By: Joe Sheaffer
On a recent fishing trip, I hooked into a very nice snook. This snook was very close to the structure along a stretch of mangroves and surged towards cover, and I knew I couldn’t stop her from getting into the mangroves. My first thought was to try and stop her momentum using my fishing rod, basically trying to horse the fish from getting into the structure. Our natural reflexes and instincts tell us to pull and their instincts are to resist and swim for cover. When fish are hooked around these areas they definitely have the advantage and based on my experiences, I chose another strategy. Opening the bail on my spinning reel would take the pressure off the fish and by taking pressure off the fish, many times they will just stop resisting and basically just stop in their tracks. Other anglers have explained to me, when the fish is getting the best of you, open the bail, take pressure off the fish and they’ll stop resisting. The belief that when a fish is hooked, it probably feels like they have eaten a bait fish, they really don’t think much about it until they feel pressure. It has taken me a while to give this technique a try and it has definitely helped me land a few more fish. Will it work every time, no, but it has worked quite a few times. After I opened my bail I was able to get my boat in a better position to deal with this fish. I started reeling very slowly and the snook started to come towards me. If I felt the fish resisting, I stopped reeling. I finally was able to guide the fish away from the cover and land it. Again, this won’t work every time but it is a good strategy to know, helping us to land a few more nice fish. Strategies that can help us not to break off a big fish, by leaving a hook in their mouth is a good deal. As always, enjoy your fishing days and keep casting.