Walter & Group....
Short message today. Just got back from a dawn patrol.... got up at 3:45 am and ran out into the back country by moonlight. Had a rare combination of perfect events..... flat calm, good current, right tide, good moon, Barometer at 29.92 and steady, humidity of 89%, hot and sultry, thunder clouds on the horizon .... distant booms. Not another skiff in sight.
A rare combo of a "guppy hatch" (glass minnows all over the place) and a shrimp hatch near a weed-line at the edge of a flat. Tarpon gorging themselves right on the surface ..... easy targets by moonlight until dawn broke.
TARPON CRASHING BAIT IN EVERY DIRECTION !
Jumped 7 big fish and landed 3. No fish attacked by sharks.
Poons on the brain & ground into my DNA !
Can hardly type as my arms and fingers are all cramped up.
Figured out a new way of handling big tarpon at the skiff when alone without the danger of losing your hand to a shark or injuring the fish. (More on that later.)
Gordy
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BIG TROUT / SALMON CHARGING DOWN RIVER
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From Pat Blackwell:
Hi Gordy,
One of the methods I have found some success in
fighting large fish in moving water (similar to Damon's situation) is to walk
the fish upstream. A lot of salmon and steelhead seem to want to go back to the
ocean when hooked, sometimes we can follow and sometimes we run out of
bank.
I set my drag just tight enough to prevent spool over run and
palm the spool to increase the drag.
When a fish gets into heavy water downstream and I'm unable to follow, I allow the fish to run with some drag at the same time pulling the rod tip into the bank I'm on. Hopefully this will move the fish into the slower water near the bank.
When the fish stops I walk backwards upstream maintaining the same rod
angle and amount of drag. Sometimes I can only walk backwards a few steps and
other times maybe 20 to 25 feet, at this point I start slowly walking downstream
towards the fish and reeling in line whilst doing my best to maintain the rod
angle and the amount of pressure (drag) on the fish. This is similar to
pumping in a fish without the pumping. I feel that by moving slowly, the
fish doesn't realize that it is being moved up current, thus allowing me to
regain line and get the fish into a position that it can be released.
As I stated sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, even when
using # 12 and 15 pound Maxima. Leaders break, rocks and logs get in the
way and sometimes the hook pulls out.
Hope this
helps.
Regards
Pat Blackwell
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Pat
Ahhhhh, yes. If you can steer the fish toward your bank and out of the fast current into the "frog water" you are way ahead. Works well as long as there are no sweeps or river snags near your bank.
Thanks for bring up that trick ..... it's a good one !
Gordy
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