wanted some different opinions on how you bring in a fish on a fly pole. Do you strip all the way in, or strip and reel, or just reel, or does it matter.[crazy]
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For me it all depends on the fish, water and where I am fishing. If it is a smaller fish, I will strip it in all the way. If the fish is larger, it will generally run a bit and pull the excess stripped line back out, and then I can reel and use the drag. On my boat I will do both. On the pontoon I try and reel the fish in so as there is no excess line laying around to get tangled up with. It really comes down to what you are comfortable with.
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prvrt pretty much said it all. If you're talking about steelhead, I like to get to the reel asap. Barbless hooks and big fish are a lot easier to deal with on the reel than playing with your line. Hopefully you get to find that one out yourself
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I hope so too. i've never landed a big one on my fly rod, so the more knowledge i know the better
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I agree with get the big fish to the reel. I fish from a pontoon and I have no apron, plus if I am deep nymphing (because it is mono and cuts fingers) I play it on the reel.
River fishing, however, it is stripping more than anything.
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Yea, ya know I've "hooked" a few Kings on fly gear and found out the hard way not to strip too much line. They take soo much line it's a bear trying to cope W/a pile of line at your feet and move around the river. I suggest that if you can keep up with the slack by reeling do it, that's for Kings though, that tear out alot of line on a run and then decide to change direction quickly. It seems Steelhead (in my brief experience with them, only hooked 3 & cought 1), don't run off like Kings, they seem to stay within 30-yrds...I didn't catch one on a Fly yet, and I could have just had a lucky day of cooperating fish on spinning gear but that's my opinion on the reel or strip[:p]
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That's a good point, when the fish runs back at ya, you have to do whatever it takes to keep up. One fish last week came back at me and I ended up stripping line and running backward out of the river and into the willows to keep him on. You'll just have to go with the flow Wormsinker, that's the awesome part of flyfishing, it can be dissappointing and at the same time very rewarding.
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