Firestarter

But those moments of tying creativity leading into hours of perfecting satisfy a different sort of intellectual itch. What has really been on my mind lately are the limits of my favorite fishing rod, and what can I do to even the odds against a foe that is out of its wt. class.

The idea of pushing what is possible with my 6wt has been on my mind since the first time I ever fished with it. I even wrote a little story about that experience in an earlier episode. Something about the rod or the incredible amount of time I’ve spent with it have led me to having some outstanding catches. I know to a degree that is a weird thing to say. Are there really limits to what you can catch with any rod? I suppose that depends heavily on technique. For me, the limits to what fish can be caught with any rod land somewhere around expected length of fight, environmental conditions, and the fish. If you want to chase records on light pound test, and you can reasonably expect to be successful without the potential of reckless harm, then have at it. I recently caught some large trout and have caught some quite sizable carp with my 6wt in the past. This week I was stupidly asking around what I should hunt next with it, and at once got the response, “Tarpon.”

There is a ton of gray area involved with this sort of endeavor without experimenting. Experimenting with barbed hooks on fish might be frowned upon, because you are going to leave a lot of metal in faces out there, and to a degree, you should expect to. I suppose you could do like I am planning: get your rig together, rod, line, leader, fly and reel, and find a way to safely measure tensile strength and do some experimenting in the garage. If I know what fly, what leader, and what line I want to use for my 6wt, and I have a way to measure the amount of force I can put on the fly with the rod until the leader breaks, then I know the limits of the amount of force my rig can put on a fish using that setup… to a degree.  Now does that number really mean anything during the chase? I can become quite familiar with how hard I can pull on the rod and not break my tippet, but that doesn’t tell me much about how long I will need sustain that pressure to land any given fish.

I ran by other important things of note, and I would like to highlight them before I move on. It really starts with the hook gap and gauge, and the mouth of the tarpon. Even more fun. Not all size classes of tarpon are going to have the same size mouth. So, in a way I really do need to know how much force I can put on the hook with my rig, because some hooks can be straightened under less force than others and with less force than you would think. With a relatively big ole heavy hook that also has materials duct tapped and stapled onto it equals big ole heavy fly. The 6 doesn’t mind big ole heavy fly too much but will need to be set up mindfully considering the flies that… I ALREADY HAVE and know will work, and I can throw them all day on a “normal sized rod” typically used to chase these fish, by normal sportsman, but I digress. At the end of the day I either need to make new flies that are lighter and have less drag or I need to figure out how to make it work on the 6 with a short shooting head, shooting line, and a big diameter butt section on my leader. For fun, (or the sake of my ever-wavering sanity during the winter months) I have chosen to go deeply down that rabbit hole and may report back if I learn anything.

So, I determine how many pounds I can put through my rig onto a fly with a leader that is the maximum limit for the fishing situation of choice. How do you know what fish is too big for you to take a cast at it with your setup? How big of a deal is it to leave a hook in a fish's mouth? What if the hook on the fly is barbless, brass, and lead free? What if you unintentionally hook fish that are outside of your rig’s class? If it happens repeatedly, should you stop fishing with that rod?

What does it even mean to be outmatched? My intentions with tarpon put me in a boat in relatively open water. At the end of the day we can chase that fish down over and over, and in many instances it’s the only way that people are able to catch such amazing fish on light tackle. What’s the time limit on how long you are chasing a fish down before the situation has become absurd? What size class of tarpon is more reasonable for what I’m trying to do? What size class is an awesome catch on a 6 wt? What size do you think is impossible? So, from the platform on the front of a skiff looking down into 4 feet of water from sixty feet away, about how big of a shadow is a go? Would you really be able to hold back if you had the chance anyway?

If I haven’t made my point, then what I mean to say is, I found a project to occupy my time while its miserably frigid out. I think I’m going to determine what it takes to catch a tarpon with my 6er, create some flies I’m willing to throw, and then I’m gonna see how far I can take it before I think that maybe what I’m doing is unreasonable. Hopefully, a tarpon of X weight or length gets to be put on the caught list for my fishing rod. There are other fish on the list, but I feel like tackling the tarpon problem first will lead to a good foundation going forward. Game on.

Feel free to educate me on any of the questions above. I’d be interested to hear what you have to say.

The ethics of fly fishing for sport: