The Shokuryoshi Experiment
Up to this point, I feel I have covered a lot of aspects that made a difference over the past few years while doing the “Shokuryoshi Experiment.” I’ve written about gear, movement, finding fish, and casting. But, there is one other aspect that has played a big role in my own success on the water, and that is how I fight the fish.
This post isn’t meant to claim some secret that I know, or to try to convince you that there’s one way to fight fish and guarantee success every time. This post is meant to share some of the habits that I’ve built up from observations while fishing. From the point when you set the hook, to when the hook is no longer in the fish’s mouth - whether you landed it or it got free - there is a lot that can happen. So let’s start with…
Setting the Hook
How the hook is set can make a difference. Getting a good hookset can offer a higher opportunity for success. In my opinion, one of the best places to hook a fish is in the corner of the mouth. Due to the thin skin around the mouth, it seems this is where the hook will pierce all the way though. It also seems this may offer the best way to steer the fish during the fight, but I don’t have any way to back up that claim either.
Another common place where the hook will penetrate is in the upper jaw. While it doesn’t pose much of a problem with smaller fish, the fact still remains that there’s a lot of cartilage in the top of the mouth, and sometimes this can prevent the hook point from really sinking in. If ever I feel like the first hook set wasn’t great, I will try to do a second set in hopes to really secure the hook point.
Without always being able to control exactly where the hook will set, it does seem that setting the hook down-current of the fly offers the best chance to get the hook into the corner of the fish’s mouth. It also offers a chance to set the hook on one of those last second strikes, which tend to be the ones that get free the most. I talked a little about this in a previous post, which you can find here…
No matter where the hook is set, what’s important is that you now have a fish on the line, and the fight begins. Which brings me to the next part…
Dynamic Fights
“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.” - Sun Tzu
Now that you have a fish on the line, you want to bring it in as fast as possible. The more time you spend letting the fish dart around, the more chances you have to lose the fish.
Something that has stuck with me over the years is the idea of “Inasu” and “Kawasu” - fight it when it is weak, let it fight when it is strong.
When the fish wants to fight, let it fight, but try to maintain control of the situation. Work to keep tension and a good angle on the fish, and to steer it away from any feature that will give it any advantage. This could be a strong current, or structure.
When the fish lets up, work quickly to gain your advantage.
If the fish is small, generally one can muscle it in pretty quickly. Bigger fish do take longer to land, and sometimes make a few runs, which present more opportunities for it to get free. Every fight will be different, and knowing how to handle different situations and different size fish comes with experience. With that experience we can learn how to…
Avoid Mistakes
Based on experiences, one learns to read the situation, and set themselves up in ways that allow for few mistakes. We learn things as we go, and we look for solutions to those problems
Most fish I prefer to keep a little lower in the water column. When they come up to the top, small fish tend to wriggle free as the surf on the surface currents. But, if you keep them lower in the column, they tend to like to jump - especially if they’re rainbows.
On the other hand, big fish like to find strong currents and use those to run. They’re less likely to jump, but beware of the speed on the top current.
One mistake I find myself making, and haven’t yet built a new habit to fix it, is grabbing my net a little too early. Before I really have the fish close enough to net, I’m anticipating the range and will have the net in hand. There’s often times where I have to drop it in order to grab the line and bring the fish a little closer. Maybe this would be solved by having a shorter length of line, but where I’m at is comfortable for me.
I talk about it more in another post, which I’ll link below
When it comes to hand-lining a fish, a friend had taught me to hold the line against the rod, and pull the line up through the fingers. It offers more control.
Fighting fish is one of the most exciting things about fishing. I think that excitement increases when it’s on a fixed-line rod. It offers a new challenge without having a reel to utilize and aid in landing the fish, or line that is adjusted by pulling in a way that reduces the amount that sits outside the guides
Good fish fighting skills have been crucial in this experiment, and to how I record my success, or failure, on the water. Taking time to think through situations where I lost fish, and trying to find solutions has led me to this point. As I come closer to the end of the experiment, I see how my numbers continue to increase.
By the way, throughout this post, I had solutions to most problems that I mentioned. But I left one out… When fish jump, keep the rod tilted so that the angle of the rod tip is lower. This helps to keep tension on the line so that the fish doesn’t have a chance to wriggle free.