Bear Hunting with a Switch

When I was a kid, I recall being out at a local shopping center with my family. While my mom and sister shopped, my dad and I participated in his favorite pastime at the mall – people watching. When all of a sudden a woman rounds the corner with a physique suited for an NFL linebacker. My dad leaned over and whispered, “See that woman over there? I bet she could go bear hunting with a switch!” The mental image of that had me instantly rolling in laughter. It wasn’t the last time I heard that phrase, and it sometimes comes to mind while fishing. No, not a woman that can probably bench press more than I weigh, but being severely under-gunned while fighting a large redfish on fly tackle.

 It’s a known fact that the 8-weight fly rod is standard issue for day-to-day redfish angling, and rightfully so. The 8-weight is typically regarded as having enough power to cast aggressively tapered lines and flies with lead eyes, but still enough flex to make a fight with a mid-slot redfish feel sporty. Sometimes, however, you encounter a much larger redfish than expected, and typically there’s no time to reach under the gunnel for a bigger stick. This has happened to me twice while on the bow and, to make matters worse, my usual fly rod of choice is a 7-weight. Let me say it’s not that I was intentionally trying to catch a bull red on that light of a rod, but when one swims by and that’s what I have in hand, do you think I’m not going to cast at it? This is why it helps to “be rigged for bear” so to speak, and that starts with a strong leader.

As mentioned in previous articles, I prefer to cut off the factory loop of my fly lines and tie the butt section of leader directly to it. This aids not only in casting, but more importantly gives you the ability to reel the leader through your guides when fighting a fish boatside. This is especially important with bigger fish that often try dirty tricks – like diving under the boat. For clients that show up with their own gear and have factory loops still attached to their fly line, I simply use pre-made hand-tied leaders. These are constructed with a similar leader formula to the ones tied to my lines but have a perfection loop on the end for a simple loop-to-loop connection. The downfall is that this type of connection does not go through the guides easily, so I prefer to “wire” the fish the last few feet to the boat.

One thing that I advise against is using a store-bought tapered fly leader. I, like most beginners, used them when I first started fly fishing but have since learned not to trust them. A quick trick to beef them up is to cut off the last few feet of the tapered leader and tie in a stronger section of bite tippet. However, they can be prone to snapping if you have to grab the leader to turn a big fish at the boat. I’ve seen it too many times. So, if I have any thoughts that we might encounter some larger fish that day, there will be no tapered leaders used on my boat.

The next most common thing that has led to the loss of many big fish would be flimsy hooks. This is one reason I like my anglers to use flies that I tie myself, because I know what hooks they were built on. I wish I had one brand and model number to give you, but unfortunately different flies require different hooks due to size, shape, sink rate, and hook orientation. I’m constantly trying new hooks and strive to find that magic combination of strength and stickiness. Some of my personal favorites that always seem to be available at local shops are the Gamakatsu SL12S and SL12S 1x Short. There are many others that also work well, like Umpqua’s heavy jig hooks and some new offerings from Mustad that seem promising. For some reason people think that freshwater hooks like the Gamakatsu B10S is as strong a hook as you need for redfish, and maybe so for the dinks they’re used to catching. But, when a real one jumps on, light gauge hooks such as that one simply won’t cut it. There are some things you can cheap out on, but your hooks aren’t one of them.

Something I have seen several times when a customer does hook a large redfish on a lighter fly rod is they don’t pull on them hard enough. They usually try and play the fish out like a smaller slot-sized fish and that simply won’t work. While you can crank your drag down for the first couple big runs, it’s a trickier game when working the fish close to the boat. The last 20-30ft or so of the fight, I like to have only a couple pounds of drag on the reel. Reason being – these bigger fish fight dirty – and will often go shooting under the boat in a last ditch effort to gain their freedom. Having a lighter drag at this point makes it easy to keep the line clear of all obstructions and lessens the chance of breaking your line, or worse, your rod. That being said, you need to create more pressure to finish the fight. To do so safely, simply squeeze the fly line against the cork with your fingers. Once it’s gripped firmly you can pull like hell, but don’t lift the rod too high, as you can put more heat on them by pulling at low angles. Your goal is to turn the fish away from the direction they are trying to swim. If you can break their spirit a few times the fight will be over in short order.

Also, I want to say I feel privileged to be fishing in an era when these large specimens are roaming our waters. This class of fish takes many years to produce, and the good news is there seems to be an uptick in sightings up and down the Texas coast in recent years. Hopefully, people are starting to realize these great sportfish are worth more in the water than in a frying pan. Don’t get me wrong, a 20 inch redfish is a delicacy, but once these fish approach the breeding size/age they have little food value in my opinion. We need to do a better job taking care of this age-class of fish and why we are even allowed to harvest over-slot fish is beyond me. If you were going to head out for a fun day of fishing, wouldn’t you rather catch multiple 28-plus redfish than 18- to 22-inch juveniles? I think this is possible if we manage our populations accordingly.

But enough ranting, I could write up an entire article on my views of redfish conservation, and someday I just might. In closing, be sure to rig up with strong leaders and hooks. You just never know when you may find yourself bear hunting with a switch.