Catching Your Fish ...

Allright!!!....you're fishing and you feel a fish take your bait. Now what? The first thing you need to do is set the hook. This means that you will make sure the hook gets attached to the fish's lip. To set the hook you will to make a quick jerk backwards and up with your fishing pole. This will quickly pull the line, along with the hook, hopefully causing the hook to penetrate the fishes lip. Depending on the type of fish, your tackle, etc., you will need to get a feel for the force of your hook sets. Don't worry, this will come naturally.

Once the fish is hooked it will try and get off the hook, or get the hook out. This is when you'll fight the fish. Depending on many things, this may include the fish jumping out of the water, running away from you, maybe running towards you, diving deep...you'll never be quite sure what's going to happen. First of all, do not panic. Relax and let your rod and line and drag do the work. If the fish is swimming away from you, let your equipment do the work. Hang on and feel the fish fighting thru your equipment. It is very cool to feel this. Some smaller fish you can simply reel in since they are not as strong as your equipment or line. With bigger fish, once they calm down a little and stop taking line is when you'll start bringing them to you.

Gently pull your rod tip up. Then lower the tip towards the fish as you reel in line. You can lower the rod tip as fast as you want, provided you reel fast enough to keep the line tight. We do try to bring the rod tip up slowly, or gently, to keep from yanking the hook out and it keeps the fish calmer. If the fish makes another run while you're bringing them in, stop and let the run end. As soon as the run has ended continue bringing in the fish. Never let the fish sit there.

Once you've got your fish to the boat, or shore next to you, be prepared for additional spurts of fight. Again, don't be alarmed and don't panic. Let the fish fight. Do not reel, as your line is very short and you could break the line or the tip of your rod.

Landing Your Fish

When your fish gets closer to the boat, lower your entire rod. If the fish makes a run under the boat, put the tip of your rod into the water and follow the fish. Once the run is done pull it back alongside the boat. There are several ways to land fish. We'll go over a couple.

Landing Sunfish, Crappie, Bluegill, Rockbass, etc.

Grab your line and pull the line along with the fish out of the water and over the boat or shore so the fish will fall in the boat of on shore if it falls off. You could also either grab the fish by the lower lip.

Mouth Landing

With bass or panfish you can land the fish by grasping the lower lip with your thumb and index finger. Avoid the hook, and place your thumb along the lower lip, at the same time putting your index finger underneath the bottom lip and pinching them together. You'll want to try and pinch the end of your thumb in between the first and second joints of your index finger. At this point you can lift the fish out of the water. The fish's jaw will open, and the fish will open, probably wider than you would have thought, and the fish will stop moving. On bass, they do have very small teeth, but it is more like sandpaper than anything else. Just maintain a firm grip. If the fish does struggle a firm grip will not harm you or the fish. If the lips do move you'll only get scraped, not cut.

Beach Landing

If you're fishing from shore and have no net, but do have a shoreline that gradually gets shallower you can beach your fish. If the water has waves, try and time it so you get the fish as far up on the beach with a wave so when the wave recedes the fish is on the beach for you to grab. If there are no waves, let the fish fight up to the shore and keeping it's head up, line held high, pull it as far out of the water and onto the beach as possible then grab it.

Netting a Fish

Always try to net bigger fish. When the fish is almost done fighting, place the net in the water. Do not jab at the fish with the net. You do not want to knock the bait from the fishes lip. With the net in the water, guide the fish, headfirst into the net. Once the fish is in the net, lift it so the fish is in the bottom of the net. If you plan to release the fish, try and keep the fish in the water. Otherwise take the net out of the water to remove the bait.

Unhooking Your Fish

If you plan to release the fish, try removing the hook without harming the fish, preferably keeping the fish in the water. It is best if you can remove the hook without handling the fish.

Try and remove the hook by backing it out the way it went in. There are many tools available to remove hooks.