The Learning Ratio
OK, so you've been fishing for a while now and consider yourself a pretty good angler. Fishing mostly inshore for an occasional fluke, blue, bass or porgy? Got an invite or a charter for some offshore fishing? Think you know what to do? Well, if you are anything like the average inshore angler in the North East, you don't. Do you know how I know? I've been there. After talking about fishing for years with a few business associates, I got an invite to do some tarpon fishing down in Florida. Cool. Big herring. So, by my talk, most of them assumed I knew my way around. I could tie any knot with reasonable skill & speed. Didn't fall when the boat hit a big wave. Knew that the reel goes on top. I was an "angler!" Then, on day two, a tarpon ate a pin fish. The first one and it was mine. I was ready to to show this over-sized herring a thing or two. Ready to strut my stuff. Except, I didn't. I couldn't. In fact, I even heard the captain mumbled something about "the big NY fisherman". Here's the deal. Most fishing we do inshore in the North East involves, lets say, 15 to 30 pound test line. Most fish run around 4 to 12 pounds. That's about a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio, in our favor. Lets look back at that tarpon (which I finally landed). That fish weighed 125 pounds. The line was 40 pound test. Hmmm... 3 to 1 - again. Only the other way around. There wasn't much power in that outfit for me to fight that fish without any real skill. So, here's how I honed my skills. I went blue fishing. I put aside my 30 pound bluefish outfit and took out this light casting rod spooled with 8 pound line. First problem, I couldn't punch that hook through many fishes jaws with only a 2 or 3 pond drag. So I learned to sharpen hooks "scary sharp" & use a smaller diameter wire as well. Next problem I got tired. Tired from 2 pound of drag? Sure thing. It takes a long time to crank in a 10 pound fish on 2 pounds of drag, especially if you are wasting energy like I was. By reeling when the fish was running, reeling without gaining line. So I learned to watch, learned to wait, learned to feel. Reel only when reeling gained line. In fact, I learned to know if the reeling would gain line even before I turned the crank, even if the fish wasn't running. The next thing I learned was how to turn the fishes head. When the ratio is in your favor, almost everything you do turns the fishes head. With the lighter outfits it takes skill & finesse. Just the right timing and technique to pull and change the fishes direction. Let him swim to you and sideways. Not away from you! Lastly, I learned how to control the fish boat side for the net or gaff. Another tricky event with that light stuff. Finally, in time, it'll comes together. I eventually went as light as 6 pound line and had a blast catching blues to 14 pounds. The skills I learned there worked out well. I went back to Florida several times and caught and landed several more tarpon, all over 100 pounds and on 30 pound line. I also caught a sailfish that went around 80 pounds on 20 pound line. Finally, I looked and felt like I knew what I was doing. So can you. Put away the heavy gear and go light to learn some lessons in angling.
Good Fishing - Captain John
(cr) May 2002