Rod vertical or horizontal

[mikench]

This is a fishing post

When playing a heavy and hard fighting fish such as carp do you hold your rod in a vertical plane or a horizontal one and what is the perceived wisdom of either?

 

[103841]

And before the water shed....tut tut.

To me it’s obvious but I’m sure some of the wiser will educate me.

If the rod is held horizontally all the strain is taken by your line and clutch, hold it vertically and the rod absorbs much of the energy exerted by the fish...is that too simplistic?

 

[bullet]

I think he may mean side strain as horizontal, not pointing the rod straight down the line?
For what it's worth, I know someone who fishes for Grayling a lot and he is adamant you are better off keeping the rod low and exerting side strain, less loses he reckons.
I see some match carp men like to keep the rod low when playing Carp,
All very well on snag free venues, but it would be a recipe for disaster where I fish for them.

 

[nottskev]

We've probably all got our habitual style, but if you watch the vid's of any of the carp match blokes, they'll be playing their carp with the rod low and sideways, keeping the angle to the fish to make the rod do its job, and swapping from pulling one way or the other according to where the carp gets to. You'll also notice that they often only raise the rod at the moment when they feel they can hustle the fish into the net.

There's something similar with barbel in the river. If you attempt to pull the fish up through the water ie with the rod vertical and a vertical pumping action, it can put up the most terrific resistance, sometimes defying you to move it at all. If you hold the rod low and pull sideways, as above, a barbel can be drawn towards you much more easily.

You seem to be catching plenty of decent size carp these days - try playing them with your rod tip low to the water (obviously, always with the rod bent and never pointing at the fish) and see what you make of it.

 

[103841]

There you go, had I caught enough of these powerful fish I would have known better!

 

[nottskev]

Here's a couple of demo's

YouTube

YouTube

 

[103841]

Would you treat headbangers like perch the same way?

 

[mikench]

I think he may mean side strain as horizontal, not pointing the rod straight down the line?

He did! Holding the rod at the side of the line rather than from on high.

 

[mikench]

Cheers Kev, by and large I was Will Raison today !!!

 

[theartist]

Carp are mad as no matter what you do they'll get under your feet and you'll wish you had a three foot rod. With fish like barbel I find it better to get a low rod tip, especially in winter you can get away with quite a surprisingly light line with that tip low, as low as you can get, it placates them.

Besides, applying side strain is a whole lotta fun

 

[john step]

Agree about the barbel in general but where I fish sometimes at range there are rocks and snags. In these circumstances one must force the issue to get them up and out of harms way. Also its imperative to keep them up away from the rock lined margin shelf.

 

[sam vimes]

As a fight dictates. However, the object of switching between is to avoid a fish dictating to you. You can get away with either or with smaller fish. The bigger they are, the less chance there is of that being the case.

 

[nottskev]

Not about rod and line, sorry, but you might like to see this bloke extract big carp on a pole.
It's not my scene, but I know from experience what a run-around a carp can give you, even with strong gear. But this angler seems to have got medium-strength balanced gear and playing technique down to a fine art.

YouTube

 

[stripey]

I think he may mean side strain as horizontal, not pointing the rod straight down the line?
For what it's worth, I know someone who fishes for Grayling a lot and he is adamant you are better off keeping the rod low and exerting side strain, less loses he reckons.
I see some match carp men like to keep the rod low when playing Carp,
All very well on snag free venues, but it would be a recipe for disaster where I fish for them.

Hi Bullet,
Anglers pole fishing for carp keep the pole tip low to let the elastic take all the power of the fish, rather than let the pole take the strain, a lot of very expensive sections of pole would be broken if they did not.

 

[wetthrough]

Bit of both really. The harder fighting they are the lower to the side I go, often in the water. The deeper in the water the rod is the less they seem to fight. For Bream it doesn't really matter but Tench and Carp will to a large degree just follow the tension of the rod tip if it's under water. That's been my experience anyway.

 

[David Rogers 3]

The advice in old angling books was always to "give it the butt", i.e. to keep the rod vertical. Why they said this I've no idea, as it puts far too much strain on the tip and doesn't bring the whole rod into play (assuming it has a through-action in the first place). Current advice from Edward Barder, which I would guess holds true for carbon and glass as much as for his own split cane rods is: "NEVER Play/land fish with the rod pointing up at an acute angle. This is inefficient and places all the strain on the rod tip. The lower the angle the rod is held at, within reason, the more the lower, stronger portion of the rod can absorb strain and apply pressure." The Edward Barder Rod Company, makers of the finest split cane fly
fishing rods and coarse (bait) fishing rods

 

[Weirdoh]

Using common sense after watching more experienced anglers.

 

[108831]

As a fight dictates. However, the object of switching between is to avoid a fish dictating to you. You can get away with either or with smaller fish. The bigger they are, the less chance there is of that being the case.

Agree with the above 100%,circumstances control the way you play a hard fighting fish,snags,weed,features,what makes up these then controls how strongly fish are played,if you are try to stop a fish an upright stance won't be as successful,however it you are playing fish in thick Canadian pondweed then upright could well be best,more often than not I'm putting pressure with the rod low,as more control can be had,the catfish I had the other week would still be there if I had played it rod up...

 

[theartist]

Its common sense not to have a low rod when there's snags on the bottom, I think a lot of the old books said keep the rod up and this was the advice I know I got as a kid when really they should have said don't point the rod at the fish, which is what a leaner may do. End of the day there's the same degrees angle with a rod low to the surface as there is one high up as long as you don't point it at the fish.

 

[nottskev]

It's all true - you play fish according to the circs. But Mike's original post mentioned carp, and I've seen, by visit and from his posts, that he catches them on waters that are suited to the carp-playing style used almost universally on the matched carp commercials where anglers, whatever one thinks of that branch, do work out the most efficient methods of hooking and landing big fish.

Of course you wouldn't want to pull fish that are staying deep into snags, across rough ground etc, and I know bits of the Trent where you need to get a barbel up as a priority. But on a good bottom eg clean gravel, they come out easier with less chance of being broken when drawn in with a low rod.

Accepting that you sometimes have to get fish up in the water quickly, would people not agree that, just as some fish can be provoked/panicked to maximum resistance by playing them hard, thus making the job harder, some fish resist more when you try to try to pull them up in the water prematurely? Maybe it's just me, but that's my impression.