches my Devil got t-boned hard! It was just a drive-by, however. She evidently missed it. I worked the lure all the way back to me in the waist-deep water where I stood, and then ripped another long cast into the high-percentage area where I had just gotten bit. I let the Devil settle and then reeled a few cranks, which I followed a few seconds later with a couple of short, upward pops before allowing it to settle again. BAM! This trout literally almost took the rod away from me! My hookset was textbook. My drag was set perfectly. The camera was rolling and everything was unfolding almost like it was scripted…until it wasn’t.

The back story goes like this; I had already caught at least one trout over 8 pounds that morning, maybe two, and had trouble getting the Boga Grip on them, so I had to wear them down enough to grab them with my hand or cradle them against my waist. However, this trout was no 8 pounder. Nor was she a 9 pounder. This trout was larger than any speck I had ever seen dead or alive AND IT WAS ON MY LINE! As I’m fighting her she swam straight toward me and then ripped off about 20 yards of line in the other direction. I saw my line rising to the surface. As she jumped like a tarpon, I pointed my rod toward her with my rod tip in the water, hoping to keep her from getting airborne and spitting the hook. I’d done everything right up until this point.

The water temperature was still cool and I hadn’t been fighting her for very long at all, so she was still green. As she came back towards me for a second time I eased my left hand down upon her back then slid it up towards her gills. However, there were two problems. She wasn’t even close to being ready yet and she was too thick to grab with my hand.

I cannot grab a basketball with one hand and the girth of this giant of a trout made me feel like I was literally trying to grab a basketball.

She shot sideways when I tried to grab her. My Boga Grip was clipped to the D Ring on my wading belt, and as this 10-plus pound trout swam to my right the knot that joined my leader to my main line got hung up in the Boga Grip. In what seemed slow-motion, I watched the line break and my would-have-been lifetime best trout just sat there, not quite realizing she was free. My heart sank as she swam away. I was sick and I’m still sick to this day because I feel like I will never have a chance at a trout like that again.

It’s not uncommon to get nervous when fighting a giant trout. It’s like seeing a huge buck when we’re hunting. I got a raging case of buck fever while fighting the biggest trout of my life and it cost me dearly. I brought her in prematurely. She was hooked well. I should have worn her down and then clipped my Boga onto her jaw. I learned a valuable lesson that day that has helped me land countless solid trout since. Stay calm and don’t bring the fish in until she’s ready.

There are some mistakes I’ve seen clients make when fighting a fish.

• Old line - Please make sure you have fresh line on your reel, especially when using monofilament. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen folks have a fish break off because of old line.
• Moby Dick Syndrome - One of the most common mistakes I see is when folks pump up and down on a trout like they’re fighting a marlin. When someone pumps up and down, they will often lose the fish because the lines gets slack in it as they come down allowing the hook to back out. Keep your drag set properly and keep tension on the fish and you’ll have better success landing them. Don’t “Moby Dick” it! Fight it with the rod at about a 45 degree angle unless it wants to breach the surface and go airborne. In that case quickly point your rod tip toward the fish (bow to it).
• Too Fast & Too Far – Sometimes it’s difficult especially for newbies, but we have to learn to control our level of excitement when fighting a trout. I had a young man on my boat the other day that not only reeled his trout in like he was in a NASCAR race, but he reeled it all the way to the tip of his rod. Again, we must relax and leave enough line to allow the fish to stay in the water before netting it or grabbing it.
• Don’t let her have her way with you – We hook quite a few large redfish while we’re fishing for trout. They love to take customers around the boat. They seem to know exactly where the trim tabs, trolling motor and lower unit are! The key to landing these fish when drifting is to go where they go. If the fish is swimming quickly towards the stern then you move quickly to the stern, all the while holding your rod out away from all the accessories that are attached to the stern. Once the fish starts wearing down you can put more pressure on it and lead it to the net. It’s the angler’s job to lead the fish to the net. The person netting the fish shouldn’t have to use Bruce Lee moves to net your fish.

All of the articles I write are from my own personal experiences as well as observations of clients on my boat. I do my best to offer advice, not only on the water but through this fine publication to hopefully provide clients and/or readers, something that will make them better at the sport of catching fish. Now let’s go catch some fish…but remember to keep them under control!