Over the years, I have become aware of a great misconception on the part of many anglers that a fly rod is an inferior tool for fighting fish compared to similarly sized spinning tackle. Unfortunately, this misconception leads many newcomers to the sport of saltwater fly fishing to choose a ten or even a twelve weight as their first rod and they never get to appreciate the fine art of casting or fish fighting before their interest in the sport grows as weary as their casting arm. Even some "seasoned" fly fishers with better scaled tackle seem to feel this way about the long rod and it is usually after only a few minutes of debate and a few simple demonstrations that I convince them that there is quite a bit of fish fighting power in that elegant casting tool they have been waving around.

First of all, I want you to erase from your mind those "River Runs Through It" visions of the fly rod held high and the reel spinning wildly while the fish cartwheels off into the distance. That's not what

we are talking about here. We are talking about really sticking it to the fish, about not giving them line, about yanking them out of their cover, about making them do what you want them to do and doing it with lighter than normal fly tackle. I rarely have anything larger than a seven or eight weight fly rod in my hand and although I've always preferred using lighter tackle, I deeply believe in being fair to the fish and keeping the fight as short as possible.

So how do you go about this when you find yourself hooked up to an angry and powerful saltwater fish on your seven weight? The following tips will go along way to helping you get the fish to the boat quickly without endangering the fish, yourself, or your fly tackle. These tips are, of course, very applicable to spinning tackle, but you will find that, with the proper leader, a fly rod will be far more effective at fighting fish than a spinning rod of equivalent diameter.

Load the rod against the fish
A fly rod is universally considered more of a casting tool than a fish-fighting tool, but as a casting instructor, I have issues with this conception. First of all a fly rod is designed to load and unload smoothly, its inherent power increasing as it is bent further down the blank toward the handle. When fighting a fish, the further down the blank the rod is bent, the harder the fish must pull to bend it more.

Whether the fish pulls more or less, a bent fly rod responds smoothly and perfectly. Just as in casting, an angler should try to load up the rod against the fish, putting to use all that high modulus graphite in the butt of the rod. Not only will this fortify your hook set, but it will also send a message to the fish that you mean business.

Keep a shallow angle between the rod butt and fish
Another critical error many fly anglers commit while fighting a fish is raising the rod tip to the sky putting a deep, arching bend in the rod. This tactic is very reasonable on a freshwater trout stream where the flimsy tip section of the rod helps protect the light tippets used, but in the salt it is absolutely worthless

around structure or fishing with heavier class tippets. As a matter of fact, any time the handle of the rod is more than 45 degrees from the direction the tip of the rod is pointed, you are putting very little pressure on the fish. More than 90 degrees can quickly result in a broken rod.

Try this experiment: with the rod butt against your hip, hold the handle of the rod in your dominant hand and with your other hand, reach up as high on the blank as you can and push down firmly. The rod bends easily and you may even feel that if you pushed too hard you could snap it off. Now, move your non-dominant hand down the blank approximately a foot above the rod handle and push down with the same force. Things are quite different when trying to bend the rod here. Even a seven weight rod is hard to bend and it seems inconceivable that even a very large fish could pull hard enough to break this portion of the rod. Remember - the top two thirds of the rod is for casting, the bottom third is for fighting fish.

Don't be afraid to move around during a fish battle Standing like a statue and waiting for a fish to tire out is a sure fire way to make the fight last far longer than it should and quite possibly drive the fish to the point of exhaustion and maybe death. If the fish is working than you should be too! Now that you know to keep that rod bent deeply in the butt section at all times, you will find that you will have to do a lot of moving around just to keep up with the movements of the fish as you no longer are moving the rod through a wide angle during the battle. The trade off is that the fight will be much more intense and much shorter. You may find that you have to stab the entire fly rod into the water to keep a good angle on the fish as it shoots under the boat, or you may find your hands over your head to keep a good angle on the fish as he turns toward you. Whatever the case, move around! Keep the butt section deeply bent however possible and you will be amazed at the fish fighting power hidden in that spindly little fly rod.

The author holds the rod over his head to keep a good angle on a beach snook that has turned
toward him during the battle.

Unless you are going for records, use an adequate leader
Using lighter tackle carries with it the responsibility of releasing the fish in good health. But consider this: If you have a fifty pound test leader on a seven weight and keep the rod pointed at the fish during the entire battle (the rod never even bending), then you would be putting more pressure on a fish than you would with a ten weight and a four pound test leader. The ratio between leader and rod is very important, and I feel that most people err on the side of "too-light". Obviously, if you are going for a world record this point is mute, but if you're not, why not gear up for some serious battle? On my typical seven weight set up I rarely go below twenty pound class tippet and usually use around twenty five. I also employ a two-part, braided leader called a "Bug Leash" which has an eighty pound butt section and a forty pound middle section. To this I loop my class tippet making a three-section leader tapering to twenty-five pound test. This is a beefy leader system for a seven weight and employing the tactics above it is very easy to bend the cheaper fly hooks on a fish - something to keep in mind as you learn to put more and more pressure on fish.

Fighting saltwater fish on lighter weight fly rods is not only possible, but also very effective when done properly. Always remember that if you are practicing catch and release, your first responsibility is towards the health of the fish. Never wear fish out to the point of exhaustion and make sure the fish has adequately recovered before releasing him back into the wild.

"Spare the Rod and Spoil the Fish" Copyright 2005 by Greg Bowdish. May not be reproduced or redistributed without author's permission. This article first appeared in the Aug 2005 issue of Onshore-Offshore Magazine. Republished with permission.

Capt. Greg Bowdish is an FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor and full-time fly fishing and kayak guide out of Matlacha, FL. He has also published many fly fishing articles and photographs in both local and national publications. To book a day on the water or fly casting instruction with Capt. Greg, call (239) 691-7284 or e-mail him at captgreg@barflyfish.com. You can also learn more about fly fishing and fly tying in Southwest Florida at www.barflyfish.com.