Haunted By Lost Fish

I fished with Tony Gugino today and had to work real hard for every fish we landed.  At the end of the day, we ended up going 4 for 10.  As Tony pointed out, this is a pretty good batting average in baseball.  However, it always troubles me when I lose a fish.  I guess it is the unknown that gets to me.  What is the coloration on  the fish?  How big is the fish?  Is it a male or female?  Even a small fish can feel quite heavy depending on the take, but a few of the fish I lost today felt like heavy fish. 

Don't get me wrong, as the photos will indicate, we caught some beautiful fish today.  But, there was one fish in particular that caused a brief mental shut down for me after it popped the hook.  The wind was giving us fits getting a good drift.  So, on one of the best drifts, the float went down, I set the hook and the fish rolled at the surface a couple of times.  I was fishing with a center pin float set up.  Those who are familiar with that particular type of outfit will know that there is no drag on the reel.  The drag system is quite simple.....put more or less pressure on the reel with your finger. 

Because of the low water conditions, we were using 5lb. test fluorocarbon leader material in order to not spook the fish.  After hooking the fish and the brief fight, the reel got stuck on my wet finger as the fish was making a run.  You can equate this with having the drag way to tight on a spinning reel and as you could probably predict, the 5lb. fluoro snapped with the added strain.  Doh!

I can still remember any number of fish that I have hooked and lost.  One particularly depressing example is a massive brown trout Tony and I were sight fishing for in the fall of 2010.  I hooked and lost this fish twice before he took off downstream.  I saw a picture of the fish when a client of Tony's caught it several days later....an 18lb. monster brown.  Fishing for this type of hard charging anadramous fish, you will not land each and every one you hook.  Luckily today, we landed some very nice fish.  This eases the sting of the lost beauties quite a bit.  Once I figure out now to land every fish I hook, I will let you know.  Until then, the hanuting will continue. 

Tight lines, ya'll.  Here is the obligatory fish porn.