OK, you’ve done the hard part – you’ve gotten a steelhead to eat your swung fly. Apparently some of you never wanted to land that fish in the first place, because we’ve seen all sorts of creative approaches to losing fish. We thought we’d share some of these – ahem – ‘tips’ with you today.
5 Ways to Lose a Steelhead
- Don’t test your knots well. You need to pull hard on every knot – you shouldn’t be able to break 15 pound Maxima with your bare hands.
- Loop your running line around your reel handle. If your running line isn’t free and you get the deep pull…doink! It’s over.
- Apply very light pressure. Steelhead are strong and you need to fight them that way. If you’re not pulling hard, they’re resting.
- Stroll slowly downriver. It’s very common but oh so painful to watch – angler strolls downriver at 1 mph while fish bolts downriver at 15 mph. Either stand your ground or get downriver for a new angle fast!
- Jerk your rod from side to side. Especially with a giant lever like two-handed rod, jerking your rod from side to side is a great way to work the hook lose. When you’re switching to apply pressure on the other side, move steadily and smoothly.
Now, if you haven’t followed our fun tips and actually landed that fish – that’s an incredible privilege and you need to handle the fish well.
We know that lots of you have come up with some innovative ways to lose steelhead. Leave us a comment and tell us how!
When the fish pulls really hard, let go of the rod.
1. Clamp down on the reel because you don’t trust the $500 reel you just bought can actually stop a raging fish.
2. While chasing a fish, stumble -and use your guides (My) Burkheimer as a wading staff… Which of course snaps the rod… Which of course equates to a lost fish.
3. Step on your shooting line with your cleats.
4. Hold your rod high over your head like a trout fisherman.
5. Forget to tighten the face screws on your brand new Saracione Reel… Which of course you weren’t supposed to play with… Which of course leads to the entire reel falling apart -While fighting a fish.
-Yes, I’ve actually seen all of these things happen.
Please do not keep a steelhead out of water any longer than you would like to have your head kept under water.
Hold the fly reel close enough to your vest that the spinning handle catches in a pocket, hemostats, or tippet wheels.
Don’t tighten the reel seat so that the reel works free during the battle
High sticking the rod at the beach*
Grabbing your rod above the cork*
Poorly seated ferrule(s)*
Dull hook
Wind knots
Tightening your knot after coating lips in Burt’s Beeswax or similar . . . you get the cutest curly tail leader end that way
*Bonus Points for breaking your rod, too.
– After a first hard bulldogging run think to yourself “Wow this is a big fish, time to tighten down the drag”
– Let me dig around in my waders/pack/pockets for my camera before the fish is landed
Not realizing that you can change the drag on a light drag set on the reel by changing the rod angle. Panicked anglers often follow the advice of “keep the rod tip up” when coached how to land a big, strong hard running fish. AND..fish comes in close sees angler, and makes a strong run while the angler holds the rod tip high maximizing drag. And it becomes harder to quickly change the angle changing drag pressure using a long spey rod.