The Troutbitten Podcast is now available on YouTube as a video podcast, along with the audio podcast platforms.
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This third part of our Troutbitten Skills Series is all about the guiding principle of fighting fish fast. We talk about how this mindset guides our decisions and our movements for all the other skills. Because we want to fight trout fast we use side pressure and we position ourselves for maximum leverage. We thing about current direction and fighting zones, all in an effort to fight a trout fast. Because the longer a trout is on the line, the more chance it has to get off.
We also cover these key concepts:
— The tug-of-war. Either they pull or you pull.
— How the stalemate becomes a mistake.
— Knowing the strength of your tools.
— Understand the power in the rod and the line.
— How fast is too fast, and when to ease up on the pressure.
— Utilizing drag settings
Here’s the Episode List for Season 20
1. The Hookset and What Comes First
2. Where to Fight Them (Water Column and More)
3. Fight Them Fast (You Pull or They Pull – Work With a Trout)
4. The Fighting Position
5. Side Pressure
6. The Last Ten Feet (The Finishing Moves)
7. Wrap Up (With Stories)
My good friends, Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for this season.
Resources
CATEGORY: Troutbitten | Catch and Release Safely
CATEGORY | Troutbitten | Fighting Fish
PODCAST: Troutbitten | How to Handle a Trout
ARTICLE: Troutbitten | Are We Taking the Safety of Trout Too Far?
READ: Troutbitten | Work With a Trout and Not Against It
ARTICLE: Troutbitten | Fight Fish Fast
Here’s the video . . .
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Season 20 continues next week. So look for that in your Troutbitten podcast feed.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
















The benefits of using 6X, 7X, or (what on god’s green earth were you thinking?) 8X tippet, are far outweighed by the disadvantages when fighting big trout. Even 5X tippet is too light for my liking in almost any presentation I encounter. Ask yourself, is using ultralight tippet material to get your nymph down a fraction of a second quicker worth the very real risk of being outgunned by the fish of your lifetime? George Harvey famously said he would have no trouble catching trout using 3X with #24 tricos if he could only get through the hook eye. As the crew said here, fighting fish fast is better trophy sized trout and for you, including you chances for landing them.
Just go long and strong with that tippet and check your splicing knots as they are the weakest link in the system. A good tug test will quickly identify poorly tied knots, abrasions, or even times when tippet material itself is defective. Re-tying tippet to fly after landing a big fish is not a bad idea either.
The reason anglers lose fish include pull-outs, break-offs, and the occasional equipment failure. Make it a seasonal goal to completely eliminate break-offs by staying with 4X and 3X for dry flies, nymphs, and wet flies.
pardon the typos, my proof reader is on vacation