Anglers using a single-speed reel, or those unfamiliar with how to shift gears on a two-speed reel, can end up with problems similar to those experienced by mountain bikers who have to stop on a hill, then find it incredibly hard to start back up and get their momentum again. Instead of stopping on a hill, however, anglers using too high a gear ratio under load find themselves in a stalemate with the fish, unable to turn the handle and retrieve any line.
It is not uncommon on charter boats for even large, strong men, who are newcomers to heavy-tackle fishing, to not be able to turn the handle on the largest reels when they are under heavy drag. They may well find themselves in a fighting chair, legs braced against a footrest, with a fighting belt or harness around their back taking the strain of the giant shark, marlin or tuna, unable to turn the handle of the enormous reel with only one hand. They then grab the handle with both hands to try to force it around to gain some line. (In the worst cases, they do this while the fish is still taking line off the reel!) They get very excited initially, but usually end up killing themselves if the fight lasts longer than 20 minutes!
If, or when, the fish stops taking line out, the mate’s command to “Pump the rod!” might as well be in Swahili. The angler does not know what he is supposed to do now.
A good crew will have already instructed any new angler how to “pump” before actually hooking up, preferably before leaving port. The crew will explain that “pumping” means not winding the reel while pulling up on the rod to bring the fish closer to the boat. The rod is quickly lowered, creating slack in the line, which can be easily wound in with one hand (some of the time). The pump and the wind tactic are far superior to just trying to force the handle around. You and the reel are not a winch — you should think of yourself as a line retriever.
With the lighter line classes, the professional crew may have hooked the line to a bucket partially full of water. On the heaviest line classes, my crew and I hook the snap to a cleat on the dock or go through a hawsehole on the covering board to one of the boat’s cleats. With the reel’s drag set at strike or full position, the angler can pull on the rod, taking line out against the drag. Dropping the rod tip down and winding in line gives a reasonable representation of the feeling of pumping on a big, heavy fish.
On light line, in a short fight, an adult angler can pull the rod up with one arm, with the hand holding the grip of the rod and positioned to allow him to guide the line he is recovering evenly onto the reel. On the heavy line classes, this becomes impossible.
Due to the leverage of the rod multiplying the actual drag setting of the reel, it may well require the angler to try to lift the rod against the equivalent of the body weight of an adult man.
However, there is more to this “pumping” than one might assume. Most modern lines have significant stretch, and lowering the rod to try to gain line may not significantly lower the strain at the rod tip or the reel. The higher the elasticity of the line, and the more the rod bends under a given strain, the less the pressure on the spool is reduced. It may still remain difficult, or impossible, to turn the handle with one hand even when trying to pump.
Our angler is now in the position of a biker trying to go up a hill with a one-speed bike with only a high gear ratio. The only solution acceptable under the rules of sport fishing is to have a two-speed gear box. Having someone else hand line the fish or help wind or pump is not acceptable under sporting rules.
Much like a bike rider with another (very low) gear ratio who can climb the hill but still has to stand up and use all of his weight to do it, our angler may still have to struggle. Strength remains a major, often limiting, factor, even with two-speed reels. (Good captains can help enormously by maneuvering the boat — a whole different topic.)
The first multigear big-game reels were produced prior to World War II by a small Miami machine shop that morphed into the famous Fin Nor company. For several decades, I only had one choice of reel for serious marlin and tuna fishing. The lever drag, two-speed Fin Nor 12/0 set the world standard in fishing reels for years. I still have several that I would not hesitate to use today or tomorrow.
Without a low gear, most anglers cannot use heavy 80- or 130-pound-class line effectively. With a low 1:1 gear ratio, a fit young woman can outdo all but the very largest and strongest men, using a reel with a single 2.5:1 (or higher) gear ratio!
When Shimano and Penn came out with competitive multispeed reels, it signaled the end of an era. Fin Nor, after changing hands several times, failed to upgrade and modernize their product line, and simply faded away to insignificance. Now Fin Nor is back, under new ownership by Zebco, with improved, newly designed reels, and is locked in battle with Penn and Shimano for supremacy of the big three of heavy-tackle reel manufacturers. All three make great reels and have devout followers.
There are, however, more and more choices in multispeed reels. Many brands sell knockoffs of other manufacturer’s designs. A few others are well designed and machined and are good reels.
Some of the lower-priced brands are not as robust as the better-established brands but are quite acceptable for less strenuous work. These reels make a huge difference for smaller and less powerful anglers.
Smaller experienced anglers in particular can be capable of catching a sailfish, tarpon, or small white or striped marlin with a single-speed reel, even on stand-up.
However, they can’t successfully use a single-speed reel combined with a heavy drag setting, especially one of the narrow-spooled reels that boasts super high-speed retrieves.
With the higher drag settings needed to bring in large billfish, amberjack, moderate-size tuna or other hard-fighting species that do not jump and slug it out down deep, women and children of small stature are at a big disadvantage. Even in a chair with a properly fitted harness, they just can’t turn the handle once the drag exceeds their personal strength limitations. (See “When to Quit.”)
A far better approach when taking children or anglers without a lot of brute strength fishing is to provide a fighting chair (or at least a cooler with a gimbal affixed to it), a shoulder or kidney harness and an inexpensive two-speed reel with a reliable drag. I once coached a 7-year-old boy into using such a setup with over 25 pounds of drag. That amount of drag allows anyone to quickly and easily catch a modest-size blue marlin without pain or discomfort — if the angler can shift his two-speed reel into low gear.
When using really heavy drag settings from the fighting chair, the line never really goes slack as the angler pumps the rod. Pumping becomes more of a rhythm thing. By leaning quickly forward and taking only a partial turn of the handle in low gear, the angler gains a small increment of line. But all of these small, painless gains on your end result in a lot of line coming back on the spool.
On stand-up tackle with a fast, tapered rod, there is an alternative technique that I teach, and prefer to use myself when no chair is available. I stand with the rod and reel supported by a shoulder harness, which pulls only slightly on the shoulders, with most of the strain in the lower back. I brace myself and relieve the pressure on my back with a stiff left arm pushing against the covering board.
Using a two-speed reel and with the rod bent severely, I watch the rod’s tip. When the rod tip lifts even very slightly, I force the reel’s handle, sometimes as little or even less than a quarter of a turn. This bows the rod down into its original arc.
I wait while the fish keeps the rod bent or is taking line. If I can, I take in line, anything from a fraction of a turn to multiple turns if the fish has moved up even slightly. This technique works best using the low ratio in a two-speed reel.
Sometimes even a really big, strong fish makes a move that allows an angler to retrieve line more quickly than the angler is capable of turning the handle. Since the strain on the line is reduced, a well-designed reel will allow the angler to quickly change back to a high gear ratio, where each easy turn of the handle retrieves more line.
We usually start out in high gear for fast retrieves to bring in or change baits or lures. We stay in high during the hot, wild parts of the fight, where the boat is often helping to regain dozens or even hundreds of yards of semislack line.
Expert anglers will both adjust the drag and change gears from high to low and back again many times during a fight. Learning how and when to make these changes is part of the fun of moving from novice to expert angler.
Bud
It is not uncommon on charter boats for even large, strong men, who are newcomers to heavy-tackle fishing, to not be able to turn the handle on the largest reels when they are under heavy drag. They may well find themselves in a fighting chair, legs braced against a footrest, with a fighting belt or harness around their back taking the strain of the giant shark, marlin or tuna, unable to turn the handle of the enormous reel with only one hand. They then grab the handle with both hands to try to force it around to gain some line. (In the worst cases, they do this while the fish is still taking line off the reel!) They get very excited initially, but usually end up killing themselves if the fight lasts longer than 20 minutes!
If, or when, the fish stops taking line out, the mate’s command to “Pump the rod!” might as well be in Swahili. The angler does not know what he is supposed to do now.
A good crew will have already instructed any new angler how to “pump” before actually hooking up, preferably before leaving port. The crew will explain that “pumping” means not winding the reel while pulling up on the rod to bring the fish closer to the boat. The rod is quickly lowered, creating slack in the line, which can be easily wound in with one hand (some of the time). The pump and the wind tactic are far superior to just trying to force the handle around. You and the reel are not a winch — you should think of yourself as a line retriever.
With the lighter line classes, the professional crew may have hooked the line to a bucket partially full of water. On the heaviest line classes, my crew and I hook the snap to a cleat on the dock or go through a hawsehole on the covering board to one of the boat’s cleats. With the reel’s drag set at strike or full position, the angler can pull on the rod, taking line out against the drag. Dropping the rod tip down and winding in line gives a reasonable representation of the feeling of pumping on a big, heavy fish.
On light line, in a short fight, an adult angler can pull the rod up with one arm, with the hand holding the grip of the rod and positioned to allow him to guide the line he is recovering evenly onto the reel. On the heavy line classes, this becomes impossible.
Due to the leverage of the rod multiplying the actual drag setting of the reel, it may well require the angler to try to lift the rod against the equivalent of the body weight of an adult man.
However, there is more to this “pumping” than one might assume. Most modern lines have significant stretch, and lowering the rod to try to gain line may not significantly lower the strain at the rod tip or the reel. The higher the elasticity of the line, and the more the rod bends under a given strain, the less the pressure on the spool is reduced. It may still remain difficult, or impossible, to turn the handle with one hand even when trying to pump.
Our angler is now in the position of a biker trying to go up a hill with a one-speed bike with only a high gear ratio. The only solution acceptable under the rules of sport fishing is to have a two-speed gear box. Having someone else hand line the fish or help wind or pump is not acceptable under sporting rules.
Much like a bike rider with another (very low) gear ratio who can climb the hill but still has to stand up and use all of his weight to do it, our angler may still have to struggle. Strength remains a major, often limiting, factor, even with two-speed reels. (Good captains can help enormously by maneuvering the boat — a whole different topic.)
The first multigear big-game reels were produced prior to World War II by a small Miami machine shop that morphed into the famous Fin Nor company. For several decades, I only had one choice of reel for serious marlin and tuna fishing. The lever drag, two-speed Fin Nor 12/0 set the world standard in fishing reels for years. I still have several that I would not hesitate to use today or tomorrow.
Without a low gear, most anglers cannot use heavy 80- or 130-pound-class line effectively. With a low 1:1 gear ratio, a fit young woman can outdo all but the very largest and strongest men, using a reel with a single 2.5:1 (or higher) gear ratio!
When Shimano and Penn came out with competitive multispeed reels, it signaled the end of an era. Fin Nor, after changing hands several times, failed to upgrade and modernize their product line, and simply faded away to insignificance. Now Fin Nor is back, under new ownership by Zebco, with improved, newly designed reels, and is locked in battle with Penn and Shimano for supremacy of the big three of heavy-tackle reel manufacturers. All three make great reels and have devout followers.
There are, however, more and more choices in multispeed reels. Many brands sell knockoffs of other manufacturer’s designs. A few others are well designed and machined and are good reels.
Some of the lower-priced brands are not as robust as the better-established brands but are quite acceptable for less strenuous work. These reels make a huge difference for smaller and less powerful anglers.
Smaller experienced anglers in particular can be capable of catching a sailfish, tarpon, or small white or striped marlin with a single-speed reel, even on stand-up.
However, they can’t successfully use a single-speed reel combined with a heavy drag setting, especially one of the narrow-spooled reels that boasts super high-speed retrieves.
With the higher drag settings needed to bring in large billfish, amberjack, moderate-size tuna or other hard-fighting species that do not jump and slug it out down deep, women and children of small stature are at a big disadvantage. Even in a chair with a properly fitted harness, they just can’t turn the handle once the drag exceeds their personal strength limitations. (See “When to Quit.”)
A far better approach when taking children or anglers without a lot of brute strength fishing is to provide a fighting chair (or at least a cooler with a gimbal affixed to it), a shoulder or kidney harness and an inexpensive two-speed reel with a reliable drag. I once coached a 7-year-old boy into using such a setup with over 25 pounds of drag. That amount of drag allows anyone to quickly and easily catch a modest-size blue marlin without pain or discomfort — if the angler can shift his two-speed reel into low gear.
When using really heavy drag settings from the fighting chair, the line never really goes slack as the angler pumps the rod. Pumping becomes more of a rhythm thing. By leaning quickly forward and taking only a partial turn of the handle in low gear, the angler gains a small increment of line. But all of these small, painless gains on your end result in a lot of line coming back on the spool.
On stand-up tackle with a fast, tapered rod, there is an alternative technique that I teach, and prefer to use myself when no chair is available. I stand with the rod and reel supported by a shoulder harness, which pulls only slightly on the shoulders, with most of the strain in the lower back. I brace myself and relieve the pressure on my back with a stiff left arm pushing against the covering board.
Using a two-speed reel and with the rod bent severely, I watch the rod’s tip. When the rod tip lifts even very slightly, I force the reel’s handle, sometimes as little or even less than a quarter of a turn. This bows the rod down into its original arc.
I wait while the fish keeps the rod bent or is taking line. If I can, I take in line, anything from a fraction of a turn to multiple turns if the fish has moved up even slightly. This technique works best using the low ratio in a two-speed reel.
Sometimes even a really big, strong fish makes a move that allows an angler to retrieve line more quickly than the angler is capable of turning the handle. Since the strain on the line is reduced, a well-designed reel will allow the angler to quickly change back to a high gear ratio, where each easy turn of the handle retrieves more line.
We usually start out in high gear for fast retrieves to bring in or change baits or lures. We stay in high during the hot, wild parts of the fight, where the boat is often helping to regain dozens or even hundreds of yards of semislack line.
Expert anglers will both adjust the drag and change gears from high to low and back again many times during a fight. Learning how and when to make these changes is part of the fun of moving from novice to expert angler.
Bud