A fish in the hand - and how to let go

Fall 2008

Fishing Angles

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

By Dan Armitage

Simply finding a place that fish frequent is half the fun of angling by paddle power. Engaging in activities such as fishing compels us to explore areas that we might otherwise overlook, and the rewards can be awesome.

So is the culmination of all the effort extended toward angling, expressed when a fish is fooled by your offering and strikes your bait. For some veteran anglers, the challenge of fishing is fulfilled the moment their target takes the bait; I know several old-school tarpon anglers in the Florida Keys who remove the hooks from their lures to allow the fishermen to enjoy the jarring strike and the dramatic jump or two they get out of their “catch” before the fish spits their hookless plug. They argue that the best part of tarpon fishing is fooling them in the first place, followed by the initial jump; after that it’s often a long, dogged sub-surface battle that wastes time when these guys would rather be “jumping” the next tarpon.

For most of us, however, anything less than actually landing the fish represents a degree of failure – even if we intend to release the catch in the end anyway. I think it has something to do with getting up close and personal with something that lives in that wonderfully mysterious sub-surface world. Then again, the allure may be something more primal: actually handling the fish proves that, if we wanted to, we could keep and eat the catch. A fish in hand being worth two in the water – that sort of thing.

Regardless, some skill comes into play once a fish has its maw around your bait, be it live or lure, before you can get it in hand. The first thing you must do is set the hook. To do that, you need a taut line between your rod tip and the bait. Keeping the slack out of the line is a constant chore while fishing, for you never know when a fish will attack. But when it does, you need to be able to lift the rod quickly to pull the line enough to drive the hook’s point into the tough, cartilage-like mouth of the fish.

Once the hook is set, you should keep the rod tip bent and the line tight to maintain pressure on that hook to stay in place as you reel in the fish. Depending on the size of the tackle and the fish, most of the time you can crank smaller catches right on in to the side of the boat. The fun starts when the fish you have hooked is big and/or strong enough, relative to the tackle you are using, to jump and pull, often hard enough to tow the boat or pull line from the reel’s drag. The drag is an adjustable setting on the reel that allows line to be released before the power of the fish pulling it breaks the line.

When fighting a large fish the angler often must “pump” the fish in, steadily raising the rod tip on a tight line to bring the fish toward the boat, then dropping the tip to point back at the fish while reeling in the slack gained by the upward pulling to keep the line tight to the fish.

Eventually, if the hook, line and knots hold, the fish will be brought to the side of the boat – which is where most fish are lost by over-eager anglers.

Whether you want to keep the fish for eating or not, you need to get control of it and work the hook free. The best way to land and secure a fish aboard a canoe or kayak is to use a net. Netting fish single-handed takes some practice, but once you master the method you’ll find it’s best for both the fish and the fisherman – especially if you intend to release the former. The trick is to sink the net and draw the fish over the hoop head-first, and raise it around the catch. That way, if the fish lunges at the touch of the mesh, it will swim right into the netting.

To cause the least amount of stress to the fish while removing the hook, if possible, reach over and remove the hook without removing the fish from the water, or ‘lip’ a tooth-free species by putting your thumb in its mouth and crooking your index under its jaw to hold it still in or out of the water while you work the hook free.

But don’t be fooled. Some finned individuals that appear to have succumbed boatside can suddenly become very much alive once you touch them or start poking around their mouths to remove a hook. I’ve been drenched dozens of times and nearly capsized twice while trying to release a fish “freehand” from the side of my kayak.

But hey, getting a fish to the boat and simply touching the leader counts as a catch in most big-game fishing circles. And when you’re face to face with any fish from a low-profile kayak, they all look like big game!<