|
Among the ideas to test are these: Always fight your big fish on a tight line, Use a big hook for a big fish, and The heavy rod will kill the big fish faster. How many times, with a big fish on, have you been told: Man alive, keep a tight line on that fish! More often than not, that advice followed will lose you your big fish! After considerable experimenting with slack lines, it is my contention that giving the broad-beamed lunker slack just as soon as the small sharp hook is set beyond the barb, at the very beginning of the fight, will save you that big fish more often than a tight line will. In fact, properly using a slack line will put more big fish on your wall than any other one thing you can do when fighting a fish! The trophy fish's first reactions to a slack line, once the barb is set, is often quite comical. He seldom gets excited. If anything, he acts puzzled. He doesn't seem to know where to go. Usually, if he does make a run for it, he goes exactly where you want him: up the main channel of the river, away from the weed beds and the rapid water below you. Or, should he be excited for a moment, the slack line gives him nothing to fight against. Rushing 1.00 yards away from his favorite hold effects no release from that pesky hook in his jaw. To rid himself of the annoyance, he may make a leap, as does the occasional fish which has had a hook left in its face.
|
