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| You'll need tackle capable of getting the job done when you hang a good fish in heavy cover.
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Are You Controlling What You Can?
By Stan Fagerstrom
As I pointed out in my last column, there are three primary variables associated with sports fishing we can actually do something about.
One is practice to develop mastery of your equipment. I covered that in my last column. Another is to match your equipment to the problems you’re facing.
Perhaps you're one of the few fishermen serious enough about the sport to have polished your casting skills. If you are you’re probably already aware of the second variable I’ve mentioned. It’s essential that you match your equipment to the problems you're up against. Here's another area where you exercise a great deal of control over how many fish you put in the boat.
Lots of newcomers to angling figure they can purchase one outfit and use it to catch everything from bluegill to barracuda. It doesn't work that way. Without exception, the anglers who catch the most fish around this country are those who use equipment best suited to deal with the problems they encounter. Those problems aren't always going to be the same.
Not long ago I had a call from a guy who took a lightweight spinning outfit to a lake I often fish myself. This lake has an abundance of shoreline cover. The guy I’m writing about hooked a bass all right, but an experienced bass man who has fished that productive lake could probably guess what happened. That bass hesitated about two heartbeats when it realized it was hooked then it headed for the brush. Ten seconds later it wrapped the line around an underwater limb and broke free.
That newcomer learned quickly if you're fishing bass around heavy cover you'd best have a rod and line strong enough to let you call some of the shots. That’s what I mean by matching your tackle to the problems you’re looking at.
Ask anglers who’ve been to Mexico’s El Salto Lake what test line they generally use on that lunker-producing hot spot. Chances are they’ll tell you no less than 20-pound test and they may favor braids testing as much as 50-pounds. Use a line that heavy, of course, and you’ll need a rod sufficiently strong to handle it.
The need to match tackle to problems isn’t restricted to just lines and rods. Much the same thing applies to reels. The open faced spinning reel was originally designed for lightweight fishing. It still handles that job better than anything else you can get your hands on.
I dislike using monofilament line heavier than 10-pound test on my open face spinning reels. For years if I needed line tests heavier than that, most of the time I’d simply shift to a level wind reel with heavier line. Today if I need stronger lines on my open faced reels I simply switch to one of the spare spools I’ve filled with Power Pro braided line.
Power Pro braid handles beautifully on the open face spinning reel. Fifteen pound test in this super braid is only about the size of 4-pound monofilament where diameter is concerned. You won’t get quite as much distance as easily using a braid, but distance is usually not that big a factor anyhow.
I’ll give up a slight difference in casting distance anytime in exchange for a line that lets me throw a lightweight lure into fairly heavy cover with a reasonable chance of bringing a good fish out when it hits. Once again it’s a matter of matching your gear to your problems.
There's no question that a relatively small number of fishermen get a large percentage of the total fish caught. It has been proven time and again. I’m convinced they do it because they control the controllable variables I’ve been talking about.
Want to catch more fish yourself in the coming year? Perfect your casting skills and match your tackle to the kind of fishing problems you're up against. There's simply no better way to go about bending the odds in your favor.
In my next column in this three part series we’ll take a look at the importance of learning how to get the most out of the lures you’ve selected.
To be continued... |
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| Go after smallmouth bass on a gin clear river like Oregon's Umpqua and light tackle is essential. |
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