"Ken Fortenberry" wrote...
Bob wrote:
...
Very interested in the techniques for this used by others.

It's not the size of the fish in the fight, it's the size of
the fight in the fish. In other words, it all depends. ;-)

In general bring the fish to hand or net as quickly as possible.
There are times when your equipment is overmatched for one
reason or another, strong current, big fish, strong fish, foul
hooked, in which case you point the rod tip straight at the
fish and break him off rather than continuing a battle that
might prove fatal to the fish. For the kind of fishing you
describe this will hardly ever be an issue unless you're using
a 1wt or a 2wt.

On the other hand, I try to get every fish, no matter how small,
on the reel instead of just pulling them in by hand which would
probably be a little quicker. It just seems like the honorable
thing to do.

I prefer to get the fish in as fast as possible, based on fish size, fight, and
tippet strength, and unhook them at the water with a twist of the hook. Very
rarely do I get a fish onto the reel in the smaller streams I frequent. I think
it would place undo stress on the smaller fish while I took the time to reel in
slack line. When I'm alone, I quit taking so many photos of the fish I catch
after I stressed one more than I liked last year.
--
TL,
Tim
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