If you already apply or are willing to learn new techniques that I will mention in this article you will be a “good angler” in my book.  Being a good angler will allow you to hook up and land more fish, isn’t that what fishing’s all about?

 First we start with tying the hook, fly or artificial onto our line.  Most of the time the knot is the weak link between us and the hooked up fish, we want to make sure that the weak link is as strong as possible reducing the break offs and loss of already hooked up fish.  Tying the right knot for the right size hook and monofilament or fluorocarbon is essential but that’s a whole other chapter that we will have to cover on another article or maybe at one of my seminars.  The important things to remember in regards to tying your knots is to always lubricate the knot before you synch them down and secondly always test your knot to almost the breaking strength of the line you are tying with before you actually start fishing the knot.  I like to hook up the hook, fly or artificial bait to my Van Staal pliers loop or the loop on my center counsel.  This does two things; it synchs down the knot and it tests it’s strength on board rather than overboard with a fish at the other end.  I prefer to have the knot fail on board before hook up rather than overboard with a fish on the other end of the knot.

Once you have your knot perfectly tied, synched and tested we move on to attaching baits or artificial soft plastics.  The important point here is to make sure that the bait or soft plastics swim naturally.  When hooking live bait matching the right hook to the bait is key.  Hooks are made with different diameter wire which makes one stronger but heavier and the other lighter but weaker.  The thing to remember here is that if you use a hook that is to large in diameter and/or size you are overloading the bait much like placing a very heavy back pack on your back.  You wont be walking in normal posture or for very long with the heavy back pack on your back, much like the live bait with a large heavy hook.  The right hook gap is also very important. 

Casting; I wish I had you next to me on the boat to show you, rather than trying to put it all into words.  One of the techniques I like to teach I call “trigger finger.”  When you are holding the spinning outfit with the reel below the rod (I hope) you reel the hook up till it’s about 12 to 30 inches from the rod tip. 

You then manually place the bail in the position which places the line closest to your index finger, on the hand that is holding the rod.  You then reach down with your index finger (trigger finger) and pick up the line with only your finger tip pulling the line onto the cork of the rod.   At this point (before opening the bail) it is very important to make sure that you have no slack in the line between the index finger tip holding the line and the spool on the reel.  You then open the bail with the hand that you used to manually place the bail in the right position.

Many different techniques are available when casting.  Remember to use the rod rather than the body and/or arms to cast.  Use the “catapult technique” when casting spinning outfits.   If you don’t know what the “catapult technique” is feel free to stop me at the bait shop, at the boat ramp or at any of my seminars and I will be happy to review this with you.

Jigging, walking the dog, dead bait, vertical jigging and many other methods of fishing are all techniques that you should practice.  The difference between jigging properly and not jigging properly will make the difference between catching and fishing.  When jigging, it is very important to know that 90% of all fish will hit your jig or bait on the down stroke, if you don’t allow that jig to dive after the up jig you will not trigger the instinct to feed. 

Hooking and fighting the fish.  The rod but section is where the power is, the rod tip is where the flex is.  The tip is designed to cast your baits and your but section is made to set the hook and fight the fish.  When hook setting you must bring your rod tip down after you feel the take, as you bring your rod tip down you must reel in all your slack line and then you quickly and with power pull the rod tip up or sideways to burry the hook.  Once you have buried the hook you must then concentrate on keeping your line tight at all times, never allowing a fraction of a second of slack line between you and the hooked up fish.

Fish fighting techniques; many of you that regularly read my articles will recognize the term “down and dirty.”   This technique is by far the most effective fish fighting technique I know.  After you hook up and properly set the hook you must remember that the fish you have just hooked up is green and full of energy, it will not give in without a fight.  When you hook up with the bigger and stronger fish like the Tarpon, Permit, Snook, Marlin, Sailfish, Dolphin, Tuna, Kingfish and others you must give them the respect they disserve.  What I mean is that initially the fish is in charge, they will run in the direction they want and at the speed they are capable of, you are not going to change this first run and if you try to change the direction or speed of the first run you are probably going to loose.  Allow the fish to make its first and sometimes second run without a whole lot of intent to stop them, once they have got the first and sometimes second run out of there system you then begin to apply the down and dirty on them which will tire them and eventually persuade them to come close to your boat.  While fighting these fish using the down and dirty.  Don’t be afraid to apply a little extra pressure to your spool by placing you finger or fingers on the spool, especially towards the end of the fight.  When you do this be very cautious, as soon as you feel the fish wanting to surge forward you must release this pressure allowing the reel drag system to do its work properly.  Applying the finger pressure at the wrong time will caused your line to break.